Well, my wife and I went to see a ferret this past weekend.  We had
read a lot about them, and we had seen two adorable, friendly ferrets
at a petting zoo-type place.  After posting here and asking if anyone
knew any breeders in the tri-state (NY-NJ-CT) area, someone wrote back
telling me about someone who was putting a ferret up for adoption, as
the guy who owned it was joining the marines.  Anyway, we drove out to
see him.  He's about three years old.  The owner took out Otto, but was
a little reluctant to let us hold him, as he said it takes Otto a while
to get used to new people.  Sure enough, we'd try to pet him, and he'd
sniff our fingers, and then bite us, pretty hard.  He told us that you
can't appear apprehensive, because Otto will sense that.  You have to
be firm, and show him who's boss.  Whenever we tried to pet him, he
would squirm around frantically and try to bite us.
 
Later, he put Otto back in his cage (which looked kindof bare to me -
loose litter on the floor on one half, a towel on the other half).  My
wife put her fingers near the cage, and Otto started licking them, but
the owner warned that sometimes when he licks, he's just trying to lure
your fingers into the cage so that he can bite...
 
Anyway, this did not seem like the cute friendly ferret that we
imagined.  He seemed quite vicious!  I thought ferrets would only bite
when playing, and so only hurt you because they didn't know how much
pain they were causing.  But this guy clearly tried to hurt us...  We
then decided to go to a pet store, to try to see some young ferrets.
We went to the store that they had bought Otto at, JT Jungleland in W.
Islip, on Sunrise Highway.  Well, this place was *disgusting*!  It
smelled *really* bad...  We found the ferrets, and they were in a cage
that was about 3' x 2' x 2'.  There were 5 or 6 of them in the cage!  I
thought that was the size cage you were supposed to have for one...
They didn't look much younger than Otto, but we don't really know
anything...  There was a pile of droppings in the corner, just on the
floor, not in a litter box or anything, and it looked pretty vile...
We saw one walk over and stand on another while trying to get some
water, and of course the one on the bottom woke up enough to bite the
one on top.
 
We stuck our fingers in the cage, and the one that was awake chased
them around and tried to bite them, though not as hard as Otto.  I
guess he might have been just playing, but after our experience with
Otto, it made us think that ferrets are vicious by nature, not very
domestic at all, and a lot closer to iguanas, in that you have to
dominate them, or they'll dominate you...
 
This morning I was reading my ferret book, and it mentioned that
propensity to bite is partially genetic, and if you don't go to a good
breeder, you can get ferrets that are biters.  So I guess it's possible
that our whole weekend was an aberration - maybe the pet store was
particularly bad, their ferrets not treated that well, maybe Otto's
owner didn't give him enough love (after all, he didn't seem too upset
at giving him up for adoption), and that we had seen a biter.  But
we're discouraged.  Was our weekend an aberration?  Or were our
expectations unrealistic?  We thought that there would be some playful
biting, especially when young, and the only training they would need is
that their biting hurt.  We thought if we *showed* them the pain, they
would feel sorry and learn not to bite, whereas with Otto, showing pain
seemed to be a mistake...
 
Anyway, please write, post, and tell me that ferrets actually like
people...  Also, *any* recommendations for a place to get (gentle)
ferrets, within 200 miles of Long Island, that you've actually been to,
would be *greatly* appreciated...
 
Sorry for such a long letter...
 
A Possibly Hopeful Future Ferret Owner,
Mike
 
[Posted in FML issue 0893]