>From:    Jeanine Pesce <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Need help with biting ferret
>I am at my wits end with a 10 month old neutered male ferret who keeps
>biting me for no apparent reason!  ... We ALWAYS punish him when he bites
>us by scruffing him and flicking his nose.
 
This is in no way meant as a personal attack.  Pet stores, books and many
people on this list believe in corporal punishment.  I believe that corporal
punishment is the cause of many problems.
 
I do not believe in corporal punishment, certainly not when an animal does
what comes naturally.  If I flicked you on the nose every time you spoke
(humans do this naturally) you'd bite me every time you saw me too.  Try
flicking yourself and see how unpleasant it feels.  This seems like the
apparent reason to me.
 
In other words, his biting and running is what you've trained him to do.
He's frightened every time he get close to you, you must be playing some
sort of human game, in his mind - hurt and run?.  You've got to change that
pattern and make it pleasant for him to be around you.  I start by working
with feretone.  Everytime you come by the cage (when he's awake), give him
a small lick of feretone (or whatever product you use) from the bottle.
Gradually change the feretone to your fingers so you can re-train him to
fingers being something good, not something that hurts.
 
I recently took an 8 week old ferret, described as a vicious biter, from a
woman who had bought her from a pet store for her 10 & 11 year old kids.
The woman was furious with the pet store because they wouldn't refund her
money and because they hadn't told her that ferrets bit.
 
She'd been flicking the poor little baby on the nose.  This little girl
was just behaving perfectly normally, doing some teething type chewing and
trying to play like a ferret.  Luckily she turned the ferret over to us
rather than waiting for several months when the she would have truly become
a "vicious biter".
 
With patience he can once again become a loving companion.
 
Sandi
Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House
Seattle, WA
[Posted in FML issue 2355]