>She told me that when she has to clip her ferrets nail, she scruffs them
>and holds them in her teeth!!!  She said it doesn't hurt them and it gets
>the job done.  Have any of you tried this?  We tried with Trixie and I'm
>sorry, my jaw hurt after about two minutes.
 
Hi Shea and Trixie,
 
Through a suggestion from some guys at APF I started to subscribe here and
have already built up a nice little file of advice, cried lots over lost
fuzzies and laughed lots at some of the accounts here.  However, I have to
admit I saw nothing wrong with this scruffing by teeth method.  Does this
make me odd?!  We do this for two reasons: 1) if someone has been
relentlessly pursuing someone else and playing far too rough, then the
offender is picked up, has his or her scruff held in our teeth and hissed
at, then stared at to let them know who is boss and then let back down to
play.  Or, as was the case with a couple of ours when we first adopted them
when they bit (hard and long) for no reason whatsoever, then they would be
treated the same way.  We do this in the hope that they see it as ferret
behaviour, and understand it is chastisement.  We would much prefer to do
this than to smack them (we smacked for the first few weeks of owning
ferrets, but not only have we heard too many horror stories about hurting
the ferret, but we're sure they didn't understand what the smack was for.
Either that, or they understoond and just did the same thing again to spite
us!) 2) In order to clip their claws they generally get put on their back
and Ferretone put on their tummy to distract them.  However, sometimes this
doesn't work, and scruffing them in my teeth leaves one hand to hold the
paw so it doesn't move at a critical time and one to cut.
 
I have to admit, my friends have seen me do this and I'm sure they've
developed serious doubts about me, but I don't care!  It doesn't hurt my
babies (since their skin is so much tougher than ours), is effective and
useful.
 
Your jaw hurt after two minutes with Trixe?  Try it with 6, then you'll
find your muscles develop very nicely!
 
Anyway, I have to go, Fetish is trying her hardest to add to this message
(and she's already reset my computer once today, so I have no intention of
losing all my work again!)
 
Love to all and their fuzzies,
 
Honey, Thug, Marilyn, Fetish, Ninja and Ginger with Jo.
[Posted in FML issue 3028]