Hello fellow ferret fanciers:
 
I have a problem with a new ferret that I have.  I had a six month old
female and I have just adopted a 2 1/2 year old female and a 2 year old
male.  The two new ferrets lived together and so were adopted out as a pair
at the shelter we got them from.  All three of our ferrets are fixed.
 
Anyways, our new female is extemely and unpredicably aggressive.  She has
attacked my hand several times when I was giving her a rasin and I want to
stress that I realize that there is a difference between being bitten and
being attacked.  The female was screaming and rolling around on the ground
with a firm grip on my finger and, no, I was not teasing her.  I have laid
off hand feeding for now but clearly I cannot be at the mercy of this
ferret's upredictable behavior.
 
The biggest problem we have is intergrating our six month old with these
two.  She is fine with the male but the 2 1/2 year old attacked our six
month old very viciously tonight.  It took both by husband and I and a
number of nose flicks to seperate our new female (White Fang) from our six
month old (Scout).  Scout has broken skin on her back and we are concerned
about whether or not we will ever be able to intergrate them.  This is not
the first time this has happened.  Can anyone give us any advice?  I am
quite worried.  Also, we can't do the switch the bedding trick to get them
used to each others' scents because Scout loves to eat vast quantities of
fabric.
 
We need an answer as soon as possible as we feel it would be better to
return the two new ferrets to the shelter so they can be adopted by a ferret
free home as soon as possible if we are fighting a lost cause.  If anyone
has any advice I would really appreciate an E-mail at [log in to unmask] since
I am a student and don't have time to check the whole FML everyday.
 
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
 
Tracy
[Posted in FML issue 1534]