Nikki: If you already have one ferret who didn't take kindly to a new
addition, I'd go with a separation at first.  Do the bedding switching
trick, and closely supervise the initial meetings between old and new.
Eventually, as with all animals, they're going to figure their relationship
out for themselves.  But at first you should try to intervene if they get
too nasty with each other.
 
My crew always adapted well to additions - Sculley "stole" Buster for the
first week and hide him with the rest of her stash, but that was all she
did.  They got along great after that, and the third ferret, Baby, didn't
have any problems with the older two when she arrived.  But it depends
greatly on the ferrets, and it sounds like your first fuzzie could be put
out at first.
 
Since you probably can't shell out for a new cage, you could devise some
sort of divider in your existing cage.  Or you could let the new ferret
sleep in the animal/cat carrier at night for the first few nights - not
exactly a great arrangement, but it'll do for the first 2-3 days.  And then
let them play & interact as much as possible (so long as they're not being
hostile) so they can get used to each other.  And when they wear out from
playing and fall asleep, put them together (outside the cage) so they can
snuggle & get used to sleeping near each other, but can scoot away quickly
if one wakes up and starts beating up the other.
 
Just a few ideas,
 
Kat
Kat Neumeyer
 
Research Associate, Pharmacor
Decision Resources
(781) 487-3758 PH
(781) 487-5750 FAX
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[Posted in FML issue 2542]