>now on a personal note to everyone else:
>see this is why NOSE THUMPING in any way is very detrimental to your
>ferrets and so is hitting and slapping.... would you do this to your
>child???  i think not!!!  if you need to do this to an animal PLEASE dont
>own or work with any animals for you are not a proper cadidate for one!!!
 
i have to disagree with this.  i think that sometimes it is necessary to
physically discipline a ferret.  that is how mother ferret tells them that
they are stepping over the line, and with some ferrets it is necessary.
*but* you should never really hurt a pet when you discipline them.  a nose
thump should be a *gentle* tap on the top of the nose.  it should also be
used only on ferrets who are biting because of dominance issues, and never
on fear biters.  it is in *some cases* the best way to demonstrate
dominance.  you scruff, tap gently on the nose with the flat underside of
your fingers, and say "no!" firmly in a deep voice while maintaining eye
contact- staring the ferret down.  my fizgig bit *fiercely* because of his
drive to be dominant (he dominates my other ferrets, one of whome is twice
his size, and is *very* determined to be in charge) and recieved quite a
lot of nose taps, scruffings and "no!"'s.  he is now a very good, loving
(so many kissies!) and confident ferret, just like before, only now he
doesn't try to bite me.
 
i know that physical discipline of pets is very unfashionable right now,
and i think that's great.  if one fewer ferrets gets tortured by an
ignorant owner then that's all i ask.  *but* it really bothers me to hear
that i should never use any kind of physical discipline with my pets, and
to be told that because i have thumped noses i am unfit to work with
animals (which i did for a *long* time).  discipline should be gentle, firm
and prompt, and i agree that it is entirely wrong to beat a child or a pet
for a misbehaviour, but all animals are different and different methods
work with different pets, and with some pets gentle firm physical
discipline can work wonders.
 
just to clarify what the last poster was saying about screaming- a squealed
"owch!" sounds a lot like a ferrets pain scream.  often when a ferret is
biting toes and hands they don't realise that it is hurting you.  by making
a ferret pain noise you can say in ferret language "you're hurting me!".
this is a really good thing to try with a ferret who is a fear biter, and
is not like constantly screaming at them.  it is not yelling in anger, it's
quite a clever way of communicating with a ferret who can't be expected to
understand our language.  i assumed that was what they meant when they
mentioned screaming when they got bitten.
 
sorry about the length of this post, but i really wanted to get that off
my chest.
 
siani
[Posted in FML issue 2651]