Cecilia, unfortunately some ferrets that come from petshops are taken
away from their mothers too soon. It's the mother that teaches them
not to bite. You have to be the mother, scruff him, drag him across
the floor just like the mother would whenever he bites. I also scruff
a biter and say loudly "NO". I sometimes grab ferrets with my mouth
like a mother ferret would do, scruff gently held with my teeth, and
walk around with them like that, making sure that I don't drop them.
Hopefully no one comes to your door while you're doing it or calls you
on the phone and you have to mumble "I can't talk now, I have a ferret
in my mouth.". Another possibility is that he is deaf and doesn't hear
cries of pain. The method to train him would still be the same except
saying "NO!", obviously. If it is only with men that he has a biting
problem then that may be the issue and he may have been mistreated by a
man. It will take a while to build his trust. Never ever hit a ferret
for any reason. Maybe a petshop worker hit him.

I do not believe that some ferrets were born biters or are mean. I do
not believe that a biter cannot be retrained. All biters that I have
adopted have stopped biting completely within 2 weeks sometimes a day
or two is all it took.......except for Sneaky. She was a face biter and
fear biter. I have no idea what was done to her before I got her but it
took months of daily love and interaction for her to trust me and stop
biting.

Now I will say that a ferret knows when and who is afraid of them. My
monster man Tyki knows that he can't nip my heels and doesn't even try
BUT he loves to make my 13 year old daughter Alexis "dance". He drives
her crazy running at her, darting at her heels, making her scream and
hop up and down. He also loves it when she takes a shower when he is
loose. You can hear Alexis scream "TYKI....NO GET OUT." when he jumps
into the tub with her. Alexis is Tyki's favorite "toy". I have tried
to "train" Alexis on how to handle Tyki but have begun to realize that
training a ferret is much easier than training a teenager. Right now I
have 4 teens and one almost teen in the house and none of them listen
to me. Maybe that's why I have ferrets....they listen to me. They also
keep me sane!

Good luck with your little ferret. I think he will be fine with you as
his "mother", lots of love, attention and ferret-style discipline.
 
Nancy, hoping she didn't sound too much like she knows it all to this
wonderful group of ferret lovers that I'm sure knows a lot more than
she does.....

[Posted in FML 6374]