>1. Bites very hard (only hands no feet or arms) ...
>2. He appears to be very scared.  Abused possibly?  seeing he will only
>   bite my hands.
>3. He is scared of two of my ferrets but gets along somewhat with the
>   other.  (they don't bother each other.
>4. He screams LOUDLY while wrestling/getting to know each other...
>5. The hardest problem for me is that he is deaf.  I am having trouble
>   communicating with him. ...
 
Well, you certainly do have your hands full at the moment!  But, quite
honestly, the outlook isn't all that bad.  Take a good look at the ferret's
face and head -- does his head appear slightly misshapen or does the ferret
have "bug eyes"?  It is possible that in addition to being deaf, he is also
mentally challenged.
 
His behavior sounds remarkably like my Dixon who is both deaf and severely
retarded.  Dixon's so mentally challenged that he often "gets lost" playing
in the tunnels in the ferret playroom.  He will go in one end and forget
that he can continue on to the other end, back out, or just turn around and
go out the way he went in.  When he finds himself lost, he screams for my
attention to come rescue him.  When he first arrived, Dixon would make the
strangest sounds (often quite loud).  In addition to the usual dooks, he
added urks, eeps, meeps (not to be confused with the eeps), aaks, snurfs,
hisses, assorted gutteral snickers, and loud shrieks.  Dixon also
communicates his wants through biting.  Since he can't hear, he doesn't
understand that others can hear, and so has naturally resorted to a
physical form of communication.  Patience and love will teach your deaf boy
how to moderate his biting communications to a point that is acceptable,
such as gently taking your finger in his mouth to get attention.  Dixon
will often grab my finger when I am holding him to let me know he wants to
play, have his neck scratched, or belly tickled, and sometimes when he is
excited will forget to be gentle and bite a little too hard.  Dixon has
learned that my finger resting on the tip of his nose or chin means he is
biting too hard and he immediately backs off and gives a couple licks as
apology.
 
His being frightened is not necessarily the signs of former abuse.
Remember, he is suddenly finding himself in new and very strange
surroundings.  That is enough to throw anyone (human or ferret for a loop).
Remember, that because he is deaf, he needs to see you before you pick him
up or initiate any kind of play.  Picking him up from behind will startle
him, causing him to bite in self defense.  Start tapping the floor (unless
it is heavily carpeted) so he can feel the vibrations and turn around to
see you.  Some deaf ferrets also respond to a gentle touch on the back or
top of the head and will turn around to see what is behind them.
 
I have found that with deaf ferrets, many seem to find comfort in resting
against your chest where they can feel the vibrations when you speak.  A
nightly ritual with Dixon is for me to hold him against my chest while he
gets a little taste of Ferrevite.  Once that is over, I speak or sing to
him as he lays on his back and washes his face before taking a nap.
 
Scott
[Posted in FML issue 2800]