To the person who has given up on their bitey ferret.  I'm not as
experienced as many on the list but it seems that some ferrets just are
nippy and stay that way.  Biting as someone mentioned (drawing blood) is a
bit different and hopefully someday your ferret will learn "bite inhibition"
(in dogs this means being able to regulate their mouth/bite so as not to
hurt).  I agree that the negative responses (nose slapping) propagated,
often by uninformed pet store employees (at least in my case) do not work.
I am however a big sissy about being bitten.  That very good advice of not
jerking back when bitten but gently pushing your finger into their mouth
along with a hiss is great as it is immediate and directly associated to the
bite by the ferret - but I often react and jerk back.  So though I know most
people don't agree I'll throw this out.  Constant handling is often the
best cure for biting.  Pick up scratch, put down, pick up treat put down -
constantly over and over.  Since I'm a sissy I do this with yes, dare I say
it, garden gloves.  I was nailed directly through them once with a rescue
with a broken/split very sharp tooth but usually it helps.  I stay away from
leather because it excites some ferrets quite a bit.  Without gloves I think
my nervousness transmits itself itself to the ferret which isn't good.  I
didn't sound like you had a tough time with being bitten like I do, just
that you were sad.  I hope that with constant handling, as the ferret gets
older it stops drawing blood.  But if you find yourself not handling the
ferret because of the blood drawing you might give it a shot.
 
As for Ed's thoughts on reasons to not fix ferrets - one thing not mentioned
as that females will, if not fixed (and not bred) DIE.  Unless you limit
female ownership to breeders, a lot of females are going to die slow
miserable deaths, bleeding out of every orifice.  That's enough of a
reason for me to say that fixing ferrets is very important.  (As if pet
overpopulation wasn't enough).
 
Mary, Boris and Giesela and Booker the dog
[Posted in FML issue 2395]