Hi all,
 
I need some ideas.  I just got a new baby, he is 3 1/2 months, has badger
markings, panda bear stripes, silver-mitt feet, and brown and white
speckled belly, and a white tip on his tail.......I call him Heinz.... :-)
 
I also have four other ferrets: Bogey about 5, Schnitzel about 4, Chip
about 3 and Pita about 1.  I have been keeping them sort-of separate in the
same cage but cut off?  The trouble is, whenever I let them out to play,
Pita (who is my alpha) makes a bee-line for Heinz, and nails him every
time!  He screams (she isn't doing any damage, no broken skin, just lots
of poop and peeing) and tries to get away.  Sometimes he succeeds....
sometimes not.  But it happens every friggin' time!
 
He gets along with two of the others, (Chip will also nail him, but doesn't
go out of his way to get him like Pita) so I separate them sometimes, him
with those two, and Pita and Chip separate, but I have run out of ideas.  I
have tried bitter apple on him, ferretone on him, nothing seems to work!
 
Any ideas?  Anyone have this problem before?  Any idea how long it will
continue??  I don't break up the brawls, she is really not hurting him,
and I don't want to usurp her place in the group, but it breaks my heart
to hear him!  And he runs straight to me every time she does it!
 
HELP!!!
 
Deb Chapman
 
"When you talk to God, it's called prayer.....when God talks to you, it's
called paranoid schizophrenia."
[Posted in FML issue 2841]