My wife and I have had two ferrets (Molly and Emma) for about a year now.
They are both pet store (spayed and descented) females and as such are not
very big.  When the second was introduced into the household, there was a
small amount of figthing to establish a pecking order, but not very much,
and everything quickly became nicey-nicey between the two.
 
Last week we got a third ferret (Cooper). We got him from a local animal shelter
where he'd lived for the past 14 months.  The vet papers say he's
three years old, which mean (for those of you keeping score at home)
that he wasn't fixed until he was 16 months old. As such, he is
BIG. Cooper is about twice the size of Molly or Emma and looks more like
a small badger than a ferret.
 
[males are typically twice the size of females.]
 
Although he isn't very active (apparently had bad burns on his pads from
the hot parking lot in which he was found, and a broken leg somewhere along
the line) when Molly or Emma are near enough, he'll get up and bit their necks
andd all that other great stuff ferrets do to establish their place in the
order.
 
We're kind of concerned because its been almost a week, and they
haven't worked it out and become playmates yet.  We're also concerned
that because he's so BIG, he might really hurt Molly or Emma.
 
[Is he actually hurting them?  If not, there's not likely to be
a problem, but I wouldn't have them sleep together until things
straighten out]
 
We'd like to solicit comments from you regarding what you have done, and
are doing to introduce ferrets.  We've kept Cooper in a seperate cage for
the time being, and figured once playtime commenced they'd all curl up
together.  As it is, Molly and Emma play on one side of the apartment
and Copper sleeps in another, and when Cooper is asleep, M&E will come over
and inspect Coop's cage (which in turn used to be theirs).
 
We've thought about making them all sleep together in the big cage, but
the thought of the little ones not having a way to escape if Cooper starts
to really hurt them frightens us.
 
lenny.
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0146]