I'm a little backed up on my fml, so i think I missed alot of the conversation concerning thumping your ferrets. Now before anyone gets mad I'm not here to tell anyone they are wrong, just tell my experience with thumping. I recently got 3 new fuzzies from a shelter, they were a family and they were having a hard time getting them a home because the girls (daisy and chloe) who were a yr old were toe bitters, the shelter said the people that brought them in said they had drawn blood. They problem was everyone wanted Odie the silver guy (he is gorgeous) but not the girls. I decided to give it a go. I brought them home and sure enough the girls were toe bitters and ankle and leg *laugh* and they bit hard. none of my other fuzzies had bitten (I got them older) a friend of mine gave me the well meaning advice to flick them on the nose. So I started flicking them on the nose. While it did deter them from bitting I realized it was from fear and nothing else Chloe would actually flinch when you got your hand ready for flicking. So I immediately stopped flicking and made it clear to friends and family that was not acceptable behavior for us humans to display. I started giving alot more love to the girls, letting them out more durring the day and cuddling them and praising them when they didn't bite me. Now sure my girls if they get really wound up will still run over and once in awhile durring chase will nip a toe but generally it is soft, and all I have to do is say heeeey when they come up and they will dook and climb in your lap with a toy. So just in my experience when I stopped flicking, the behavior got better and now the girls and I are very close. Chloe loves as a matter of fact to ride mommies leg *laugh*. So it just dosen't make sense to me to hurt something you love. [Posted in FML issue 3062]