Regarding Severe biters Lilith and Greta, Joann, I am dealing with a similar situation and have been posting my experiences on http://Ferretopia.proboards51.com Search for Roman or Josiesmom. Basically I've adopted a huge Champagne male ferret bred by Path Valley Farms. He'd been shipped to a distributor, then sold to a family with a couple kids. Accompanying him was Path Valley's pamphlet instructing the new ferret owners to thump, snap or ping the ferret's nose, and holler at him if he bites. This ferret's first introduction to human hands, was shall we say quite rude? I've got conflicting information as to exactly how old he is, the distributor said 5 months, but photo details show him to be at least several months older. I'm putting him at least 9 to 10 months old. Ferret kits need to learn how much pressure is and is not acceptable when playing with humans, usually this is a bit of trial and error. The human doing the introduction should be one self controlled enough to NEVER get mad, show fear or pull away if too much pressure is used. What can start out as a normal playful love bite that would be acceptable to another ferret, when given to a human, if that human pulls back reflexively the ferret's natural reaction is to grab harder! Roman's "normal" play bites are considerably harder just from the fact that he is a huge ferret! I am offering Roman free roam 24/7, natural foods so he learns where it is appropriate to apply massive amounts of jaw pressure, I talk with him constantly, and touch him as he travels by. Several times a day I swaddle him in a cloth or T-shirt and pick him up this way, sometimes just setting him back down immediately, other times holding him briefly, eventually holding him longer and longer., He watches me interact with the other ferrets and loves to play tag with me. I use stuffed animals as hand surrogates to play with my hands this lets him bite and rough house close to my hands, but not WITH them (not yet anyway). I've had to alternate using gloves and swaddling and bare handed touching, stroking, picking up. He's latched on a couple good times already and just two days ago bit clean through a vein over my knuckle, causing some internal bleeding into the knuckle! I am VERY consistent in my "coaching" - if he bites he gets scruffed and dragged, then held until he settles down and ONLY when he has completely relaxed in my hold, do I then let him down. I have to wear sweats, socks and a long sleeve shirt because we WILL go after exposed skin sometimes. Usually when he gets wound up during playtime. But in the first few days of being allowed free roam he DID attack me while I slept on the sofa! He pierced my eyebrow! NOT the best way to get woken up, I can assure you! But still I did the scruff and drag and a brief time out in a small cage: after I cleaned myself up I got him back out and held him briefly and transferred him to a larger cage with proper ferret goodies inside. He was NOT allowed free roam for two days. Something else I've done is put him in a harness. This makes him get used to being " touched" even when I cannot be there. I have ferret proofed my house and made doubly sure that the harness cannot get hung up on anything. The harness also makes him actually seek my attentions for rubs and scrubs. After a few days in the harness, I take it off him and allow him complete freedom. If he bites me again, the harness goes back on and things start all over. I offer him treats from my hands, ferretone to lick, hairball remedy ti lick, butter to lick, corn beef hash to eat and sometimes small pieces of bologne. No, I don't make the processed meats a normal part of ferret diets- he just has shown that he really likes them, so I am using EVERY thing at my disposal to prove to him that hands ARE nice and when hands get bitten they remain neutral in his maw, the worst that happens is he gets scruffed and drug like a momma ferret would do. He is totally o.k. with being held and picked up while wearing gloves - just bare hands set him off. So I'm pretty certain that its been the bare handed "nose pings" the breeder instructed that has instilled in him the need to defend himself. He WANTS to be socially interactive because he plays tag with me, will tug of war with ropey toys, will climb up on my lap, follows me around the house and flat ferrets consistently at my feet or even across them. The severe bites are getting fewer and farther between, and at least a couple times he laid his teeth on me and of his OWN accord chosen NOT to apply any pressure! Recently he started dozing off while being held, a milestone for sure in my book, but this last time, he went into a very deep sleep and then started crying in his sleep, awoke with a start and latched on good to my knuckle! Although bleeding profusely and definitely sore, I still did NOT put him down; scruffed him dragged him then cradled in my arm again and stroked him calmly; only then letting him down. After being bitten and while continuing the settling cradle I'd spritzed my hands liberally with Fooey. This helped deter him from further bites, and he DID try - but it also has left a bad taste in my mouth since then too! Apparently that yucky stuff soaks through your skin and gets into your blood stream! BLECH! Now my other ferrets that kiss me all the time, won't kiss me! Using these methods I've successfully rehabbed a couple other biting ferrets and one who was labeled vicious and passed from home to home because of it. Now she is my biggest lap puppy! Its NOT easy remaining neutral when being chomped, but steel yourself for it. It would be best if only ONE person works with the ferrets until they get over their bad habits, this way the coaching is consistent. Patience, patience, patience, persistence, quiet persistence, persistence, repitition, repitition, repitition and repeat again. Keep in mind that ferrets LIKE reactions - watch them interact and the fastest way one of them will get the other to leave them alone is by going limp, and tuning the other one out. Humans need to adopt this method too when dealing with bites. If we don't react the ferret loses interest in the behavior and learns to modify his behavior to get GOOD reactions from the human! Cheers, Kim [Posted in FML 6012]