Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1993 02:33:50 -0400 From: [log in to unmask] (Inez Gowsell) Subject: A Rose by any other name... > I have a question about Gila and ferret behavior. When I went towards > Gila when she was on the floor, she backed herself into a corner, as if > she was trying to get away from me. Does anyone else's ferret do this? > Cocoa always came towards a person and was always tolerant of handling. > > This behavior made me think that Gila might have been abused before Dave > got her. She does have a broken front paw that was never fixed... at > least I don't think anyone tried, and from my understanding, the paw was > healed that way when she was found. She can put weight on it, but she > does seem to favor it quite abit. Of course, she may just have been in > a funny mood the day I saw her. *shrug* Any suggestions on how to > increase her trust, or whether this is normal behavior? Inez, I have 3 ferrets - Scooter, Nina, and Tavi. Tavi is a huge male who is very affectionate. He runs towards me or anyone else - he loves to be held, and always begs for attention. Nina is less affectionate, but when she wants attention, then she is super affectionate. Scooter sounds a lot like Gila, but was much worse at one time. She was abused and neglected by her previous owner. He lived in a frat house and got a ferret. He had her for a couple of months and then decided he didn't feel like having a ferret anymore, so he put the cage out in the hall next to the entrance-way of the entire frat house - I can just imagine how much she got picked on and teased. He fed her cheap, poor-quality food, gave her water if she was lucky, and never washed her bedding or cleaned the litter box. When I got her and the cage it was utterly disgusting. I felt so bad for the little girl and she was my first ferret. She was very anti-social, she didn't like people and would run away if she saw a human approaching. She is much better now, not nearly as skiddish, yet I still need to approach her slowly and cautiosly so she isn't afraid of me. She still runs from me at times though - and then she'll poke her head out of her hiding place and come up to me, and then I can pick her up. Best wishes, Chris. [Posted in FML issue 0489]