Hello! Note to Chelsea and Note to Mark (Poopie Prob's) Hi! I just got online and jumped at the chance to join the FML. This is my first posting and since my name is spelled funny, I'll just let you all know it's pronounced Mishella. I'm a three year veteran and my household has expanded from one to five. If I lived in a bigger place I'd probably have even more. Bugsy, my 'first born' is a very big gorgeous dark sable who got me hooked on and in love with these amazing fuzzballs. whitey (long story how she got that name ) (alias giggles) and mighty mouse (alias wiggles) are two sisters I 'rescued' as kits from a house where the kids bought them without moms consent. Whitey is a ruby-eyed albino who is gentle but on drugs (naturally) and Might Mouse is a greyish sable with a white bib and white paws who is the mother hen--cleaning everyone, storing everything and trying desperately everything she can to get my two new males to play (neither has ever seen ferrets before). I got Spikey, a gorgeous and HUGE 2 year old dark eyed male with thick soft white hair like a persian cat, from Shena at the Wherret Ferrets Halfway House. Walter, another dark-eyed male I rescued through a vet I work with. Yup!!!! If all goes well, in the near future I'll be in vet school. And you can guess what lucky creatures will be my personal pet projects. RE: TOILET TRAINING PROBLEMS CHELSEA: I wouldn't worry about estelle sleeping in the litter box. I had a ferret (unfortunately only 9 months-heart attack) who did this for a while. I simply moved him each time I saw this and after a while it just stopped. A good idea to get estelle to stop using your carpet as her lavatory would be to play with her before she gets out of the cage- or at least make sure she's been up and excited for a while. The idea being to get her to make potty before she leaves the cage. However given your second problem-BITING- just making sure she's been up for a while is a start. Find out her favorite places to go in your house, and then set up extra kitty litters or leave newspapers in those spots. All ferrets have those favorite areas. Unfortunately they get more frequent with age (laziness?). Re the biting. Don't worry too much. Unless you smell of some other animal or you've been abusing her (which I doubt) just give her some time. It's normal for kits to get nippy. It could be that dreaded teething phase (does it ever end??????-joke) or simply that she doesn't know her own strength. She may think your hands are other ferrets. My Bugsy still plays rough with me the way my girls play with each other. In fact he's rougher with me than them (he only had my hands to play with as a kit). Try lacing your hands with linatone and/or feeding him treats when you take him out to play. OOOOHHHH- That reminds me. After I left Bugsy once (boarding - only time at this place) he stopped going in his litter boxes outside his cage. I got him to go in them again by feeding him a raisin every time he made 'good boy' and of course he got lots of praise. He's even been known to fake it just to see if he can still get a raisin. Please let me know how it goes. Every ferret and ferret owner find there own symbiosis in there own time. Let estelle teach you who she is and what she likes and wants. Good luck and let me know how it goes. RE RASCAL ` I don't know your set-up (cage), but maybe Rascal doesn't want to use the same box as his roomie. Maybe try adding another and see if he'll use it. Or, try changing kitty litter brands, or giving him a choice. If not, you could always line the cage with newspaper to make cleaning up easier. Good luck. Later, X's and O's from Michaela, Bugsy, giggles and Wiggles, Spikey and Walter eey,eey, dook dook, eey eey, dook dook ---ooops ! [Posted in FML issue 1638]