Okay, I'm short on sleep so I am also sending this to Bill in case he wants me to touch it up since I don't trust my own judgement right now. Too worked up from this morning (and too happy from Meltdown actually fighting her 10 a.m. meds) to nap so I decided to read the FML. Makes me think that when Meltdown does go maybe instead of looking for a handicapped young one we should instead find one or more with biting problems to take in. Let me say it one more time (This is the part where I might become nasty, I expect): NEVER THINK THAT VIOLENCE WILL STOP BITING BITING, and USE FERRET BODY LANGUAGE AND VOCALIZATIONS (NOT HUMAN ONES) with a hard case. Q: When should an individual be expected to be more likely to be hard to train? A: 1. When it has suffered abuse in it's past. 2. When it is actually of fur fitch stock (but, yes, they can be tamed, too.) 3. When it suffers from a handicap(s). Examples: deafness (more common among blazes, pandas, and all-white strains), blindness, retardation (extremely rare -- we have heard of only two or three true cases other than our late Ruffie) 4. When it is in pain. What should you do with such a ferret? First of all do your damnest to NEVER use violence (though it does happen some times that a bite will startle or just hurt so bad that you can't help having a normal reflex action -- after all, we are animals, too). DO NOT flick, choke, hit, or so on. Instead you want to teach the animal to TRUST you implicitly. That means that you WILL get a cage or have an enclosed ferret area (such as an unused and ferret-proofed bathroom), and when you can not supervise the animal it will be in the cage which it will come to recognize as a secure place (They ARE denning animals) where it can unwind. Whenever the ferret bites you will scruff it (if it is not one which has an especially hard time with scruffing) and you may drag it for a short while on it's back (that way the claws won't get caught in anything and hurt, plus you have placed it into a surrender position but not done anything worse than showing that you are boss), you may hiss at it, but you will ALWAYS put it in the cage for a while for time out. Some people use VERY GENTLE shaking; I have impaired and on and off again sensory nerves to my upper limbs so I NEVER even try that -- also I am just too familiar with how a brain floats, that there are some thin attachments there, that the underside of it's cavity is a lot rougher than one would expect in many animals, that it bounces around too hard with some trauma, and how soft it is unpreserved. If the ferret is fast and hard to catch then interact with it in an area which is small and does not have hidey holes so that not being able to catch it will not impede the training. Be consistent and be patient. Look for clues in the ferret's behavior which will guide you in it's training. (Pretend that you are a field biolist unwinding the behavioral code of a novel species if that helps.) What will you learn to change? Many things, probably. For instance if it is deaf or blind you will have to be very careful to never startle it. If it is deaf or partly deaf you will also need to use tricks such as floor banging to get attention and later you can devise easy hand signals. If it is in pain then do what you can for the pain -- get a vet's appointment and have it checked out (something which should be done ALWAYS with a new animal or with anything puzzling, anyway), look for shed deciduous teeth which have become stuck between the erupting permanent teeth so the ferret keeps trying to "teethe" them out, check for tight muscles, ear infections, injured areas (such as previously broken tails) or sore joints which might respond well to daily massage, and so on. The hardest ferret we ever had to teach to not bite was Ruffle and she also bit the worst -- frustration bites, so she'd canine bite in series. She was multiply handicapped, in pain, and retarded so our shins especially were a constant mass of bites and bruises for three years. Then one day she figured out that the words we said meant something. (We have a REALLY restricted form of baby talk we use with them, and for her it was even more restricted. Record yourself for a long time and notice how MANY words you use and how many complicated sentence structures. Also make note if your intonation does not fit your words --this is ESPECIALLY important for those with slight hearing or little word experience since your words may say "no-no" but your intonation might say "Oh, cutesy, cutesy, cutesy you, high pitched subordinate here".) Ruffie never bit again once she caught on that we'd say things and allow her choices (around here thing like nose bumps mean "yes"), even when her health was failing and she was in such a rough way. She was harder than any battered, neglected, deaf, whatever ferret we ever had, but she also later became the most gentle and kindest soul you'd ever want to meet. She was just very confused and frustrated for her first few years so she acted out then. You know, once she learned she'd even give HERSELF times-out whenever she felt herself getting too excited. She would move away a bit and lie down with her back to everyone till she was calm again. Yes it takes a lot of time, and patience, and sometimes you will have to give yourself times-out, too. If you can't manage it then find someone who can. Also, remember that sometimes there can be a personality clash and certain individuals just may not be suited to you. Find them someone who will love them, too. Even when you get along just fine someone else may be better for a given ferret. We got Harley over his fears and he trusted us and liked us, but when he met our friend Judy (who also knows what she is doing with animals which have been abused) the two fell COMPLETELY in love. Yes, we miss him, but he's were he's happiest and that's what counts. Maybe this will help a ferret out there. Sukie [Posted in FML issue 1824]