I have noticed answering email questions is better than reading Louis Binford or typing in a bibliography. Q: My ferret bites. What should I do? A: Never play in the nude with your ferret. Ferrets bite for a number of reasons, the most common are probably play, aggression, and fear. Play biting is part of the ferret's genetic behavioral character and cannot be prevented; doing so is a cruel punishment. Dogs and cats also engage in play biting, although perhaps not as extensively. Aggression biting can be a problem with any pet, especially in some dogs, and I have even read reports of aggressive biting in cats. I know that as a consequence of large population and behaviorable variability it must have occurred in ferrets as well, but I have never personally heard of a case. Fear biting is either because of surprise, or because of negative conditioning, such as a ferret tending to bite strangers after being "trained" to do so by abusive owners. Any animal, any person for that matter, will fear bite so long as the circumstances that provoke such a response occur. A fear bite can be a single bite and run, or it can be labelled an attack, with multiple bites. In play biting, the trouble is ferrets think of you as another ferret, and chomp down. While the acceptance of you as a ferret might be appealing, the scratches and bleeding on various parts of your body are not. ("Course, I'm making an assumption...maybe someone *likes* it). As hard as they bite a human, imagine how hard they bite each other, yet it is extermely unlikely that play biting results in injury to the ferret. Imagine their surprise when people are hurt. Play biting is a part of the normal behavior of the ferret, and attempts to stop it probably impact on the ferret's mental health. while play biting should not be stopped, you *CAN* teach the ferret not to bite hard. I have no experience with aggression biting so cannot give any sound advice. I think many instances of so-called aggression biting are in fact instances of fear biting, but can offer no evidence. Fear biting is common in shelter ferrets, and compared to play biting, the most difficult to modify. The only real solution is to get the ferret to trust you and not be afriad, and that takes time and physical contact, which means be prepared for the occasional bite. You can help the situation by first talking to the ferret so thay are aware of your presence, and then by letting the ferret sniff the back or palm of your hand (smells more like you than your fingers, and MUCH harder to get teeth into). If the ferret attempts to bite, don't jerk or make sudden movements which might be frightening or cause the ferret to bite harder. That's the hard part; twice I've winced through nose bites given from fear biters. I stumbled upon a quick way to stop *most* fear biting. About four or five times a day, I give a small favored treat at the beginning of the contact, prior to any handling. After a few days, I give the treat after first touching the ferret. When I think the ferret trusts me, I only give the treat after picking up the ferret. After a couple days, I only give the treat about once a day, so most contact does not get a treat. Instead, I give positive personal contact, which the ferret nearly always enjoys. This approach has never taken more than a week to eliminate most or all fear biting, at least towards me. Once that has been accomplished, it is easy for the ferret to start trusting others, but some have been so abused, they may *never* trust strangers. Some other tips. I *never* physically punish a ferret for biting too hard, especially a fear biter. I just say no sternly, and put them away for a while. My only physical response to a nasty bite is to push my finger (assuming they have my finger) towards the back of the jaw. It hyperextends the jaw, very uncomfortable, and initiates a gag reflex. This might hurt the finger more than the ferret, but it works every time, and teaches the ferret not to bite to hard. If not my finger, then I push the chewing muscles that are towards the back of the side of the head just under the level of the eye (below the zygomatic arch). Start gently and slowly apply more pressure until they let go. This works not because of the pain, but because the pressure affects the facial nerve running through the muscle. You can test this on yourself by pushing your finger into the muscle just under your cheekbone, towards your ear. Push hard enough, and your mouth will automatically open. Pushing harder is intensely painful and not recommended for either ferret or person. Remember, you are trying to teach them to trust and not fear you; punishments always run the risk of making the ferret worse, not better. I have used this trick to open a rutting male's jaws clamped onto an in-heat female's neck, as well as a mink's jaws clamped into the thumb-to-first-finger webbing of my hand, and it is quite effective. BTW, trying to *pry* a ferret's mouth open *INTENSIFIES* the bite reflex, because the ferret begins to resist the effort, and increases the force of the bite to do so. The biomechanics of the ferret jaw are such that the effort required to pry open the jaw would be greater than the force required to break the bones or teeth. Remember, the strongest jaw muscles are those that close the jaw; prying the open is very difficult. However, truthfully, I rarely have to resort to such tricks because it doesn't take long for even nasty biters like Crystal, Sandy, and Sam Luc to respond to loving handling. The new kits have already learned what is an acceptable bite (although it is not quite as acceptable in the hollow behind your knee); they love to play, and a hard bite means the cage. They learn *very* quickly. I am sure thare are lots of other "end biting" tricks, especially for fear biters, floating among the FML membership. Since it is such a common complaint, perhaps we should all post about our best solutions, and have them compiled into a FAQ for newbees and shelter operators. Bob C and 21 MO Coed Nude Wrestlers [Posted in FML issue 2070]