The biting discussion has made me think about my ferrets, who all bite (when I warn the vet, she says "Nobody is ever bitten at our clinic!" with a grin). However, none of them snap or are mean, and except for one, NEVER bite unless playing, or in Potpie's case, unless at the vet's. :) But that's not really the point of my post. A long time ago I posted about Noodle's tendency to bite our wrists while cuddling in our laps. He'll curl up, then wake up with an 'emergency itch' type of look on his face, and start biting our wrists harder and harder. We spent a month or two scolding him, putting him in the cage for time-outs, etc; but he never really quit doing it (currently we gently hold his jaws together with two fingers - he gets the idea and gets out of 'the mood,' whatever it is). The funny thing is, now he ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT bite during play. As many people have described, he'll open his mouth, but when your finger comes near, the most that will happen is you'll bump his teeth as he shuts his mouth. We have *never* nip-trained him during play - only tried to correct his wrist-biting behavior. Just something interesting.. As far as the ferrets who will never bite and ferrets all bite statements - the original poster did not state that all ferrets bite in order to damage ferret reputations - he stated it in order to hopefully protect your ferrets' lives. I have met ferrets who 'would never bite' who, when in situations where they hadn't bitten before, unexpectedly bit someone. Nobody is automatically assuming YOUR PARTICULAR ferret is going to or will ever bite. All that I think was intended was to encourage people to be cautious, most particularly when putting their ferret in a situation that might be new to them, or a situation involving strangers or children. No matter how much you trust your pet, you really would better be safe than sorry. Most likely, the situation will never present itself and almost certainly you can trust your ferret - but don't forget to be cautious. Kodo did NOTHING wrong. Melissa __ Melissa Litwicki ____ [log in to unmask] __ By the whole newsgroup devoted tennis showing it after scarfing fork and laughters [Posted in FML issue 2191]