Ferret News
Pet Ferret Care Tips
and Information
By Mary R. Shefferman & Eric Shefferman - along with Gabby, the ferret
www.ferretnews.com

Ferret News #69: Ferret Nipping and Biting - Ferret Vision
June 29, 2004

by Mary R. Shefferman and Eric Shefferman
along with Gabrielle (the lone ferret)

contact: marymodernferret.com

Answering Questions About Ferret Nipping and Biting

By Eric Shefferman and Mary R. Shefferman

A: Ferrets don't tend to be "vicious and aggressive" unless

1. You have physically abused them a lot

2. They have some medical condition -- either constant pain from something or extreme hormonal imbalance

  Even so, any ferret shelter operator will tell you they've had ferrets come in who severely distrusted people and who came around to be very cuddly and friendly once they were actually treated with love and care instead of abuse.

  Under the right circumstances, any animal will bite in order to protect itself. That has nothing to do with training. Whether it's a dog, cat, etc. -- if the animal  thinks you are trying to kill it, it will defend itself (and it has a right to defend itself). So treat your ferret like a friend.

  Generally speaking, a kit that is properly nip trained will grow up to be a trustworthy adult ferret.

A: See the answer above. In general ferrets are not aggressive animals.

  Neutering a ferret doesn't affect the temperament except during the breeding cycle. Although sexually intact male ferrets may become aggressive with other male ferrets (they see them as competition), this aggression is usually not demonstrated towards people.

  Similarly, sexually intact female ferrets will become protective of their kits or their nest, but are fairly tolerant of people in general.

  However, there are other more important health reasons why you should have your ferrets neutered if they are not neutered when you get them.

  Remember that baby ferrets (and dogs, cats, etc.)

1. Don't know right from wrong yet (you have to teach them in a way they can understand)

2. Don't know how strong their jaws are

3. Don't have hands, so they need to use their mouths to grab anything that interests them.

  With dogs, cats, ferrets, human babies, etc. it is the responsibility of the parent to gently teach what is right and wrong behavior. This goes much further in bringing up a friendly ferret than any other single thing you can do.

A: It's highly unusual for a ferret to bite without provocation or cause.

  There are several possible problems here: Illness, jealousy, mishandling.

  You should have your ferret checked by a ferret-knowledgeable veterinarian to make sure she isn't ill. Ferrets with low blood sugar from insulinoma can sometimes get "bitey." It's certainly worth it to have her checked out.

  In addition to checking for insulinoma, you'll want her teeth checked and a general overall checkup. Sometimes an illness or injury is painful and the ferret responds by biting. If you had sore ribs or a sore stomach and someone tried to lift you up, you might bite them, too.

  We had problems with Trixie for a while, not biting hard, but nipping and attacking Eric's sneakers with a vengeance. We finally found that holding her and giving her extra attention (as well as an edible chew toy to chew on) made her much more agreeable. With having less time out of the cage, your ferret may feel that your children are competing for (and winning) your affection. Try spending some extra "quality" time with her.

  Finally, you don't say if your ferret has bitten you, only that she's gone for your kids. If she's singling out your kids, one of them might have unintentionally harmed the ferret. Sometimes kids aren't as careful as they should be, and ferrets sure don't make it easy for kids to handle them. You may never know for certain what, if anything, happened, but your ferret remembers.

  We used to go to a lot of ferret and pet shows and we'd bring our ferrets. Although Ralph was never a cuddly ferret, he wasn't afraid of people. However, after one of the shows, Ralph became frightened of strangers. He didn't bite, but you could see he was very uncomfortable and afraid if someone he didn't know tried to hold him. We decided that people could only hold Ralph if Ralph chose to go to them. Although there was nothing obviously wrong with Ralph (we didn't see any kind of injury), something happened. It could have been that someone was afraid of him and acted in a way that startled him enough to leave an impression. Something similar may have happened with one of your children.

  Another possibility is soap, lotion, or some other smell that your children have on them that your ferret doesn't like. Remember that ferrets are more sensitive to smells than we are.

Further Reading Online:

Newsletter #43 on stopping foot nipping.
Newsletter #56 on nip training young & older ferrets

The Super Monster Pack of Modern Ferret Magazine Back Issues

The Super Monster Pack of Modern Ferret Magazine back issues has all kinds of valuable ferret information written by ferret owning experts -- the ones who know what's what with ferrets.   Information about nip training can be found in Modern Ferret Magazine back issues: #9 and #17 -- available in the Super Monster Pack.   You get more than 1,000 pages of ferret fun and information. (If you bought all these back issues separately, it would cost about $150.00.)

All 28 available back issues of Modern Ferret magazine!   #1* #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 *Reprint What Readers Are Saying...   "I found the magazines to be an excellent source of information - I think of this collection of magazines as a Ferret Encyclopedia. For the price, I don’t think there’s a better source of well-written, informative and downright fun articles on everyone's favorite little creatures." -- Greg Johnson, Wisconsin   "...I keep them on hand and re-read them often. ...It was more than worth the money. Anyone with a ferret must have the [Super Monster] Pack -- it gives you the info you really need to know for your fuzzies’ sake.” --Robbin Ambrosini, Ohio

Did You Know That...

  Ferrets don't see very well. They don't have to see well; they get most of their information from their sense of smell. Hint -- why do you think their noses are so long?

  It's because ferrets don't see well that we can sometimes miss when a ferret goes blind. Of course, a blind ferret will bump into things, but she can find everything she needs just as she did when she could see.

  When our first ferret, Sabrina, lost her sight, we debated about it for a couple of weeks. Sometimes it seemed like she was blind, but she never missed the litter box and she always found her food. It finally became clear that she'd gone blind when we had her alone, trying to find us as we called her name. She sniffed the air and seemed very confused. It seems that when you have a bunch of ferrets, the blind one just follows the other ferrets to the treat.

  Despite their poor eyesight, some ferrets can actually see the color red as well as black and white. It's not clear whether every ferret can discern red, but certainly polecats (ferrets' wild cousins) can see red. This is why you see some litter boxes made specifically for ferrets in red (it's not just an odd decor choice). The theory is that the ferret will be able to see the litter box because it's red. While that's all well and good, even if the ferret can see the red litter box, it doesn't really convince her to use it.

  Why not try experimenting to see if you can tell if your ferret(s) can see the color red? It may be hard to tell, since ferrets tend to have short attention spans. On the other hand, it could be fun!

Quick Cool Tip

  Some ferrets like playing with crushed ice or ice cubes, especially when it's warm outside. Licking the ice and playing with it can cool off your ferret and get him to drink more water (always a good idea when it's hot outside). Just make sure you wet the ice first -- you don't want your ferret's tongue or nose to stick to an ice cube (ouch!).

  Thanks for reading Ferret News! Look for our next newsletter on Friday!

--Mary, Eric & Gabby

  Stay tuned for more. You can always get updates by reading my blog (a blog is an online journal). I keep it sporadically and it usually runs to the more personal stuff. But you might like it. It's at

http://www.modernferretblog.com/mary

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