New Ferret

[haruchai86]

Ok I am hoping to not make this too too long, but please read the whole thing before responding XD Thank you!

I have had ferrets for 10 years now and all of them have been playful and happy since the beginning.

I have just purchased a new ferret who is now 5 months old, I spent about an hour with her before I got her and she was very calm and just seemed relaxed on my chest.

When I first brought her home, she was scared and missed her brothers and sisters. She has her own large cage in a quiet area, with bedding and lots of toys. I slowly introduced her to my other fuzzy and now they play together and everything is peachy with them.

She doesn't puff up anymore when around me, but she sometimes hisses, and she bites SUPER HARD. I bleed almost everytime and she won't let go. She has an evil look to her when she bites me too, and kind of looks like she wants to play at first. I have had her for a 2 month now and besides the puffing up of the tail, nothing is changing. I have been scruffing her, I have tried time out! and putting her in a kennel when she bites instead of letting her play. Ive tried to give her treats, snuggle, It seems ive tried everything that I have researched.

My question is, has anyone had a ferret like this? and how long does it take? I have the patience, Im just scared she won't ever like me lol. Any tips?


I didn't want to punish her right away as she is new to this place and I wanted her to be comfortable,

[Johnny and Demon]

Is she deaf ? Did she see a vet to run out any health problems, anything that can bother her ?
How much you know about her and her previous owners ? Does she bite only under certain situations ?
Kinda need more details ...

[Tressie]

Welcome to our forum!

And congratulations on bringing a new fur baby into your home

You sound like a caring and responsible ferrent.

Annik has asked all the questions I would be asking. We need more information in order to be better able to assist you.

I can assure you that she doesn't have an evil bone in her tiny body. Biting is equivalent to shouting in human terms. We need to find out what she is desperately trying to communicate to you.

If for example, she came from an environment that created fear in her then she is likely a fear biter and is biting you as a way to protect herself from potential harm (psychological or physical).

The fact that she used to puff up around you is a clue. Ferrets puff their tails for 3 reasons: excitement, fear or pain. A full body puff is almost always intense fear.

Hissing generally says "Stay away from me." It can also be part of normal play behaviour in some ferrets.

Another example, ferrets who have been neglected in the past will bite for attention, much as neglected children misbehave.

Have you established whether she is deaf? Not as easy as it seems since ferrets are very clever at compensating for their disabilities.

Is she a Real Canadian Ferret (RCF)? The alphas tend to be more 'mouthy' i.e., more bitey. A straight line tattoo, generally in the right ear is a mark of an RCF as opposed to the 2 dots Marshall's Farms uses.

Observe her carefully and see whether there is any discernible pattern to her biting?

For example:

- does she only bite your hand?
- when does she bite? When you reach out for her? When holding her?

It does sound like she might have had some unpleasant experiences with humans and is still fearful. If this is the case, then she probably has post-traumatic stress disorder from previous traumas, and biting is triggered by certain things you are doing that throws her back into a fearful memory. It could be almost anything from a smell to a gesture.

It is important to establish whether the biting is a fear response or a lack of socializing to humans. The strategies to deal with it are different. For example, if it is fear biting, scruffing will only make it worse.

In the interim, be confident that with patience and time her behaviour can be turned around. How long depends on how quickly we can determine why she is biting in the first place, and plan a course of action on your part to effectively deal with it.

Her biting has nothing to do with whether she likes you or not. Ferrets LOVE their humans, although they can learn to fear humans because of bad experiences with them.

If all her experiences in the past with humans have been negative ones, it will take her longer to come to trust you. If, however, she had some positive as well as negative experiences then it will take less time as she figures out that you are one of the 'good' humans. In that case, it is a matter of untangling what it is that you might be doing to remind her of the 'bad' humans.

Tressie

[haruchai86]

Thank you for responding! First here are some answers to your questions.

I did a deaf test and she can hear fine as far as I can tell, I will check again. She can also see.
She saw my vet before I let her go near my other ferret and she does not have ear mites or any infections.
I know for a fact that she was not used to humans as the only humans that went near her were the Pet Store employees to clean/feed them.

She doesn't bite when I go into her cage and pick her up though she looks a little startled when being lifted. I should probably let her climb out of the cage before handling her. She will bite my hand when I hold her after about 30 seconds. If she is out playing she will latch onto toes/ankles and won't let go. She mostly hisses when she is out playing and I put my hand near her. She will come right up to me on her own when playing and jump for my hand and latch on and wont let go.

She basically she will bite me any chance she gets, She doesn't generally bite when I go into the cage to get her but I am quite sure if I left my hand in there for more than 30 seconds she would.

Thanks for all the information Tressie, From what I have explained do you think its fear or lack of human experience?

I also forgot to mention for the first two weeks she Dooked alot when playing, it was constant dooking, but now she does not dook at all.

The first day I brought her home and put her in the cage she was yelling extremely loud for about 15 minutes. I think she was extremely terrified It was so strange because in the car she just sat so peacefully on my chest in a little ball and stared up at me with her cute little face.

[Tressie]

When you say she "yelled" for 15 minutes when you put her in the cage - what exactly do you mean by yell?? Was she 'honking' that is, making sounds sort of like a goose does? That is a sound a kit makes when separated from its group, and means distress.

Screaming? When I say screaming, I mean scream. Its a blood curdling sound and only elicited when a ferret is utterly terrified.

Or was she squeaking frantically, running around, maybe biting at the bars? = high anxiety. Generally fear of being abandoned in the cage for the rest of their lives.

When you pick her up are her back legs splayed apart? That is a fear response.

A ferret that feels secure with you will put its head up and drop the front paws, keeping back legs comfortably relaxed.

I know I've won a ferret over when the splayed back legs stops. Sometimes it takes weeks or months, depending on their temperament and past history.

From what you've described so far it sounds like there is a bit of both going on (i.e., fear and lack of socialization). With the lack of socialization being weighted more heavily.

Now, couple of things to try.

Biting you after holding her for 30 seconds is her signal to you that she wants down. Strategy DO NOT put her down if she bites, scruff her immediately and say "NO BITE" in a firm voice. And then put her gently back into your arms and let her down ONLY if she settles without biting.

Better strategy put her down BEFORE she has an opportunity to bite you. And when you put her down make sure you do it calmly and super gently.

Latching onto toes and ankles is a common ferret behaviour, I have a couple who will always bite bare feet. Strategy - do not go barefoot. Wear slippers or shoes that cover your feet.

When I sit at the computer and one of my 'ankle biters' is out - I put my feet up out of the way. If I forget, I get nailed!

Ankle/toe biting is a play behaviour, and some ferrets never get it that this is not how to get your human to play with you.

Leaping up at your hands and biting at them, is again, play behaviour. They bite each other when playing and have to learn not to bite their human as an invitation to play.

The latching on is a vigorous way of 'pulling' you into playing with her. Some ferrets learn to gently pull their mom's hand but a youngster hasn't learned to be gentle yet. Strategy, don't put your hands down when she is hyped up and in play mode.

When you say she was dooking constantly when you first got her, was it like a machine gun dooking - fast and repetitive? Or the regular cheerful, playful dooking sound?

Rapid fire, staccato, repetitive dooking is an aggressive mode and is generally seen in a strongly dominant alpha. The staccato dooking associated with alpha behaviour occurs when they are scanning a new territory and pick up the scent of another, unfamiliar ferret.

Is she a Real Canadian Ferret? They tend to be more extreme in their behaviours.

I suspect that she gets worse the more hyped she is. I would suggest leaving her alone to burn off some steam and don't engage her in any play activity with you. She's like a toddler who gets overly excited and then has trouble controlling her enthusiasm.

If she gets over the top and starts leaping at you with her teeth, firmly but gently scruff her, tell her "NO" and put her down GENTLY and calmly. If she repeats the behaviour, one more round of scruff and "NO".

If she does it a third time put her back into her cage, as gently as possible and either leave the room or put the blanket over her cage so she can't see you, and don't talk to her. Leave her there until you would normally take her out again. That is, for the rest of the afternoon until she falls asleep.

This gives her the opportunity to calm down and to think about what just happened.

You'll know she's getting the message when after she's been scruffed and you put her down, she goes to jump at you but stops herself and looks up at you. Tell her she's being a good girl and let her scamper off to play.

This scenario will probably be repeated a number of times until she's learned.

However, if she has a high strung temperament, she may always get a little over excited and play sessions should be more low-key from her human i.e., no rough housing, or over-stimulation, etc. She can get enthusiastic with her ferret companion all she wants.

Tressie

[TayLa]

congratulations on your new little baby girl whats her name how much her weigh what food her eats what color is her sable blaze ? champagne ? albino ? black eyed white? black mitt ? got photo? where her come from? we love her ((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))) n' kisses

lv TayLa

[haruchai86]

Hi Tressie, I would say it sounded more constant like screaming and it was very loud and she was running along the side of the cage Thankfully it was only that once.

Yes! Her legs are spread out when I lift her. Thank you so much for the information seriously I think it is helping already! <3

She is very high strung and she is a RCF.

Hi TayLA, thanks for the congratulations! I have always been kind of bad with coming up with names fast but I have been calling her Baby Winks lol. She is eating Evo and she is a light colored sable. She is Very tiny, she was a lot smaller than her brothers and sisters, Maybe she was the runt? She has the cutest big pink nose and her ears look a little big for her head <3 I will post pictures of my babies soon <3