Hi friends! I recently rescued two ferrets who were held at the same shelter but were not brought in together. They played 1-2x a week (my heart!) Bandit is about a year old and Slinky is about three-years-old. Slinky had a large abscess removed a couple of weeks ago and his wound is a minor scab now. They've been having trouble getting along though. Bandit might be trying to be the dominant one because everytime he pounces on Slinky, Slinky screams and cries. I split them up when this happens. When they have a tense stare down, I talk to both of them with my happy baby talk to hopefully relax them a little more. Now it's gotten possibly worse because if i have Slinky in my arms and Bandit approaches us, Skinny will jerk away quickly and sometimes hide his face in my arms. It's starting to be very upsetting for me, and probably Slinky too. To those who have had ferrets where it wasn't love at first sight, how do you help them bond? Any tips please? Ty

Do they sleep together? 

I separated mine a lot in the beginning because my little girl was so small I felt bad when the boy would pounce her and she'd scream and cry.... apparently it was all drama because she seeks him out to fight now. I think it's natural. From what I've read here, if there is no blood or poop let them be and let it happen. Obviously if one was a kit you wouldn't necessarily let them do this because of injury - but given that they're both at least a year old I'd think it would be fine to let it continue. 

We introduced a third ferret to our mix almost one year ago, he was about 6 months old and my other two were about a year at the time. The new one was much larger than the other two, despite being younger. They would fight a lot but sleep together at night and for naps. It gets loud sometimes but they're buddies.

How long have you had them? They may just be adjusting still and feeling out the ranks :)

In a couple cases here, they only solution was t let them work it out.
I once pinned huge Jaffa down and let tiny Alice go at him.  Problem solved.  He never picked on her again and next day they slept together.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

Thank you both for your input. They have never been caged together and when I brought them home (about four weeks ago) Slinky was recovering from his surgery so I wasn't going to start then.

Probably good as he was healing.

I could be wrong on this, so wait for another reply, but perhaps putting a piece of bedding from eachothers cage in the other cage wouild get them familiar with the smell of the other ferret, then perhaps they may want to nap together.

Good idea! They frequently go in and out of each other's cages to sniff around and eat/drink each other's food and water when they're out for play time and when Slinky wants to nap in his cage, that's one of the times when Bandit starts a fight. :/

So yesterday I let them fight for the first time without interrupting. Between yesterday and this morning, they've fought about three times. It lasted for less than five minutes then they both went to sleep because they were so tired! Bandit is the instigator while Slinky is always running away from him, and Bandit always attacks Slinky from behind. He's kind of an a****** like that. :P
Tomorrow morning I'm going to bathe them together then see how the fighting goes from there.

Seelen


Probably good as he was healing.

I could be wrong on this, so wait for another reply, but perhaps putting a piece of bedding from each other's cage in the other cage would get them familiar with the smell of the other ferret, then perhaps they may want to nap together.You 

Yes that's one standard idea.  Try feeding them together.  Some ferrents suggest bathing them at the same time so they smell the same for a bit.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

I'll try that. I bathed them together Saturday morning and they behaved very well (probably because it was their first bath here so they were distracted by that) but they've still been consistently fighting. It's also consistently loud and others in the house hear them.