Mamfie
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Biting
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Wednesday, August 20, 2014 6:57 AM
Hi Everyone We have two female ferrets (just under a year old) and we believe that one of them is going through a phantom pregnancy at the moment (the smaller of the two is being dragged around and the other is extremely aggressive) We have taken them out of season. We have had problems with them biting very hard and drawing blood to date and were on the brink of trying to get them rehomed, but we just love them too much and have decided against it as we would like to try harder. We shall be getting them spayed and then we would like to bring in a trainer to help us work with them. We are scared of them and being first time ferret owners, we need to learn how to handle them too. Does anyone perhaps have any recommendations as to where or who I can contact for ferret trainers with respect to biting in particular? I would appreciate any advice as we really want to help these ladies. Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you x
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Snapper13
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Re:Biting
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Wednesday, August 20, 2014 7:23 AM
Where are you located? One thing you might look into is giving a shot of lupron to the aggressive female to take her out of heat. Unspayed females are rare in the US, so I'm just going off the top of my head on what to do.
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unclejoe
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Re:Biting
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Wednesday, August 20, 2014 1:11 PM
Member in blocked list
I'm not sure exactly how long it takes a "jill jab" (i assume that's how you took them out of season) to work, but I would think at least a few weeks. I have seen that it takes 3-6 weeks to see response to Lupron in adrenal ferrets. And I'm also assuming that the biting was a problem before they went into heat. If you are in Europe or UK, do these girls have any polecat blood in them? Those and hybrids tend to be a lot more nippy/bitey. Kits, like kittens and puppies, play and explore with their mouths. It's up to us as owners to set the limits. Pure domestic ferret tend to grow out of biting once they mature or are altered. I'm hoping that will be your case. Until then, you may want to wear gloves when handling them, and use a stuffed toy when you play with them. Hold the toy out so they come in contact with it instead of your fingers/hands. Have you tried to train them not to bite? If you've been afraid of them, they can pick up on that and go after you. Ferrets play rough, and you need to let them know that you don't like biting. The technique I've had the most success with is scruff and drag. Pick the ferret up by the loose skin at the scruff of the neck, say "No!" then drag the ferret by the scruff a few feet on the floor. You may have to do this for a few weeks, and it's best if you can hold the ferret until they submit by yawning or going limp if they are struggling. Sometimes the will give a big sigh. You can do this with gloves on. Some people also spray the gloves or their hands with bitter apple spray. I believe that frequent handling and interacting with them is the key to building a friendly relationship. Most ferrets will never become cuddly lap pets, but they should at least be trained to not bite the hand that feeds them. Good luck and welcome to the group.
<message edited by unclejoe on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 1:16 PM>
THE DOOKS OF HAZARD
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Mamfie
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Re:Biting
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Thursday, August 21, 2014 10:17 AM
Thanks so much for your reply :-) Yes, we took them out of season with the jill-jab and wanted to spay them 6 weeks later. However, Phoebe went into a phantom pregnancy and started being really aggressive and dragged poor Lady Peanut around everywhere. I swear they are the cleanest ferrets in the world from all the grooming they give each other. We are in SW London at the moment. The vet wanted to charge us double consultation fee to pre-assess whether they could spay them on the day we had them booked in for the procedure.(on top of the fee for the spay) We decided to wait until we were sure they were clear of the season before getting them done. Their season is March to September if I'm not mistaken? Considering that we only got our babies in December and they went into their first season in March-time. Could this be why they are aggressive? Also - that they were not handled in the first 5 months of their life in the pet shop and major breeder before coming to us. We aren't handling them much now because we don't know how to. We scruffed them; telling them off; hissing;the time out box and all of that. I see a lot of people talk about their ferrets nipping them - we have never had this, it's a bite with ours (vicious drawing blood and pretty deep) I appreciate all your advice and I thank you so much. I really hope I can get to the bottom of this. I see all of these lovely ferrets and how friendly they are and how people can just let them roam around without a worry and I want that so much with my ladies. Hope everyone has an amazing week x
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