Holly.S
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- Joined: 4/21/2012
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Help with introducing ferrets
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014 4:17 PM
Hi, just after some advice and guidance please. I have a group of three ferrets 2 hobs and a jill, all under the age of 3 and all neutered. I recently got a 10 week old hob and currently in the process of introducing them. I am familiar with introducing ferrets as have done it with my others as I got them all at different times however introducing this guy has been so different, its early days I know, but they are all being so aggressive with him especially the two hobs. No blood has been shed however they are scruffing him and shaking him violently. The poor guy isn’t fighting back and seems to be submitting but they just wont leave him alone, I limit the introduction sessions to only around 10-15 minutes as all of it is spent with the little one screaming and hissing as each one takes turns scruffing him along with shaking and the crocodile roll. I worry they will damage his neck the way they are being with him. He even defecated earlier while being scruffed, I immediately separated them and ended the introduction session. Should I only introduce them one at a time? When introducing the others, there was a bit of scruffing and dragging along the floor for a couple of days then peace would be made. The way its going I worry they will never accept him. Just wanting to know if anyone else has experienced aggression like this and any tips.
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unclejoe
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Re:Help with introducing ferrets
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014 4:39 PM
Member in blocked list
Hi. If you Have seoarate cages, it looks like it would be better to slow things down. My last two girls have taken longer than I hoped to be accepted. I waited almost two weeks while I was watching their interactions until I decided to try one female, Pandora, in the cage with the new girl, Rosa. Then another female went in, and a male. It took another 2-3 weeks before I was able to house them all together. One at a time intros and playtimes may be less stressful on the odd man out. Good luck. What stinks is that now Rosa picks on the newest girl, Lola. So you know, a neutered hob is called a gib and a spayed female is a sprite, at least in the US and Canada.
<message edited by unclejoe on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 8:58 AM>
THE DOOKS OF HAZARD
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daznkorrupt
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Re:Help with introducing ferrets
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Wednesday, August 27, 2014 1:18 AM
I understand a little of what you're going through and also am looking for tips. I have 2 male ferrets, one 4-6 yrs old (felony), not really sure, and a 6 month old (dizzy). Dizzy just wants to be friends w/ felony and our cat (our cat thinks both are below him) and at first it seemed like felony was interested in dizzy. However after several rough clamps to dizzy's neck, blood and defecation, dizzy is totally submissive to felony but that still doesn't deter felony from biting super aggressive. I suspect felony has grown up as the only ferret in the household (we got him at 3-4 yrs old) and either doesn't know how to play properly or just wants to attack. We house them in separate cages and for the most part they spend their time apart other than 20-30 min a day (out of 3-5 hours) when they are in the same room in our apartment but heavily monitored. We've had dizzy for 3-4 weeks and understand that some of these introductions can take months but was wondering how to get our older ferret to rough house w/o clamping down on dizzy's scruff. It get's so bad I have trouble wedging my finger in felony's mouth to get him to let go since simply pulling him off doesn't loosen his grip. Advice sought from those more experienced in these matters than myself. Thank you
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