hi all, 

it's been a while since we've last visited the forum - good to be back  :)
we meanwhile had a bunch of 4 ferrets (aged between 2.5 and 1 year age) that has been together for about 9 months. they were 2 males and 2 females. 

then recently we got 2 additions: we got a little baby (3 months, male) of the type we've always wanted and just a week later the same shop asked is to take in an adoption case (roughly 6 months old, female). 

integration looked fine when we added the baby boy, nothing unusual - just the common dragging by the neck and playful wrestling to establish ranks. he seems to know where and how he fits in and the 4 older ones ad well as the new girl are fine with him.

for the adopted girl the situations is a little different and that's where i'd be thankful for your advice:
she was kept individually in the pet shop and seemed extremely calm and friendly with us when we went to see her - which is also why we decided to get her. we took her to the vet and gave her a few days by herself before introducing her to the group. then, when the elders one by one came to take a look at her, she was fine with the 3 boys but the seemed intimidated by the 2 girls. when the girls approached the new one would shy away, hiss, squeek and try to run or hide. if they got her she'd start screaming and within a second the's poop or pee. 

with the oldest girl the whole drama only lasted 2 days and meanwhile they're ok, but with the second oldest girl (who's also deaf) it doesn't seem to get any better. the new girl is scared of her and when they meet they go at each other and it is really rough, they seem to not only go at each others neck! i also noticed small scratches and cuts on their faces, (around the snout). i usually separate them and they both calm down immediately until they run into each other again. this all only happens during playtime, when they're both out, it's been like this for about 10 days now and I am worried they might hurt each other more severely.

has anyone made similar experiences? any suggestions on how to proceed here? I would hate to keep the new girl separated from the rest of the pack on a longer perspective, so how can I get them to cool down?

any help would be awesome - we've never had any issues like this before - even though we gout all our ferrets one by one with months in between...

thanks all

hanhaoran

We adopted our last one from the Humane Society, where she was kept alone.  I believe she came from a home where she was the only ferret.  She is awesome with my boyfriend and I, very trusting, playful, affectionate.  However, when we tried to introduce her to the other 4, it wasn't as easy.  She doesn't understand them so she doesn't trust them.  They are curious and want to smell her, see what she is about, but she is very uncomfortable with that, so she hisses, chirps, squaks at them, which they aren't used to, so that makes them unsure, causing them to attack her.  She does okay with one of the boys, and she doesn't really fight with them.  With our girl Zim, they go for blood.  So, we have to keep the 4 separate from the new baby.  Separate cages, separate play time.  It makes me sad that she doesn't have other fuzzies to play with or snuggle on, but she seems to be happy interacting with my boyfriend and I.
 
I held onto hope that it would change, but it hasn't so I had to look at it like this.  As a human, there are just some people that I will not get along with, no matter how much I spend time with them.  Ferrets are the same. They all have their own likes, dislikes, personalities and some just won't mesh. 
 
Good luck!  Keep us posted on how things turn out. :)

Hello.  My name is Tammie and I am addicted to fuzzbutts.

The last 2 girls we brought home were only ferrets in their prior homes.  It took Rosa and Lola 2-3 months each to get along with everyone else.  It was hard, but we didn't want separate play groups so we sorta let them sort it out themselves.  We split the levels in the Ferret Nation and put the new girls with the others that they weren't having problems with.  The two of them took the longest to sort things between themselves.  Rosa immediately wanted to be the alpha, but Yoshi wasn't having it, and Lola wanted to play with everyone, but most of them were already tired of dealing with the other new girl, Rosa.  It was my lovely Pandora that was first to accept them.  Now there's peace in the business.  Most times when we hear squealing it's either play (Lola is very vocal) or someone trying to chase Prissy from her bed.  She doesn't play with anyone.

Bottom line:  If you want them to all get along it will take some patience dealing with their fighting.  In your case it may not be worth pushing it, so it may take longer than it did here.  I know you don't want them to seriously hurt each other.  Good luck.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

hi all, thanks for your insight, these are also the things i already read on your profiles and posts before.

the situation seems to be similar as sitara wrote: the new girl is not sure what the others want from her when they approach, so she hisses, and puffs up, but once she sees they r not doing anything she calms down, it's really only an issue between her and our deaf girl.
i am hoping we don't need to permanently separate her especially because she seems fine with the rest of the pack. the sleeps and cuddles with the youngest boy as well as with the oldest boy and the oldest girl in the group. these 4 have been sharing parts of the cage already and that went fine. we only have the alpha boy left, who seems pretty cool with her too (curious but not aggressive) so we expect that to go rather smoothly, it's only the deaf girl we have these issues with. 

where do you guys draw the line in such a case and step in? i can handle my emotions letting them fight, but then i see they really went at each others faces and got little scratches and cuts around their  noses snouts... would you let them go that far?

thanks all!

hanhaoran


hi all, thanks for your insight, these are also the things i already read on your profiles and posts before.

the situation seems to be similar as sitara wrote: the new girl is not sure what the others want from her when they approach, so she hisses, and puffs up, but once she sees they r not doing anything she calms down, it's really only an issue between her and our deaf girl.
i am hoping we don't need to permanently separate her especially because she seems fine with the rest of the pack. the sleeps and cuddles with the youngest boy as well as with the oldest boy and the oldest girl in the group. these 4 have been sharing parts of the cage already and that went fine. we only have the alpha boy left, who seems pretty cool with her too (curious but not aggressive) so we expect that to go rather smoothly, it's only the deaf girl we have these issues with. 

where do you guys draw the line in such a case and step in? i can handle my emotions letting them fight, but then i see they really went at each others faces and got little scratches and cuts around their  noses snouts... would you let them go that far?

thanks all!

I usually let them handle themselves unless they are drawing blood or there is fear poop/pee.