Last Saturday, we had gotten another ferret who is about 3 months old. He bites a lot, and we assume most of it is him trying to play, but when we try to do what we did with our other two ferrets - scruffing, telling him no, and putting him in time out - he just bites harder and more frequently, enough to break skin. Scruffing him just seems to make him more aggressive.

How do you deal with a biting ferret when the usual methods just seem to make it worse?

[size=3 font="times new roman"]When I brought Tank home, he had spent the first 6 months of his life in the Petco ferret aquarium.  He wasn't used to people, he didn't trust us, he was afraid.  He bit, a lot.  He always went for our feet, and it was hard and violent.  I learned to watch for when he was going to go for the feet, and before he could get close enough to bite, I would wave my finger in front of his face and say "NO".  It took a LOT of work.  I also discovered that distracting him with a toy would help.  Positive reinforcement also worked well - if he would get close to my feet, but not bite, he would get loves, maybe a treat, and positive verbal encouragement.  "Good boy" etc. 
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[size=3 font="times new roman"]We brought him home in November of 2012, and it took a good while to get him to feel more comfortable and trusting in our home.  When we play now, and get him too riled, he will forget and bite hard.  But he quickly releases when I say "Ouch" or "NO".  He is such a good boy.  He is so cuddly now, gives kisses - he is a good boy.  But for a long time, I wondered if I made the right decision bringing him home.  There is no way that I was ever going to take him back to Petco.  That causes so much more trauma for the little fuzzbutts, as well as trust and comfort issues.  But there were days where I was tempted.  He is SO worth everything I went through.

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