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