Hello
Well 2 days ago me and my housemates went and bought 3 ferrets. We did research before buying them read guides etc.The problem is that is wasn't what we expected in any way. Basically we took them from a school farm. They said to us they were really well handle and everything and truly we played with them and they were really friendly. However after taking them to the house new cage everything they went absolutely crazy. I firmly believe that they didn't take care of them properly in this farm. The haven't stop eating and drinking water and they are completely wild. They bite not nip but bite hard we end up with bleeding fingers etc.We decide to separate them and we started training them one by one today giving them a little time to adjust. The 2 females are fine by themselves, the male however is 3 times their size and bites them all the time hard and they sound like they are in pain. Really I don't know where to begin from of course the are not potty trained not I expected to. I really think back and say i should probably take them from a rescue but know instead of thinking what I should have done I need to think what to do. This morning we took the females out and they start biting our feet so we flick them they were coming back, we were flicking them again and in the end they actually weren't biting just sniffing. The male is seriously all over the place. I think we really start to panic which we shouldn 't but as I said the situation is quite bad. Please any tips will be really appreciated.
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hey .. i have the exact same situation lol. I got two ferrets, one was trained becajuse we got him from a shelter, my female though was absolutley vicious .. she would hiss at me all the time and latch onto my to a point where i had to pry her jaws open. she has left me with many many scars. i think it was the previous owners fault. they didnt handle her to well so she didnt know any better .. when i got my male from the shelter they told us how to train them ..
to stop them biting you can use bitter spray which tastes disgusting .. i know, i tried it LOL but my female didnt care about it .. we even used chilli once lol she still didnt care .. get a pair of thick garden gloves. . handle your ferrets as much as you possibly can, get one out at a time .. hold them, do not let them get away from you, they will squirm around but just keep holding you .. if they bite scruff the back of their neck, you will have to take the glove of to do this, and yell loud and firm AHH and then yell loud and firm NO .. and put them in time out for five minuites .. time out has to be somewhere small with no toys .. i put mine in a carrier cage .. mine chews on it trying to get out but dont worry .. leave them there till they settle down, then try again .. do it for about 20 minuites and put it back in the cage .. keep doing that daily .. it seriously does help a lot .. my female now doesnt bite half as much, and my boyfriend doesnt play with her and she bites him like she used to bite me .. its a dominate thing .. your ferrets will act like they are boss. you need to show them thay arent ..
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com for the male biting the females .. is he desexed? i had the same problem my female was desexed and my male just got desexed and he still had hormones in his body so he was biting her neck really hard and humping her .. he ended up making her bleed and she would make like squeeling noises .. i would stop them as soon as i could but he wouldnt leave her along .. i had to seperate mine. i just divided the cage into two and afer the hormones left his body i put them back together .. now he leaves her along which is good .. if he isnt desexed i would recommend you get him done or it will never stop.
to potty train them get a litter tray, everytime they go to the toilet put their bum into the tray and they should go .. then praise them .. they should get the idea .. if it doesnt work then put soem litter in the tray that sits just under the cage .. not sure if you have one but most cages do .. then everytime they go the poo will just fall down onto the litter anyway lol
please try hard to work with them, they are trainable you just need to put the tiem and effort into it .. they will eventually get better .. i mean, ive had my female for about 5 months now and she is still biting a little bit but no where near as much .. i dont have a lot of time because they are at my boyfriends house and i dont live with him so it has taken a lot longer then it should but its possible .. dont let them think they are boss ..:)
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
good luck with it all .. hope it works out
Wow, ferrets are a hardcore animal for a beginner to take on when there's only ONE, and you guys have THREE? How much research did you really do??
For starters, get them all desexed if not already done.
Males are more aggressive and can spray when not desexed.
The females can actually die from not being desexed if they do not breed. Weird, but true.
The going crazy and wild bit sounds quite normal. I do wonder if the ferrets lived together at the school before you got them though, as the male might be showing aggression towards them to show them he's boss. It can be hard to tell as ferrets play pretty rough.
