From time to time, we encounter a Pet Ferret who has a stubborn habit of Biting. In this months Cliff Notes Newsletter from our folks at LegalizeFerrets.org. Annie has had trouble with one of her Pet Ferrets biting. The good folks over at Marshall Ferrets got involved, the outcome is proving to be positive!
Hello,
My name is Annie and I have two ferrets. Both are a year old. One of them bites randomly. We have tried many ways to stop him from biting, including scruffing, hissing while scruffing, time out spray, time outs, etc. These techniques work for an hour but he then continues to bite. He also refuses to use the litter box, he goes right in front of the litter pan. I am hoping someone can help us out with any information that might be helpful in stopping this behavior. Our other ferret, (they’re brothers) is perfectly sweet, never biting and always goes in his litterbox, so we are confused on how these two have very different attitudes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Annie S.
Cliff Notes’ Pat Wright:
“I think I jinxed things when I wrote last week that we never hear about biting ferrets. Marshall Ferrets was kind enough to send over answer:”
Marshall Ferrets:
This consumer truly loves her pet.
That is why she is trying to find some answers and is looking for help. She just wants some peace in the house. We called the consumer below and we spent some time discussing personality and possible health issues that could be at the root of this issue. It is very difficult to assist someone when you are answering a question based on so little information.
We wanted to rule out tooth issues, chronic pain or possible behavior that is learned over time that needs to be corrected. The consumer did take this ferret to the vet and the vet couldn’t find any visual health problems.
There is always a reason why an animal bites, either in play or fear.
We tried to figure out what would be the cause of this.
This ferret is targeting certain people to bite.
Ferrets are very sensitive to lotions, creams and food that still may be on hands which could trigger a pet to nip.
Always wash your hands prior to handling your pet. This will clean off any scents and is just a good sanitizing practice to stop the spread of germs and viruses.
In the past we have found that limited out of cage time and limited access to food/water could be the problem. This ferret seems to be getting enough play time and food and water, so that isn’t an issue.
Ferrets that bite or chew on the cage could be looking for a way out and this ferret does do this at times.
This consumer is so sweet and kind, she truly wants to change his behavior.
We decided to go back to how we would treat a kit that is biting and see if that changes the behavior.
We also mentioned that this ferret shouldn’t be trusted with children at this point. We certainly don’t want a child to get injured. This ferret is displaying very dominant aggression.
Deaf ferrets can be aggressive – the consumer assured us that the ferret isn’t deaf.
The ferret seems very skittish…. we decided to try trust techniques for this ferret, for starters she will scruff the ferret and talk very kind and gentle to him to try to stop this behavior. We think there really isn’t a quick fix.
This is an older ferret and it will take time to turn it around.
UPDATE: Spoke with the consumer today she tried our suggestions above and she has had a positive outcome.
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I found this to be interesting, as an animal lover since I was a small child, my thought was that maybe there is a jealously issue with the sibling pet ferret, and the scruffing and scolding might actually make the situation worse, since many of our pets enjoy being loved and nurtured by their owners, this poor little guy might have felt that his brother was getting all of the good attention. Something to ponder.
