need advice on a super-aggressive ferret.

[DragonTamer]

Alright, I've had this girl for a few months now, since she was a kit.  She bit back then, she still bites now.  i've tried scruffing her and telling her no (which results in her swerving her head JUST SO that she can get me with the side of her mouth and bite down), I've tried giving her time outs, which worked at first, now she gets me just before I take her out again.  I've tried bitter apple spray, but the smart booger now bites me using just her front canines in such a way that she can't get the stuff in her mouth.  I've tried holding her just so under her chest and playing with her ears and face.  I've tried giving her a toy to bite instead, but she'll ignore it after a while and lunge at me.  Iv'e been working with her pretty much one-on-one almost EVERY DAY and nothing has worked.

If anything, she's gotten worse.  She draws blood, she's gouged out a little bit of skin once.  I haven't done gloves yet because I wanted her to know me and my smell, but I think I'll need to grab another thick pair of leather gloves and just show that her biting me won't deter me..  I just don't know.  It's getting terrible and I'm afraid of letting her out except in a locked up room during our one-on-one time. 

I have no idea why she bites either.  She doesn't fear me at all, on the contrary she goes right after me.  I slipped once, when she bit me really bad (she latched on and didn't let go, which is fairly common now actually) and smacked her one.. which is something I've NEVER DONE ever before to ANY animal, and it made me sick that I would do something like that.. especially considering how often I've been bitten by numberous rescues and pets!  The hit probably made any progress I may have had go down the crapper, though. 

IS there any sort of tip or any way to figure out why she's doing what she's doing?  I try not to let her back into her cage after she's bitten, as I don't want to reward her.  Her time out is usually in the bathroom tub for about half a minute to a minute.  Just enough so she knows what she did was wrong, and she's begging to come back out to play.  I'm just so frustrated... shouldn't she have gotten BETTER now?  it's beginning to feel like I'm just punishing the negative behavior and not rewarding her for positive behavior..  but there IS no positive!  I used to give her ferretone on my fingers, until she decided to bite them one instead of licking it off. 

Unfortunately she's pretty bonded with my other ferret, now.  They're inseperable. 

[Jeana65]

Have you ever checked her for bing deaf? Most deaf ferrets are bitters that i know of. Just a thought.

[DragonTamer]

Oh she can hear, she can hear quite well...  that was one of the first things I checked on with her when I first met her, because she was pretty pale colored and has a white mark on the back of her neck. 

I made up some duck soup and let her lick it off my fingers last night, and she did pretty good and didn't try biting me during that time.  Please tell me it'll all go away when she's a year old... please...

[nakedrats]

Sorry, DT, I have a 4 year old that acted just like that when I got her back in October- permanent foster from a shelter. I also know 2 year olds that came in as bad bitey kits and are now bad bitey adult jills. Some of the problem is probably kit-ness, but she probably won't outgrow it all without help. 

 think your is worse than my girl, though.  Avalanche's biting problems stem from the fact that she is really dominant and she doesn't really know to play nicely.  Lanche scruffs and drags any ferret she can get her teeth on to the extent that has to be single housed because she beats the stuffing out of anyone you put in with her trying to drive home the point that She is the Mistress of the Cage.  She hates getting scruffed because it is bruises her dignity as Queen of the Universe.  She gets soooo mad and will fight with all her strength to bite the crud out of you because she thinks that she's fighting you for dominance.  She also bites to play, and will nail you really hard and dance away fully expecting you to join the game.  You can't try to chase after her or she gets really excited and happy that you're going to play with her, and if scruff&drag doesn't work on her because of the dominance thing.  You already tried most of my fixes.  Tons and tons of fleece and crocheted egg toys and a water bottle fixed the play biting.  Fleece pillow toys and crocheted eggs were the positive reward when her rough play didn't include my skin.  She loves to tug-wrestle for an egg and then go hide it.  I used the water bottle to discourage the biting from a distance and with no chasing involved, and she decided that biting me ruined her fun and biting eggs was more productive (dunno if this will work for you).  For the dominance thing, she only gets scruffed when Absolutely necessary, and I give her good warning before picking her up.  I don't think that I can do much to reverse the habits of a 4 year old, but a kit should be malleable enough to scruff and drag until she admits that you are the dominant ferret. To stop her from biting when scruffed, I use a two handed scruff hold.  One hand has the scruff, and the other one is wrapped loosely around her face like a blindfold so she can't turn her head to nail you.  You'll want to have someone handy to help if she needs to be scruffed for nails and ear cleanings.

My friend has a "part time job" rehabbing bitey weasels that come into the shelter and she has great success with the scruff and drag method and time outs.  Scruff and drag simulates a dominant ferret's behavior when putting another ferret in his/her place.  You basically scruff them and firmly drag them across the carpet until they stop fighting and admit you're victorious.  If she lives with a laid back guy, she might just be trying her luck with everyone she meets trying to dominate the world (she's a teenager right now and trying to find her place in the world).  Some scruff and drag might straighten her out to the fact that you're the dominant ferret in the relationship, not her and it's not her job to punish you when you get out of line.  My friend also used different time outs than you.  She had a small time out cage set up with a hammock and food and water.  They went in for a couple of minutes- usually until they got past the "gotta get outta here" to the "sheesh this is boring."  Once they got bored and calmed down a bit, they didn't usually bite coming out, but mine learned pretty quickly not to bite me when I was picking her up for something she wanted to do, like out time, because I'd just come back in a few minutes and try again rather than letting her out right after she nailed me.

As one saucy jill owner to another, good luck!

[Jeana65]

Just an off the wall question......could she be andrenal?

[DragonTamer]

she's only a few months old, I'm sure she's not adrenal!

Anyway, thanks for the scruff and drag method, I'll try that next for a while, I guess.  She lives with a VERY laid back ferret boy who's around 3+ years old (the guy who was dumped off at our doorstep last year) who'll let anyone do anything to him at all.  They sleep together and are wonderful with each other, but around anything else and she goes off the wall biting and attacking you/cat/whatever.

So I should set up a smaller cage for her, and keep her in there until she calms down for time outs?  that may work.  I didn't want to throw her back in her own cage, basically, rewarding her. 

[Poppyseed]

I kind of wonder if she's doing it for the attention. My Spazz is a play biter, she's not drawn blood on me but other people in the past when they weren't paying attention to her at the time. I have been trained to keep my feet up when I'm at the computer. I've had great luck scruffing her and she's a big licker too. I chock it up to an oral fixation. She gets plenty of chewy play toys to hide that distracts her.

But I wonder if you could avoid the bite and ignore her when she bites and praise and give her tons of attention otherwise what that would do? Not saying you don't give her enough attention but some ferrets can't seem to differentiate between playing attention and scolding attention, or they like to be mischevious and get both, it's just too fun to see the human all in a huff lol. That's how Spazz is anyway and she still occassionally bites but it's been a couple years since she has drawn blood.

[Jeana65]

There has been a few cases of ferrets around two months old having andrenal. I , personally, think its rare, but not unheard of. My girl, isnt even three yet and has andrenal. And they dont have to loose hair to be andrenal. Mine only has a swollen vulva but was also attacking my other animals bad. It's worth checking into. Even though they can be brats...just to be brats lol. I really hope there isnt a medical reason for  her aggression. Also, ....i was just wondering.....do you play with her with some kind of stuffed animal? I did this with my boy when i got him at two months and he also bit. But i used a stuffed animal so he would that instead of me. When she bite's, try hissing at her. My girl never even nipped when i got her that young but since she never knew how to play bite with humans, she never knew how hard ..was too hard. So now , since shes andrenal, shes been playing a bit too ruff so when she does bite...i'll hiss at her to let her know thats too hard and she lets go. Just a thought. Good luck :-)
What farm is she from? Have you seen this site yet?
http://www.ferret-fact.org/Behavior.htm

[DragonTamer]

yeah she has lots of stuffed toys and toys I make her.   I've read that site too... no clue why she's biting in the first place, to tell you the truth.  I WISH I knew as much about ferrets as I do rats.  When it comes to them, I'm a living encyclopedia on their care, but ferrets?  I read and read but honestly, some things are learnt through experience.  This is one of them, I believe.

I've tried hissing at her before, but she perks up and LUNGES back for more whenever I did.  It was like she enjoyed the noise, or it irritated her to the point of wanting to bite again.  At one point of time I had a brain fart and I squeeked at her (what can I say, I've had rats forever) and she chomped down extremely hard after that one. 

This isn't play nipping, this is full fledged drawing blood each and every single time she bites and not letting go.  I've been able to avoid being bitten lately, but I want to make it stop completely, not just avoiding it.

She's from path valley farms, which I later read is known for aggressive ferrets..  YEAY!

[Jeana65]

Path Valley huh. My girl is from Triple F ...also known for the biting. But my girl is as sweet as ever. Could it be pain?
As far as the squeeking goes....some ferrets ....have pain from that sound...dunno why. Mine come running when hearing that sound. I know people that have ferrets and some will plain out get really upset and attack the one that makes that sound lol.

[Sarahha]

do you feed her treats by hand, like do you do the soup thing often? That could just be the answer! Ferrets make the association of you, your fingers, wherever you would put a tasty soup or paste for them to lick off food! Try stoping the treats by hand, and put them in a food dish only. There was this man that could not for the life of him figure out why his ferrets would randomly brutaly bite him, and he was like, look at what they'll do!!  and put this tasty paste stuff on his face and they licked it off and everyone was like  !!! He stopped doing the treat thing and ta da!!! They stopped biting 

[nakedrats]

try: http://www.ferretvillage.org/

I still think it's playing.  She has you and a sleepy old man that doesn't really want to play with her.

You can also try calling the shelter director of the rescue I volunteer with.  She is a very very nice woman and she knows ferrets inside and out.  I've only had ferrets for a short period of time as well, so I don't have a world of experience myself.  Barb does.

Barb Clay
www.rockysferrets.com

(tell her Hannah and Avalanche say hi!)