We have a new ferret and need help

[nantrax]

Hello everyone,

Last week we decided to add a member to our ferret family. He was raised in a home with cats, he's really playful. We brought him home with his cage so we could make him join the others slowly. The first day went well. Things go complicated after.

Our smallest ferret plays hard with him, I assume he's just trying to dominate him and show who's boss. Our course the new ferret cries like a baby. Because of that he doesn't want anything to do with the 2 other ferrets (they just want to play with him). In the past 3 days they are never together, since he'd spend a lot of time hiding. Now he gets some alone time and his confidence is gaining. He's less scared and even played with me last night.

Should we let him gather confidence and try again in a few days to see if he handles his new friends better? He's such a lovely ferret and we don't want to give him up because he's scared.

If anyone has an opinion, it would be appreciated.

Regards,

[Georgiesmom]

Poor little guy is probably just afraid, if he has been with cats and is not used to ferrets it would be a shock for him.  Try a slower introduction, keep your newbie separate, let him have his safe place.  Switch blankets often so that they all get used to the new scents.  It may take a while but it will be less stressful for you and your new ferret.

As a rescue we are introducing strange ferrets to our business all the time, we know who is a trouble maker or a bully so we remove them from the playtime.  Some ferrets just do not like another certain ferrets.  Some ferrets will scream blue murder if another ferret simply looks at them.  Some ferret just do no like ferrets.

You also try a ferret spritz on all of your ferrets so that they don't instantly home in on the new guys scent, they will all smell the same.  Ferret fights always sound worse then they really are, if no is being hurt you can just supervise and let them get on with it, sort out the pecking order between themselves but do it for short periods of time so that your newbie and you don't get too stressed.   Be very careful breaking up fights if you have to, they won't mean to go for you but you could get caught in the cross fire.

I have two ferrets here who were card holding ferret haters from the rescue, Panda now shares playtime with George but is caged alone.  Ivory lives and plays with the rest of my business, so long as they respect her space she is fine.   

Good Luck, please let us know how it's going.

[nantrax]

We'll try the switching blankets trick. Our smallest ferret wants to dominate everyone but the other 2 ferrets are too big for him so now he's happy to see one smaller than him. He plays hard with him but it's not like he's always going after him. The new member just seems scared and thus reacts in a negative way. He's a screamer for sure.

It's possible that he simply doesn't like other ferrets but we really want things to work. He's such a sweetheart and want to love him.  Too bad you guys don't make house calls to cities far away. 

[Georgiesmom]

Baby steps, ferrets are funny animals, they can hate a fellow ferret with a passion and then all of a sudden just forget about it.  Just let the new guy get used to everything, they soon come round and get into the routine. 

I suspect the screaming is upsetting you far move then the other ferrets, it's hard to listen to that and not go running.   

[jenen21]

Hi
when I got Baily he never made any noise at all.....he would come out and play with Joe the cat and snuggle,but there was no noise....then I got Steve....things changed.....they were making all kinds of noise...talking to each other...it was great.......
Steve would grab Bailey by the neck and just drag him every where.....the noise was attrociuos....I would run to see what had happened thinking for sure that one of the ferts was being skinned or something expecting to see blood everywere......and there was Steve.....taking Bailey for a drag.......
now that I'm use to the noises the kids make i dont worry to much.....
there has never been any blood at all......even though sometimes it sounds like there ot to be.......
Jenn

[Georgiesmom]

Ferrets can play very rough and still come back for more.  Even disputes sound much worse then they really are. We have 30+ ferrets at the rescue and rarely, if ever, see blood, expect from one of us who tries to break up  a fight!!