new to ferrets need advice badly

[cookievm1]

Hi all i am new to the whole of ferrets and need some advice. My son has just bought a ferret kit about 4 1/2 months old a male. He is biting us severely every chance he gets, not nipping but drawing blood and hanging on. I know he is new to the environment but he seems extremely aggressive to flesh, i say that because if we have gloves on he plays nicely just nipping a little and dancing happily, but no gloves and he just wants to hurt us. He tries to bite any flesh visable be it hands, arms, stomach, feet anything its like he cant stand the smell of us. Cant even stroke him when he half a sleep in his cage he seems to know that there is flesh exposed there lol. Help what are we doing wrong. Been trying the scruffing but it seems to get him mader. Will he get calmer when hes been neutered? Any adivce would be great because dont really want have to wear gloves just to touch him ???
Thanks Val

[suds]

we had a good discusion here on biting I am trying to find it for you it has alot of good info and ways to try and help you.
How long have you had him ? you got him from a private breeder ? he mite need some time to adjust and trust you . hopefduly Heather wil pop in soon she has a nice system that she uses for her biter's and she could explain it much better then me lol .
I will post a link to the thread when i find it for you .

I found the thread holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=talking&action=display&thread=592

[cookievm1]

Hi thanks , only had him a couple of days he came from a animal college where my son is studying. he was fine there only started biting when we got him home, what i find strange the most tho is the fact if i have gloves on he doesn't really try to bite and seems happy to play and be touched, soon as the gloves are off or he sees flesh he seems to know and attacks straight away and he bites really hard and holds on ,draws blood nearly every time its like he can smell when the gloves are off lol

[suds]

he probly just needs time to adjust and trust you. give him a little time . use the gloves hold him and talk to him start out with only a minute then increase the time more each time .

[Heather]

Ok, this may sound like a stupid question but how much cage time does he get and how much cage time did he get before you got him?
I just got handed a rather nasty biter a couple of weeks ago. I don't know much about his past (I actually know nothing) but he's a little crazy man . He would attack whenever he got the chance, just run at you and try and bite...your ankles, feet...if you put your hands down to him he would bite your hands. One thing I noted right away was -- if you scruffed him, he would hiss and attack you. So he would bite, get scruffed...he'd turn into psychofert and bite harder. Next thing that became clear in very short order was he was deaf. Deaf ferrets seem to misread body language and because they can't hear anyone (fertfriends too) scream they don't realize they're biting as hard as they do. The last thing was that Mr Squiggly didn't know how to play or snuggle, basically he didn't know how to be handled.
The first thing we did was...let him run and run and run....he spent close to 6 hrs doing nothing but getting into everything, he never stopped. He didn't sleep, he just ran. It was like he couldn't settle. If he tried to bite us we tried very hard not to show anything, we would walk away, we made special effort not to touch him. If he tried to bite our feet, we would gently slide him across the floor. This went on for almost a week...he then would come up and watch us and then go off and play by himself. We then made a point of interupting his play, by picking him up giving him a quick snuggle, a tummy tickle and then we would quickly put him down again and go about what ever we had been doing. Each day we've been adding time to the snuggle. Yesterday, he came into the kitchen and stood on his back paws and placed his front paws on my leg and asked to be picked up and snuggled. Now, if you ignore him when he does this he will bite...so now when he bites he gets picked up and placed in a cage for 3 min. (the timer is set) and he's left alone. He's learning but it's a slow process. Each ferret reacts differently, and has a different background as to why it reacts the way it does. I can't even begin to guess why Mr. Fun-Go Squiggly reacts the way he does, but I do know that he's learning that we're not going to hurt him and if he doesn't bite he gets nice things, like belly rubs and messages and people rub his ears. I know that the amount of outside cage time has a certain correlation between bad biters and the time that they're allowed to roam about. I know that ferrets seem to bite less when they're fed raw food rather than kibbles. I know that some people use gloves, I don't. I want the furbaby to feel my hands, to understand that my skin isn't thick like his and that if he bites me it hurts and that my hands will not hurt him. I find that I can feel that itchy twitch that goes through a ferret just before he goes to bite, I want to be able to feel that so that I can counter before he acts. I can't feel that if I'm wearing gloves. I don't know if I've been able to help you with this at all. This is how I treat my biters. I've had several and I've found that being patient and gentle will ultimately win but it all takes time. For whatever reason your furbaby has taken up biting, it didn't start overnight, so it won't be cured overnight either
Be patient, be gentle and good luck
ciao

[cookievm1]

Hi, he has about an 1 1/2 hours in the morning out of cage time and pretty much all he wants after 5pm he seems to go back in himself when he tired. He seems to actively seek out any flesh he can get his teeth into ,we have to dress up like we are training a police dog lol. Tried him on chicken wings mince beef and stuff he doesn't seem to actually eat it only lick it and move it around. He likes to play with us and seems to enjoy himself dancing and stuff,but we can only do that completely covered and with gloves on, even then he still seems to know that the gloves end around the wrist so comes over and tries to find the skin. Scruffing seems to get him madder, time outs don't seem to be helping either. He does stand on against our legs looking at us as if he wants to be picked up or stroked but as soon as we go to touch him or put our hands down he tries to bite.I am at a loss even when he is really tired if he wakes a little and shes our hands stroking him he tries to bite, not sure how much more my body can take my hands are ripped to shreds.

[suds]

I would do as Heather said let him go for a week on his own and settle in. then do what she said .

another thing is to keep a stuffed toy in your hand evertime he goe's to bite put the toy in his face let him bite it and then distract him to something else it worked well for JD when I first got him.

you can try and hold him wrapped in a towel so he can get used to being held. with a towel it feels more natural then gloves anyway you try it will take time nothing happens overnight , be paitent and gain his trust and confidence .

let him out and play with him to get him as tired as possible get a towel and wrap him in it (not like a mummy) just enough so he is contained lay him near your chest give a little treat and talk nicely to him , the first time do it only for a minute then let him down, each time make it longer . give him a treat or a toy to play with when you let him down try to always end in a positive rather then a negative.

[pear2apple]

Scruffing doesn't work for my Apple either. He just doesn't care, and always returns for another bite. However, I let him bite and I push my hand towards him and he lets go. Anything he would normally bite will quickly pull back and then he wants to hold on tighter. Do not pull away, that is a mistake everyone makes when an animal bites them, instead I hold still or push back into this mouth. He immediately drops me. Try that, it should help with him drawing blood, that is most likely from the act of you pulling back.

When you jump away, it becomes a game, don't let him have fun with you hopping all over the place. I wear slippers when I play and let them bite that, but as soon as they go for my feet without slippers I stop playing and hold them back. Look into their eyes and say no/shake my head. Then a quick cuddle. Then I put him down and continue playing. I got Apple in February and I am still training him not to bite feet! It only works if everyone who comes into contact with your ferret listens to you and knows how to deal with the biting. Everyone needs to discipline the same way.

There is a "bite hold" or called something like that that is used by members here. Hopefully it mentions it in the Biters sticky, but I know that works for some people.

[jennifer5799]

How're things going for this little guy?

[whipple]

My. Squiggly was with me a bit and while I had him I just could not handle him. Trust me, he was crazy. I did not know how to care for a biter and had to hand him off, but thankfully he went to a good home.
Anyhow, I was told he was returned to the store quite often before his owners before me got him. They got him for free as long as they agreed not to return him. Nobody had even mentioned that he was or could even be deaf. Yet I still have his old cagemate, and he's deaf. But the biggest softy. Its a personality quirk. Some react better then others. I would definately check to see if your guy is deaf.
You really have to be patient, and understanding that he's likely not doing it out of spite (although Lars tends to bite out of spite ).
Also, and it was stated before, raw food definately helps. All my ferts have calmed down greatly (while not eating, when eating they are insane, but not towards me. They just dont like to share their beloved meat), and are still energetic but it seems to be less of a frustrated/bored energy.