My first REAL bite

[kaznalf]

Silly me...went into the hutch chicken wing in one hand...hutch roof in other holding it open. Zippy climbs up all the time to come out..i push him down with chicken wing hand..he sniffs and BITES but not the wing..MY FINGER and he wasnt letting go. I dont know how i got my finger off him but i was screaming! it hurts sooo much!

[ferretmaster]

Sorry the little one got you by mistake. Ferret bites hurt big time

[meli]

lol thats happened to me..when they grab hold its intense but then I just laugh it off

[Forum Administrator]

Yeah, babies can be PSYCHOTIC about their food. Be careful when you are feeding so that Zippy doesnt accidentally grab hold of your finger again. As you can probably tell, it sounds like the little guy was trying to grab the wing but got a mouthful of finger instead Ferrets normally calm down about their raw food when they hit 6-7 months. Its around that time that they seem to realize "I get my food and I dont have to act like a rabid animal"

If for somereason Zippy bites again, dont pull your finger OUT of his mouth, push it back into his mouth towards the back of his mouth. "prey" (in this case your finger) normally doesnt try to crawl down the predators throat, so if you push INTO his mouth, he wont know what to do. Pull away and insticnt will tell him to latch on harder.

Now as you push back towards his mouth, scruff him, and peel your finger out to the side (like roll it out to the left of right).

That is the most effective (and least painful!) way to remove a ferret that is latched on. Trust me, I've had plenty of time to perfect it when I was working in a petshop with 3 VERY vicious biters

Sorry you got bit, it sucks, but hopefully using the advice here it wont happen again, and if it DOES, well atleast you know what to do Bet you can really appreciate the difference between a "play nip" and a TRUE bite now, huh?

[meli]

Thats actually good to know..but what about when they grab onto the skin near your knee or on your leg? Hocus does this to me whenever he gets riled up and scruffing and dragging only ticks him off.

[Forum Administrator]

Same thing, dont pull away PUSH back. In this case you will have to scruff him, push back into his mouth and slowly peel him off of you. It wont be as easy but you can still make it work.

[desertram]

i use the points on the jaw and push in and they let go i had a ferret at work latch on once and wouldnt let go and my co-worker came over and pushed on the jaw and he let go we had to work with this ferret for a few weeks and he bite me so many times but by the time i was done he was very sweet also cold water on the nose works good from what i am told never tryed that one

[Heather]

The best thing to remember is that your furbaby is a carnivore and a carnivores teeth ever so slightly curve to the back of their mouth. This is to assist them when they're catching prey. It prevents the prey from just sliding off their teeth. Unfortunately, that includes various body parts that a fuzzy chooses to sink his/her teeth into As Giuli mentioned, the idea is to go to the back of the mouth so that your not tearing against their teeth. Both suggestions that have been given are very good. Like all biting animals there is a hinge point (actually a pressure point) on the jaw line that when pressed causes a release. Your dog and cat have it too You probably will have had to use it if you've ever pilled any of your furkids (forced a pill down anyway )
ciao

[kaznalf]

Jul 13, 2008 18:10:50 GMT -5 Forum Administrator said:

Yeah, babies can be PSYCHOTIC about their food. Be careful when you are feeding so that Zippy doesnt accidentally grab hold of your finger again. As you can probably tell, it sounds like the little guy was trying to grab the wing but got a mouthful of finger instead Ferrets normally calm down about their raw food when they hit 6-7 months. Its around that time that they seem to realize "I get my food and I dont have to act like a rabid animal"

If for somereason Zippy bites again, dont pull your finger OUT of his mouth, push it back into his mouth towards the back of his mouth. "prey" (in this case your finger) normally doesnt try to crawl down the predators throat, so if you push INTO his mouth, he wont know what to do. Pull away and insticnt will tell him to latch on harder.

Now as you push back towards his mouth, scruff him, and peel your finger out to the side (like roll it out to the left of right).

That is the most effective (and least painful!) way to remove a ferret that is latched on. Trust me, I've had plenty of time to perfect it when I was working in a petshop with 3 VERY vicious biters

Sorry you got bit, it sucks, but hopefully using the advice here it wont happen again, and if it DOES, well atleast you know what to do Bet you can really appreciate the difference between a "play nip" and a TRUE bite now, huh?

I dont mind play nips now! lol it was very hard to move my finger at all

[buzzonesbirdie]

I think most of us have been there--esp. the ones of us with babies that are raw feed. When i brought my crash home he was a bitter and i had some nasty marks on my arms and hands from him for a while.

[desertram]

wolf was starting to bite hard and i would just yell ouch and he let go and looked at me for a sec and then went back to playin everytime he bites hard i yell ouch he hasnt done that since and when i feed raw/mice,crickets,superworms i use feeding tongs they work great and they keep your fingers free from there mouth and even before i pick them up i wash my hands so there is no smell of meat on my hands guess from working in a petstore where we have to do this before we handle the animals before we feed i bought it home with me. but try the feeding tongs

[Heather]

I hand feed my guys. Just like I would a dog or a cat. I want them to realize that my fingers aren't food and that they give the food. I will even take food from their mouth, the same way I will take food from my dog. I always offer something bigger or better in exchange, but I expect them to give me their food without a battle. I took a rat from Lady B tonight, I didn't want her eating it on my sofa. I've never suffered a bite related to food. All the serious bites I've been dealt with were out of fear (Porthos had never been handled, and was terrified, I'm not sure what Mad Max's issues were but he would bite you to make you let go of him) The absolute worst bite was when one of the cage doors (why I hate cages) became unhooked and caught my sweet Mayhem. He was so scared that he was biting everything. I knew he had bit me but there was so much blood (his and mine) around I wasn't aware how badly he had bitten me. I suffered 6 bites to my left hand, 4 of those bites were to the bone (fingers and thumb), the other serious one was to the fleshy part of my palm right under my thumb. That one became infected. I would do it again if it meant freeing one of my babies caught in a bad situation. Most biting has an underlying cause, it just sometimes takes time to work it out
Ciao

[desertram]

when they eat the mice i can take it away but kibble i dont even try to many mouths there and if fang is there NO THANKS!!! lol she is mean and nasty u have to use a glove to get her in and out of the cage i can pet her without the glove but she will trun and bite u if given the chance and when she came in my co-worker wouldnt let the vendor put her in the back and fang "chomp chomp and she wouldnt let go my co-worker had to pull her teeth out of her hand and she bleed all over the place she told the vendor "animals love me" i still lol he told her she is mean. she loves to be talked to but dont hold her for long i dont ever think she will be one that u can take out and hold and love on and kiss u know poor thing she is 9 months old big girl she is a Northern girl