Message Number: YG11728 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Dan Muldoon
Date: 2002-03-07 16:31:00 UTC
Subject: Behavior question: Pillowcase-sucking weasel

One of my neutered young boy fuzzies, Oscar, has a peculiar habit. He goes
to his favorite sleeping spot in my bedroom closet and he'll clamp his mouth
shut on a pillowcase, the rest of the cloth bunched up underneath him while
he's "hugging" with all four legs. I observe nothing sexual in his behavior.
He'll spend quite a while like this, with a "dreamy" look on his face.
(Actually it's rather cute.)

Oscar doesn't chew the pillowcase at all. When he was younger (he's about 2
y/o now) he used to chew up on so many different things I called him a goat,
but that behavior has largely subsided. Oscar doesn't do this while caged
and he still plays like a normal ferret. He and his cagemate get along (and
play together) very well. He doesn't show any evidence of adrenal disease or
other health problems.

I'm more curious than anything else about this. When he was about 6 months
old he had been found wandering in a parking lot and turned in to a shelter;
I adopted the sweet boy after nobody claimed him. I don't know if "kithood
trauma" could be a factor or not. I saw another post about a ferret who had
a similar fetish for a T-shirt, but has anyone else had a fuzzy with this
proclivity? Since he seems to enjoy it I don't want to stop him unless it's
harmful.

Dan M.
Omaha, NE