From:
Karen Purcell
Date: 2006-11-21 17:48:28 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Whole males
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Just FYI, aggressive behaviour in a neutered male ferret can indicate adrenal disease, with no other visible signs.
Dr. Karen
aka Karen Purcell DVM
sprite@ksu.edu wrote:
I have a male, Dante, that hasn't been neutered yet. His birth date was
in May. He is wonderful with all the other ferrets. He is a baby and a
Denmark so he plays more enthusiastically than the others. Fortunately
I also have 2 other boys his age that aren't Marshalls, Onyx and Dippy,
and they play very well together. I have a neutered adult male, not
Marshalls, Sully, that is very assertive and aggressive. He is much
more to deal with than Dante. Dante will eventually be neutered but
his temperment is very gentle and loving. Other than more than usual
bum sniffing he's not shown any tendencies that are a problem. The
girls aren't thrilled with that particular behavior, especially the
adrenal girl, so I give him something else to do and he leaves them
alone.
Dante had to stand up to Sully when he first joined our family, and I'm
guessing it is because Dante isn't neutered that Sully is being such a
bully to other ferrets. Now Dante follows Sully around and will even
curl up with him. They've made their peace though Sully isn't thrilled
about having such a loving follower. When I come home the first thing
Dante does is run to Sully's cage and look back at me to make sure I
let Sully out. When Sully is on his terror raids, Dante follows him
closely and tries to deter him. It doesn't work though as Sully is
very determined.
When Sully picks on the newest baby, Simba, I hold Sully down and urge
Simba to give him payback. Simba's payback is mostly yelling at Sully,
which annoys the heck out of him, but then he leaves the baby alone for
awhile and it gives the baby a bit of confidence to stand up for
himself. For safety, Sully is caged when I'm away from home because of
his attitude and if he acts up repeatedly when I'm home it is back in
the cage again. Before I let Sully out I put Ferret RX on the back of
Simba's neck and shoulders. I sometimes put it on Sully's nose too.
On Sully I rub a drop of Dr. Bach's Rescue Remedy onto his ear. I also
give Sully a dish of recipe with 1mg of melatonin mixed in. Sully has
a melatonin implant and he's had depoprovera injections. Sully has been
with us a year next month and has always shown assertive tendencies and
he is neutered. I think he's trying to drive me nuts (sorry Sully, I'm
already there SO STOP TRYING!!!). :-)
I've had adult intact males living peacefully together in past years but
I've also heard horror stories from others. A strong male can easily
hurt a smaller ferret whether neutered or not. Caution, swift gentle
persistent corrections, and close supervision are necessary.
tle
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