From:
"autumn whispers"
Date: 2008-04-06 17:40:30 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Re: My ferrets are fighting..help!
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I hope it's okay to say that while I'm no expert by any means, only having
ferrets about 6 years now, that I disagree strongly with only stepping in if
there's blood. I've recently had an integration issue, that while it's
mostly worked out, there are times when the overly rough behavior results in
hurting one of the others if I don't step in.
I don't feel blood has to be present before stopping a problem. Going for
the throat, as one example, may not result in blood.. but when you can hear
the ferret who's throat is being held tightly by another actually making
choking/gaspiing sounds like they can't swallow or breathe... while
struggling and bottle-brushed out, that to me is a sign that it needs to
stop.
Other behaviors that, to me, are a sign that something needs to be headed
off is bottle-brushing from the one being 'beaten up' (for lack of a better
term), struggling, screaming, and once getting away.. running and hiding
under something to get away from the more aggressive ferret. I've seen this
continue on and on without the aggressive one giving up.
As for the terms like 'submissive' and 'dominant,' what words in this case
should replace those? When I see, for example, a shelter dog automatically
rolling to his back with his tale tucked when someone tries to touch him,
that looks 'submissive' to me. I've seen my smallest ferret do this with
the one male who is most aggressive. She automatically does this, and it's
not her being 'cutesy' or playful. Her tail brushes out and she lays like
that until he leaves her alone. Then she gets up and goes to a location
where he's not. Sometimes she squeaks and whines when he does this, and
sometimes when he's very aggressive, she'll run and hide from him if she can
get away.
Of course, there's the dragging issue as well, face-biting that sometimes
means a tooth in the eye, trying to drag the other ferret by the face. All
of those things don't guarantee blood will be involved, but it's obviously
painful by the urgent, panicked sounds the other ferret makes.
Ella
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