From:
"Jeff"
Date: 2008-12-10 00:07:20 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Trouble introducing a new guy...
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
When we introduced our big bouncy baby boy Dozer to our business a few months ago, he came from a situation at a shelter where he was being targeted by one aggressive male. He was messed up emotionally when we got him, afraid of most things. We introduced him slowly to our other four ferrets, keeping him in a separate cage for the first few weeks until he was feeling safer and familiar with his new surroundings. We gradually gave him play time with the others, a little more each day. 3 of our 4 had no problem with him, but our older girl, Trinny, who is more or less the queen of the group. was aggressive toward Dozer and just wanted to tear his head off. I'd never seen her act like that before. She's always very docile and loving, but she was pretty much attacking him even though he was about 50% bigger than her.
We kept a very close eye on the two of them, because we didn't want Dozer to regress emotionally from Trinny's aggression, and when she got too rough we separated them. Gradually, she became less aggressive, and as she did, we gradually gave Dozer time in the big cage with the others. She never really attacked him IN the cage, only outside during play time. But she also never slept with him in the cage, as I think he was too scared to get close to her. One day I found the two of them curled up in the big cage together. Trinny had finally accepted him. Now they sleep together almost all of the time, and when they are out for play time, they often wrestle together, and Trinny does so without any aggression.
The point is, it may take some time, and a lot of close observation on your part to prevent anything that's too rough, but eventually they will probably accept eachother after they have established their pecking order.
Jeff
In Memory of Neo
Caring for Trinny, Morphy, Baby Girl, Luna, and Dozer
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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