Biting

Pooping Outside the Litter Box

Stealing

Wild, insane dancing around and crashing into walls

Biting

We hear of some people who want to give up their ferrets not long after acquiring them "because they bite."  Many young ferrets will playfully nip at your fingers or toes.  As long as they do not bite down hard, we do not consider this to be unacceptable behavior.  Some people will not tolerate a ferret's teeth against their skin, no matter what.  But ferrets are intelligent creatures and can be taught limits.

The FerretLady says:
All my ferrets "play-bite" my fingers when I am "wrestling" with them.  The wrestling involves the ferret lying on his back in my lap or on the floor while I lightly jiggle his paws and ruffle his tummy hair.  The play-biting they do is where they have my fingers in their teeth and "pretend" to be biting, but they do not bite down.

All my ferrets - males and females alike - understand that this is ferret-human play and that I do not allow them to play as rough with me as they do with each other in their ferret-ferret play.  If any of them ever bit down any harder on me when they were young, they heard a very loud 'NO!' and got a flick on the nose.  So they learned, and now that they are older, they never bite.

One exception - I do have one female that still bites - HARD!  I am working on her.  I no longer do the nose-flick "punishment" (it never worked on her anyway).  Now when she chomps down, I put a tiny dab of mild liquid soap on a cotton swab, stick it in the side of her mouth, and dab it on her teeth and gums.  She is learning to associate the chomping on my hand with a nasty taste in her mouth!  You only need to use a tiny amount of soap - just enough to give the ferret a bad taste in its mouth, and it will not harm the ferret.  Do not put the soap on your finger - you want the ferret to learn that human fingers (no matter WHAT they taste like!) are NOT for biting!

NEVER hit your ferrets on the head or anywhere else to discipline them.  Hitting teaches the ferret that you play rough, so they assume that "all gloves are off" (pun intended).  Also, hitting such a tiny creature can seriously hurt them or teach them to be aggressive.  Never, ever be rough with them.

Some people disagree with the nose flick discipline, so you have to decide what works for your ferret.

Other suggestions can be found on these websites:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=11&cat=1280&articleid=500

http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/part3.html#nipping

http://home.wanadoo.nl/defret/bijtprobleem.htm

http://members.aol.com/cbax899/newmine.htm

http://groups.msn.com/Ferret/bitingferrets.msnw

http://www.ferretnews.com/issues/ferret-news-85.html

http://www.petplace.com/article.aspx?id=1930

Pooping Outside the Litter Box

This, unfortunately, is sometimes unavoidable.  No matter how well trained your ferret, there might be a time he decides to "mark" a corner of the room "where no ferret has gone before."

However, as long as you keep his litter box clean (not piled high with poop!), he will almost always opt for the litter box.  Ferrets are clean animals and do not like to relieve themselves in areas which are already, shall we say, saturated.

If you are working on potty-training a ferret (especially babies, since no one else will have taught them yet), make sure he understands that the litter box is the ONLY place he is supposed to go.  Most ferrets eliminate immediately upon waking, so when you come over to the cage (or ferret room) and call to them to wake them up, let them "do their business" BEFORE you take them out of the cage to hold them or play with them.

If you let them run around in a contained area in your house (a contained area is the only play area we find acceptable - see our page on Ferretproofing Your House), make sure you have placed newspapers or small litter pans in the corners.  After playing for a little while, they will inevitably have to go again.  Be prepared.

If your ferret backs up into a corner to go (a corner without a litter pan), grab her quickly and gently and place her in a litter pan.  Keep doing this right then and there until she realizes she's not going to be allowed to use that empty corner.  Then she will go in the litter pan.  If you have your ferrets out playing in a contained area, keep an eye on them (as you should do anyway) so that you can jump in and "relocate" a ferret to the litter pan if one of them decides he or she is too lazy to walk over to the pan.

The FerretLady says:
I have a hallway in my house that is the official ferret play area.  I have only one litter pan in one corner of that hallway.  I have lots of balls and tunnels and other toys in there so that we can play together or so that they can entertain themselves.  In every corner (except where the litter pan sits), there are several towels bunched up, simulating a bed.  Ferrets will not poop on something they consider to be a nice, soft sleeping place.  Only once in a great while does one of them leave a "calling card" in a location other than the litter pan.

Stealing

There is nothing you can do about this.

It is the ferret's nature to steal things and store them in hidden places.  Lock up your jewelry and Christmas tree ornaments and other pretty, shiny items when your ferret is out and about.  Or better yet, let your ferret play only in contained, ferretproofed areas in your home.  (See our page on Ferretproofing Your House.)

Give your ferret things to "steal" (like tennis balls and socks and such) so they can exercise their inborn personality.  It is one of the most adorable characteristics of the ferret.  But only give them items which are safe for them!  (See our page on Ferret Toys.)

Wild, insane dancing around and crashing into walls

This is perfectly normal behavior for a ferret.  It means they are excited to be out of their cage to run around and play.  They are saying to you, "Come play with me!"

For more information on behavior issues and training, see http://www.peteducation.com/ferrets/ferrets_behav_train_toc.htm

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