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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 6:08:19 GMT -5
Here is the one video I took of Miss Lady trying to play with Miss Kitty. Miss Lady is very gentle with her mouth. She can remove a sock, grabbing between your toes with your foot not at all still, and barely brush your skin with her sharp teeth. So when Miss Kitty really does get loud about it, she is not actually being bitten or hurt in any way. And Miss Kitty has her claw caps on (all 4 paws), so when she gets after miss lady, she is not actually able to make her bleed. (Though if you have a cat and have put claw caps on them, you know they can still grip quite well.)
Miss Lady is 1.25 pounds in this video, and Miss Kitty is just a hair over 7 pounds.
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Post by katt on Apr 13, 2013 11:58:44 GMT -5
Aw what cuties! Miss Kitty is a beautiful cat.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 17:26:02 GMT -5
I started reading a about this a lot today, as I realized while going through some of the threads that one of them identified as a Waardy was identical to Sydney. After reading all of the traits, I'm pretty sure she has it. The only thing is that she's extremely social and active. But she eats like a pig and gains no weight; the vet even said it looks like she will remain tiny. I'm going to go home and take a closer look and see if I think she shows any characteristics of being hard of hearing/deaf. I've never noticed. Also, in addition to being super active and social, she's probably the smarter of the 3. So I'm not sure. As I said, I'm going to go home and inspect her haha!
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Post by Sherry on May 15, 2013 17:42:57 GMT -5
WS doesn't necessarily mean they are deaf(my Miss Emily is a sable hearing WS who is a bit...slow... as well as showing physical symptoms), nor that they will be not as "bright"(Willow is a deaf WS who leads her business and has figured things out. Hers shows up behaviorally as we'll as physically)
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 18:26:20 GMT -5
Ok good to know!! From what I was reading, it sounded like bad hearing was a trait no matter what.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 18:44:36 GMT -5
loved your video melissa.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 23:24:30 GMT -5
Although Penwyn is deaf and a waardy, he actually tends to be quite intelligent. He is the best when it comes to tricks. He stands up fully on his back legs and balances well, knows roll over and sometimes if I'm lucky I can get him to lay down. He seems to have quite a bit of focus one on one. He is slow in other aspects though, and always seems to be on his own personal mission while the others are playing. He's not much for play and while the others run around like maniacs he is often found sitting in my bottom drawer in my kitchen watching me cook supper.
@katt - I bonded very quickly with Ojo and Pickle my first two boys. Penwyn came third, and Mittens 4th. I bonded instantly with Mittens, but the bond with Penwyn was very lengthy. He almost seemed afraid of human interaction and would bite whenever he was picked up. It took a very long time for him to learn that hands and humans were friends. I treated him just as I did the other 3, aside from hand signals and being more attentive not to spook him as he is deaf and spooked incredibly easy.
At one point, after months of working with him I thought it would honestly never get better and it saddened me quite a bit. He literally decided to give me a kiss one day and that was the day I guess he decided I deserved his trust. He is now a little cuddle bug.
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Post by Sherry on May 15, 2013 23:44:20 GMT -5
I absolutely love that "moment" when they decide they can finally trust us
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Post by Heather on May 16, 2013 0:12:23 GMT -5
My breakthrough fuzz was Fun-Go. He was so aggressive, so terrifyingly aggressive. He attacked without provocation and continued to do so 2 yrs after living here. Most ferrets when startled will run and hide often running into walls or getting stuck in small places because they fear so hard. Fun-Go would attack whatever startled him. He wouldn't just bite, he'd bite, grind his teeth together and then gator roll. He didn't just bite he ripped great big chunks out of you. I didn't even pick him up for the first month that he was here. He required special care and a lot of patience. I can remember mentioning to Sherry that he had been living here for 2 yrs and I didn't think I would ever see him show any affection toward anyone. I could by this point handle him, but you never, ever put him near your face or touch the top of his head (you still don't touch his head). You couldn't hold him. You could carry him, but not hold him, he'd swing around and bite you. One day, he scared himself or I scared him and he ran at me. I scooped him, and for whatever reason I pulled him close, held him tight to my chest and talked to him. Unlike, his usual response he just laid there, tense and shaking. I continued to talk to him...telling him I was sorry, that I had scared him. Then out of the blue, he relaxed and laid his head on my chest. It wasn't much, but for me it was a piece of heaven. He laid there for several minutes. I didn't want to put him down on the ground, I didn't want it to stop...but it did...but instead of biting he just wiggled to be put down on the ground. I started holding him, even if it was for a few seconds, I let him call the shots. Now, he will snuggle with me, but I don't know if it's because he trusts me or if it's because he's sick (insulinoma for 2 yrs now and adrenal for a good 6 months). The waardy kids are special, but it's our need for special colours and markings that have created them and their resulting health and psychological issues. We alone are responsible for these damaged fuzzies ciao
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Post by Sherry on May 16, 2013 8:21:58 GMT -5
I agree- I mean let's face it. Almost any one of us, walking into a pet store that has a group of ferrets and which ones are we attracted to first? The blazes and pandas. Following that, the silvers, marked DEW's, and spotted fur.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2013 9:14:33 GMT -5
AWWW poor Fun-Go! That made me tear up Sydney has all of the fur markings, and her eyes even meet some of the descriptions, but she is definitely not deaf. I scared the bejeezus out of her last night with the vacuum. Theodore actually exhibits a lot of the behavioral traits, but has no markings. He was the only one that hung around when we turned the vacuum on, and my boyfriend mentioned last night that he DOES startle easily, but he has NEVER been aggressive or bitten any of us. He's actually the most cuddly of them all, and the sweetest. He's always been "slow" in a lot of ways, and is usually the last one to still be running in circles in the middle of the living room when the girls have darted off underneath stuff to play hide and seek. So who knows! Either way we love them all, it just interested me yesterday when I started really digging in to it (I finally had enough time to do so). I think it kind of opened my boyfriend up toward Theodore more when I explained some of the things I'd read yesterday. He's always gotten frustrated with him because he's never caught on to the litter box like the girls have, and he's very persistent in his digging the carpet haha! He's actually talked about maybe finding him another home, but after everything I said, he said "there's no way." I WIN haha! He actually commends me every day on how great I've been with them and how patient I was through out the whole biting stage with the girls, and the feeding and everything. We are going to start building a "cat tree" thingy for them soon. He's pretty handy with that stuff - he built them a big play thing out of boxes and pieces of tube Sunday night. And when we move, he said we are going to look for a house with at least one or two rooms that can be specifically for them and build them all sorts of toys and stuff. Made me happy to finally hear him talk this way about them. He goes back and forth on them all the time, even though he was the one who initially really really wanted them. He wouldn't ever make me get rid of them anyway because he knows how much I love them. It was hard enough for me to give my rat, Sweet Pea, up, even though I knew the people who took her very well. So here's hoping for a bigger house - and more ferrets ;D
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Post by Heather on May 16, 2013 12:25:13 GMT -5
The problem is so deep into their genetic pool that colour is no longer a clue to a deafy. Take Boris. He's a waardy. He has the tell-tale flat top head, eyes to wide....but the other factors you have to look very close to see and the worst ones are hidden. Boris is/was a dark sable. He's roaning quite badly this spring and he's looking old despite the fact he's only 5 yrs old. He doesn't have a blaze or knee or tail dots. He doesn't have a spotted belly. He does have the lightning strike chest and throat marking and the milk toes. It's what's damaged inside that only xrays can tell you. His skull is so flat and deformed that he cannot close his mouth properly, because of that deformity his windpipe and larynx are not positioned properly (if he's scruffed you will choke him to death). He has an enlarged heart, a third degree heart murmur, and arrhythmia so bad that without his drugs he will go into v-fib. He's not stupid, just special....not too bright. He loves his people totally and unconditionally. He plays until he collapses and then plays again. Without his drugs he just plays until he collapses and his heart stops. He's a sweet, sweet boy but to be honest as a breeder he's a scary specimen and with him as a product that line should have been ended right there. Boris is a Marshals, there is no end to those defects, they're all genetic, they are all being passed on to the next generation....that's the scary part ciao
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2013 12:42:23 GMT -5
That is horribly scary and sad But at least you got a little angel out of it Theodore is a dark sable as well. Or "raccoon" as some people have referred to him. He's the SIZE of a raccoon haha! I didn't remember to look at his toes closely last night - he was so full of energy we were having more fun than usual playing with him. I'm glad that we picked him out, because had he gone to someone else that hadn't done any research, or knew very little, they probably would have given up on him by now. So sad to think of all the ones that must be out there It's a shame that all of the "farms" are in it for money, and seem to have lost their hearts long ago. It's the same thing with any species though. Even my yorkie had congenital problems, due to them breeding and inbreeding the same tiny dogs over and over. She had AA luxation - 2 vertebrae in her neck were malformed and were supposed to hook together, but instead they fell apart and slid inside one another and pinched off her spinal chord. Luckily I'm stubborn and scary enough to tell the surgeon to F--- off and do the surgery even though he was trying to convince me to put her down. She's 4 years old now and healthier and happier than ever!! Terds. It's just sad that the ferrets are being bred for color, and dogs are being bred to be tiny, instead of healthy. Hate it.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2013 14:58:49 GMT -5
I wonder if my Peanut might be wardy. His face looks differently shaped from the others, like his eyes are rounder or something, he is terribly cute but there is something very different about his face compared to my others. I need to find the good camera and post a pic of his face
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2013 19:03:37 GMT -5
Katt and Ponce=thanks! Miss kitty is a lot older than she looks, but still spry and fast! In that video I think she was 7 or 8? That was when we first got Miss Lady. Miss Kitty was not happy at all about it. (As you can see ;p!) Miss Lady will sniff and be sniffed if she thinks we are not looking or paying attention. But the moment she thinks we are looking, the ferrets are in for it. She has even gone so far as to seek them out to give them a whack in the face. I feel worse for the ferrets than I do for the cat at this point. I wish Miss Kitty would just relax a little and play with them. Sometimes I can tell that she wants to play, or attack, with the monsters, but the moment they turn to look at her, they get a whack in the face and Miss kitty high-tails it outta there like she is on fire and demons are chasing her. I have stopped feeling bad for her. I just don't know what to do anymore. I can't make them like eachother. (I wish I could though)
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