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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2015 23:30:42 GMT -5
First off, I'd like to say thanks for letting me be a part of this forum. There's lots of great information on here about ferrets, been following for a while before I joined. Before I get to the issue I'm having, here's some background information. I did adopt my two girls from a rescue, my cinnamon girl wasn't there long before she came home with me, couple weeks or so(she was underweight when they first rescued her), now she's getting lots of love, playtime, and a good diet. Her name is Chiquita and she's just over a year old, a year and two months almost. She's a very active, happy little girl, and she loves snuggles with me and my boy. ❤ My marked white(the biggest trouble maker), she had been at the rescue for quite some time before she came home with me (almost adopted one time before, but the people chose not to get her). She did have an adrenal tumor on her left gland, but had surgery to remove it and has been given a second chance at life. She's completely healed up from the operation and a happy, healthy girl. She's three months shy of turning 2 and her name is Ladikin. Ok, now to the bad part.... I've had my girls for a little over two weeks now, they're both playing and snuggling up with my boy, but when it comes time for them to be around each other, they fight constantly. They are separated in different cages (Chiquita is finally with Rowdy, and Ladikin is on her own still), I had no problems when they first came home. A couple days after, Ladikin attacked Chiquita while they were playing, bit her neck and started shaking her as hard as she could and dragging her around. Chiquita didn't do anything to fight back, all she did was scream (and I mean scream), hiss, and run away from Ladikin. I broke up the fight because she was fear pooping a lot and had sores all over her neck. She wanted nothing to do with Ladikin for a while. I give them seperate playtimes with my boy now. Chiquita and Rowdy in the morning, Ladikin and Rowdy in the afternoon, no problems playing with him. I did give them a bath to make them smell the same, so they could get along that way, but no luck. Tried the treats on the back of the neck to promote licking instead of biting, no luck there. I've held both girls in my arms to where they could just smell and see each other, but Ladikin immediately goes to bite at Chiquita after sniffing, or she'll hiss at her while Chiquita sniffs her. I've even held a favorite treat in front of each, so they could eat at the same time and still no luck. After all the failed attempts to get them somewhat ok with each other, I decided to not let them see each other for a few days, so the tension could go away, then try again. Now when I let Ladikin out for playtime and put Chiquita up, she goes for Chiquita if I haven't picked her up yet and immediately bites her neck. Chiquita will not fight back at all, she screams, hisses, poops, pees, and runs away still. I know Ladikin's trying to assert her dominance, but I've never had ferrets fight like this before. My two males a few years back never fought like this. They both play very well with my boy and I, just not with each other. I've also called the rescue to see if there were issues with them there and none whatsoever, but they do want an update if they get along or not. They had suggested I swap one out, but I turned that down immediately, I've waited years to adopt and I'm already so attached to them. After having said that, I know it's going to take longer than two weeks for them to adjust to each other, but has anyone had this bad of an issue like this with their girls? Or any of their fur babies in general? Here are my babies: Rowdy(My 8 year old) and Chiquita ❤  And Rowdy with Ladikin ❤  |
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 2:08:39 GMT -5
It's hard to watch that. You have a loyalty and bond with Ladikin. You feel protective and want Chaquita to make friends and fit it. I've had that problem three times now. First my oldest boy went after my baby Mika. That took two months, time to let her grow up. Now, she thinks of him as her fur dad and all is fine. In the meantime, she played with Juliet. Wynstan, a big gentle goofy giant came home. He could have fought back, he's bigger than Roamy but he didn't. That took about five weeks. They play and sleep together fine. Keller came home about six to eight months ago. She is a tiny deaf girl and had lost her bonded mate. This time Juliet went after her. Head shaking, fear pooping and the whole nine yards. Keller squeals a warning sound and then screams. I break them up and now our house is divided. Keller plays with Mika and Wynstan. Roamy will attack, but it's more of a shoulder nudge and pushing her around until she screams. She simply poops all over Juliet. What has worked for me in the past, is to put the aggressor in time out. I sit and supervise play. When Roamy attacked, he went into time out. I had an empty carrier ready and when he went after the first two, he went into time out for two minutes. I would say "No Bite" in a stern voice. Roamy has a sense of humor and began going into time out first and then looking at me like, "Okay punishment is over, now can I attack?". I put out a communal treat and they would eat together from it, and then when the treat was gone, so was the peace treaty. Juliet seems to be fine with Keller during the treat and then she goes after Keller. We think the squealing/screaming is part of it. I wonder if Juliet is trying to show the other female, she is boss. Mika was just a baby and Juliet mothered her, there was no competition for top boss. So, it's been awhile. I'm not giving up. We're a free range house and they have to get along. I washed blankets, bathed both of them and allow them to see each other every day. I supervise time together, which doesn't last long. We are slowly, very slowly making some progress. Keller now just runs and hides when she sees Juliet. Alot of the time, Juliet doesn't even bother her. Keep working on it, give everyone time and I hope we both find that our girls will come to be friends.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 19:04:03 GMT -5
It's hard to watch that. You have a loyalty and bond with Ladikin. You feel protective and want Chaquita to make friends and fit it. I've had that problem three times now. First my oldest boy went after my baby Mika. That took two months, time to let her grow up. Now, she thinks of him as her fur dad and all is fine. In the meantime, she played with Juliet. Wynstan, a big gentle goofy giant came home. He could have fought back, he's bigger than Roamy but he didn't. That took about five weeks. They play and sleep together fine. Keller came home about six to eight months ago. She is a tiny deaf girl and had lost her bonded mate. This time Juliet went after her. Head shaking, fear pooping and the whole nine yards. Keller squeals a warning sound and then screams. I break them up and now our house is divided. Keller plays with Mika and Wynstan. Roamy will attack, but it's more of a shoulder nudge and pushing her around until she screams. She simply poops all over Juliet. What has worked for me in the past, is to put the aggressor in time out. I sit and supervise play. When Roamy attacked, he went into time out. I had an empty carrier ready and when he went after the first two, he went into time out for two minutes. I would say "No Bite" in a stern voice. Roamy has a sense of humor and began going into time out first and then looking at me like, "Okay punishment is over, now can I attack?". I put out a communal treat and they would eat together from it, and then when the treat was gone, so was the peace treaty. Juliet seems to be fine with Keller during the treat and then she goes after Keller. We think the squealing/screaming is part of it. I wonder if Juliet is trying to show the other female, she is boss. Mika was just a baby and Juliet mothered her, there was no competition for top boss. So, it's been awhile. I'm not giving up. We're a free range house and they have to get along. I washed blankets, bathed both of them and allow them to see each other every day. I supervise time together, which doesn't last long. We are slowly, very slowly making some progress. Keller now just runs and hides when she sees Juliet. Alot of the time, Juliet doesn't even bother her. Keep working on it, give everyone time and I hope we both find that our girls will come to be friends. It definitely is hard to watch. I love both my girls and wish they'd get along, they absolutely LOVE my boy. So, it'd be nice to have them all in one cage, instead of two. I did read your post earlier and tried the time out method with the pet crate today(before I'd take them to the cage). They all had some special soupie to kind of initiate a peace agreement. Well, right after that Chiquita was walking around Ladikin sniffing her, but once Ladikin saw her, she went for her neck and started biting and shaking her violently. I scruffed her, told her not to bite, and then put her in the crate for a time out. I did this three times in a row, because as soon as she'd get out, she went right for Chiquita and the biting/shaking continued. The last time I just put Ladikin in the cage, because I won't keep her in the crate while Chiquita is out with Rowdy(waaay too small for her to be couped up in) and then went and got Chiquita from under the couch, she was so scared she snuggled up on my chest. I just held her for a bit, told her it was ok, pet her, gave her kisses, and then put her by the living room hammock I have for them, she went in it and snuggled up with my boy. She seemed to feel safe with him, he never nips at her, just licks her and snuggles. So, I let her snuggle with him and they both took a nap. I'm not going to let them out together often, because I don't want Chiquita getting stressed out from it, but I'll gradually keep trying. I have a feeling, it's a little of the same scenario you had with Mika and your oldest boy, Chiquita just turned a year old the first of April. Thanks for your input. I hope our girls can work things out too.  |
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Post by Heather on May 19, 2015 22:06:02 GMT -5
One thing to also consider is that as hard as it is....little girls often don't get along well. I can integrate boys on boys, girls with boys but girls with girls consists of constant petty bickering and sometimes out and out wars. Lady "B"Itchy held rule over 14 to 18 boys when I was rescuing a lot. She accepted every new boy, with a thrashing and then they were good when they acknowledged her as supreme ruler. In came in little Sprite and thus came my first split play group. Lady"B" would not allow her any peace. A number of wee girlies called my house home during Lady"B"s reign but she always made their lives miserable, even when she was too old to really care. That being said integrating girls has always been the bane of my existence.
I"m not saying it can't be done but it's going to take constant vigilance and patience to get it to work. I've got a mother and her two daughters and the petty brat bickering that goes on is ridiculous so just keep plugging away at it and hopefully they will draw up some peace treaty and learn to live together and if you're really lucky they will not only learn to tolerate each other but bond
ciao
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Post by unclejoe on May 20, 2015 18:36:35 GMT -5
I just posted this on another thread. Maybe worth a try? When Dar24's crew first met mine, Jaffa bullied the crap out of all of mine. He was twice or more as big as any of mine. Alice was a mere wisp of 1.4 lb and he was 3 times that. Once when she was sniffing around, trying to be friends, I assume, because she was never ever mean, he pounced and pinned her and started shaking her. I pulled him off, pinned him down and let Alice in his face. I wish I had it on video. She screamed and hissed and paced back and forth and generally let him know where he stood in HER HOUSE. Within 24 hours we found them sleeping together, and many times after. It's like he adopted her, or she scared him, lol.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 13:23:40 GMT -5
One thing to also consider is that as hard as it is....little girls often don't get along well. I can integrate boys on boys, girls with boys but girls with girls consists of constant petty bickering and sometimes out and out wars. Lady "B"Itchy held rule over 14 to 18 boys when I was rescuing a lot. She accepted every new boy, with a thrashing and then they were good when they acknowledged her as supreme ruler. In came in little Sprite and thus came my first split play group. Lady"B" would not allow her any peace. A number of wee girlies called my house home during Lady"B"s reign but she always made their lives miserable, even when she was too old to really care. That being said integrating girls has always been the bane of my existence. I"m not saying it can't be done but it's going to take constant vigilance and patience to get it to work. I've got a mother and her two daughters and the petty brat bickering that goes on is ridiculous so just keep plugging away at it and hopefully they will draw up some peace treaty and learn to live together and if you're really lucky they will not only learn to tolerate each other but bond ciao That's exactly what the lady who runs the rescue said, females don't get along very well. If they do end up getting along, it's going to be a VERY long time from now. Since I've made this post, I've been observing their behavior with each other and my boy, it's a definite personality clash. Ladikin is a lot rougher than Chiquita is. They both play well with my boy, but he'll nip at Ladikin when she gets out of hand, but with Chiquita he play fights with her and it's a lot less rough with them. Chiquita is more laid back than Ladikin and probably the main reason my boy loves her so much(someone to snuggle with and no craziness). Ladikin is definitely my trouble maker, climbing on/getting into everything. :eek: |
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 13:28:51 GMT -5
I just posted this on another thread. Maybe worth a try? When Dar24's crew first met mine, Jaffa bullied the crap out of all of mine. He was twice or more as big as any of mine. Alice was a mere wisp of 1.4 lb and he was 3 times that. Once when she was sniffing around, trying to be friends, I assume, because she was never ever mean, he pounced and pinned her and started shaking her. I pulled him off, pinned him down and let Alice in his face. I wish I had it on video. She screamed and hissed and paced back and forth and generally let him know where he stood in HER HOUSE. Within 24 hours we found them sleeping together, and many times after. It's like he adopted her, or she scared him, lol. I tried that numerous times with my girls and still a no.  |
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