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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2015 9:55:27 GMT -5
I've been interested alot lately by the overall behaviour of Ferrets. I have some understanding of some behaviours, but I still think I have a long way to learn.
Can anyone recommend any articles or threads on ferret behaviour? Specifically on Ferret Behaviour with Whole Prey/Live Prey. I would also love to hear about personal experience. Has anyone elses ferrets shown specific behaviour during having whole/live prey?
My interest was mainly spiked during seeing Yuki eat his mouse earlier. Before he started on it, He was carrying it around, probably searching for a good place to start dinner but then sometimes he would stop and he would Violently shake it side to side. I've never seen anything like that before, but from what I could see it looked almost like he was trying to,in a way, kill it despite it being already dead. (Frozen/Thawed) It was really intriguing and I would love to see/read relevant articles, threads or even videos to study from. ^u^ (He's killed a house mouse not long ago also. Apparently he's quite the little hunter.)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2015 10:06:28 GMT -5
I don't know about large bits of raw, but I noticed that if she grabs a piece smaller than she expected, Layla will go up on her hind legs kind of like when someone gets a particularly cheesy slice of pizza, they pull away and away and away. Then she holds her head almost vertically until she finds a place to put it. They haven't had food that hasn't been cut up into chunks yet though.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2015 10:31:19 GMT -5
My baby shakes thawed frozen mice, too and has also tried that with my toe. Maybe my big toe in a sock is like a little mouse body.
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Post by Sherry on Aug 17, 2015 10:43:26 GMT -5
He is instinctively trying to break it's neck/back by doing that.
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Post by raynebc on Aug 17, 2015 13:54:58 GMT -5
One of my ferrets tries to kill his teddy bear this way.
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Post by bitbyter on Aug 17, 2015 14:15:25 GMT -5
Yep, Athena has to "kill" and pounce and toss her already dead whole prey for quite a while before she settles down to eat.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2015 16:08:50 GMT -5
Oh wow! So what I was thinking was spot on. Thats so interesting. Its the first time I've seen such behaviour. He was the one who actually killed a house mouse recently also. He seems to be quite the little hunter.
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Post by Sherry on Aug 17, 2015 16:24:03 GMT -5
Have you ever seen dogs shake toys? Same instinct
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2015 4:24:10 GMT -5
Have you ever seen dogs shake toys? Same instinct Unfortunately I've witnessed a dog doing it to another dog. ;o; Compared to Yuki doing it with the mouse, It was far more violent.
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Post by Sherry on Aug 19, 2015 10:55:26 GMT -5
That is just because the dog is larger and stronger.
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Post by FerretsnFalcons on Aug 19, 2015 20:11:57 GMT -5
Sunny does this a lot no matter what he's eating, but Katie has never done it, not even with mice. If the prey is half eaten, shaking it back and forth also gets the intestines out (and all over the walls!)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2015 10:55:40 GMT -5
Sunny does this a lot no matter what he's eating, but Katie has never done it, not even with mice. If the prey is half eaten, shaking it back and forth also gets the intestines out (and all over the walls!) Oh my!! Literally a few days ago, I was moving a half eaten mouse back to its plate and its intestines fell out and right on top of the ladder. I was mentally screaming but calmly said "Gee, thanks Haru." I'm still alittle squeamish, so i'm sure you can imagine how that went down. ahhahaha.
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Post by Sherry on Aug 23, 2015 11:12:16 GMT -5
And that is how the cage here gets decorated, "ferret style"
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2015 11:42:03 GMT -5
My ferret Gremlin always shakes his prey when he gets day old chickens. I think it's supercute, since i'm not prey sized =D He's 12% wild and my other 2 does not shake at all, I haven't seen them do it anyway. But now when I think about it Sid had egg yolk on his head and there was a generous amount of yolk on the wall in the kitchen the morning after. So maybe he does it more discretely =D
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2015 11:54:32 GMT -5
My little Barney always shakes his mice and chicks and chops them up into smaller pieces before he starts eating. Made me laugh to see that spattered entrails are experienced by other ferrents, and I'm going to think of it as him 'decorating' from now on.
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