Ajax and Achilles - new boys!

[runningdog]

I picked these two wee monkeys up yesterday afternoon, left them to settle in their new hutch overnight and brought them in this morning for a play in the kitchen. They’re litter-brothers, a shade we call sandy over here (though they’re already being called ‘the golden boys’!) and big lads - already 1.3 and 1.4kg at only 3 months old! - and we’ve decided to call them Ajax and Achilles. 



Achilles is on the left in the pic, he’s slightly heavier, longer, has a pointier nose, jumps more, is braver (slightly) and has a grey marking on his face, which doesn’t show in the pic. Ajax is a slightly stockier ferret, and already has an unhealthy facination for my socks. It doesn’t take them long to learn! 

They’ve been kibble fed, so they’ll be switching over to raw ASAP while they’re so young. I gave them a little minced lamb and chicken last night and they had a look, pushed it around and then Ajax ate some of it. It’s all vanished overnight and there’s no sign of this morning’s chicken wings in their hutch - they may have stashed them in their nestbox, though. Ajax also lapped up a little salmon oil this morning - Achilles looked at it several times but didn’t take any. I think he’s a bit more cautious with food in general, and also far too busy exploring the new place and people. 

I’m interested to see how big they get - they’re already bigger than everyone but Loony! 

Introductions will start next week - I’ve a few things on over the weekend and they can use the time to get to know the kitchen thoroughly, learn not to nip my fingers and toes, and settle in properly. The others will also pick up their scents in the kitchen when they’re in so the penny drops more slowly.... but at only 3 months, huge though they are, they should get a bit of slack from the older ferrets. Hopefully....

[unclejoe]

Oh my, they are awesome. so cute. I call our Diego Golden Boy, lol

[Poseidon]

SANDIES!

[Sherry]

Beautiful boys! They'd be known as champagnes over here lol.

[runningdog]

So much for plans! And now I officially believe in miracles. 

The others came in quite mellow and chilled this afternoon so I thought, while they’re not wired (for a change!) how about popping the golden boys in for a few minutes, see how they react to each other.....


Loads of dooking, no squeaks, some wrestling, Joker was so taken with Achilles he tried to stash him, but not even Loony, who can be a grumpy old thing, minded having the kits underfoot - or even, cheeky wee devils, bouncing on him and wrestling him! - and after a lot of scampering in all directions and playing tag everywhere, they all started to settle in one big heap under the filing cabinet to sleep! I’ve just carried seven happy, chilled ferrets out to the big run together (took me three trips!) and the new boys are completely at home already! They’ve another hour or so of light to explore and get to know the run before it goes dark and they’re down to whiskers and noses for navigation; I’m betting they’ll be curled up asleep in one of the nests by then.

What a contrast from the meetings between Angus and the others.... but then the new boys are so young, I think they got cut all that slack and more from the older ones. I’m pleased as punch - not least because they’ll see the others scoffing their meat now and catch on twice as fast. And it’s one less cage to clean! 

[runningdog]

Just did the last walk-round of the beasties before bed and peeked into the nestbox to check on the ferrets. Three heads popped up - Ajax, Achilles and Joker, all cosied up together and warm as toast!   No sign of the others, which means the girls have bunked in with Loony and Bane downstairs. 

It’s all good. 

[runningdog]

This morning’s breakfast was chicks. Holly as usual tried to steal the lot and stash them, but I stole them back to hand out fairly for late-rising ferrets; Holly, Bane and Joker met me at the door, which is normal, Ajax came out of the top nestbox and the others, including Achilles, made their way up from the downstairs nest and were a little later to the feast. The golden boys both sniffed their chicks when I offered them, then grabbed.... but having got a mouthful of tasty fluff, seemed a little perplexed about their next step and wandered around looking puzzled until Holly kindly relieved them of their burdens. 

All last night’s chopped rabbit legs had vanished bar a few of the bigger chunks of bone, licked clean even of marrow as far as a ferret’s tongue can reach, though. I think they’ll get the idea of how to eat chick soon enough - they’ve lots of experienced examples to watch from the others. Joker tends to eat the head off his and then see if there’s a spare around so he can nab that head too (Braaaaiiinnnss.... he’s as bad as a zombie!) so there may well be a part-eaten corpse or two around to get them started. Tonight will be bone-in minced chicken and liver, so the youngsters should be able to just tuck in - Holly can’t stash that easily! 

[Sherry]

I love it when intros go that well lol. And the boys should be eating their raw by tonight!

[lee]

They are 2 beauties mate.  Pleased intro went well, it saves a lot of stress for them and us. 

[runningdog]

Ajax went straight into the mince dish and inhaled a goodly portion, then tried to stash a mouthful. No problems there! Achilles..... not so keen. He stood watching Bane eating with an expression on his face that reminded me of that scene in Crocodile Dundee II when the daft English guy asks the Aborigine eating the roast bat ‘are you enjoying that?’..... a sort of ferrety ‘you eat that???’

He’ll get there.

[runningdog]

Just done the final walk-round, turned off the lights on the quail and so forth. 

There are spotless dishes in the ferret house and when I peeked into the nestbox, there were four of them peeking back at me - Ajax, Achilles, Holly and Ivy, all twined together in a lovely warm knot. Bane came galloping upstairs and joined them - but he’s an attention hog and always has to get into any action going! 

I must remember to take my phone out with me and take some pix. They’re so cute in their nests!

[runningdog]

Ajax has some anger-management issues. I’m going to need to walk carefully around his temper in nip-training him.

I normally give raw egg all round on a Sunday, so I split the dishes up more than usual to ensure I could see the new boys were tucking in and took the others outside so I could concentrate on the babies. They clearly hadn’t a clue about how to eat an egg, so I whisked the eggs up a bit with a finger and soon had Achilles licking egg off my finger, then led him gently to the dish lick-by-lick. Once he’d made the connection, he was in there lapping up his eggs nicely.

I did the same with Ajax and it didn’t quite work so nicely - he licked my finger a few times okay, then decided it was good and clamped on hard. I detached him and put him on the floor, and he jumped up and latched onto my hand good and hard again. I detached him again and put him down, and he hissed violently, hurled himself back at me and got the middle joint of my little finger in his teeth, really clamped on for all he was worth and tried to shake my hand off into the bargain. Good killing instinct, he’s athletic and very quick. Can’t fault a ferret on that!  

This hurt like a s.o.b, btw. 

I grabbed him round his neck and shoulders so he couldn’t carry on shaking me, got his body pinned between my knees to stop him clawing the H out of my forearm and wrist (which he was), and squeezed the corners of his jaw until he let go. As soon as he let go, he bit again, just as hard, and too fast for me to get my finger out of his mouth. I managed to get him off again and just about ripped my finger out of his teeth before the third bite sank in, scooted him across the vinyl flooring to give myself some space and then jumped to my feet before he arrived back again, because he was by no means stopping there! I ended up sitting on the worktop with my feet up out his reach, hand under the cold tap and red water trickling down the drain, while he patrolled underneath, hissing.  

For a very young hob, he’s got an impressive jaw strength; it was nearly an hour before the wounds stopped oozing. He shouldn’t have any trouble biting through his bone-in meals in due course, but we’re going to have to discuss this ownership of human flesh thing fairly soon. (If it’s still attached to me, it’s not ferret food!) He was still a bit riled-up when I got down off the worktop five minutes later but I picked the two of them up without any more trouble (though he went for one of my socks as I was reaching down for him) and put them out with the others, then went back to find the first aid kit.

In his defence, the older boys had been ragging on the two youngsters a bit in play and maybe he was taking out some hurt feelings on me, but he’s just given me one of the nastier ferret bites of my career to date. He’s going to be a great ratting ferret, though, with that kind of determination, speed and bite-power.

Sin-bin will be standing ready when he comes in tomorrow. 

[lee]

Oh wow sounds painful, I guess He could be settling as well as being a naughty kit. Hope he settles down soon mate 

[runningdog]

He’s going to be an interesting one, that Ajax. He came out of the nest this morning for breakfast, ate some chopped beef heart and then came to me, so I picked him up. We had a short cuddle while he lay quietly in my arm and was stroked, then a blackbird scolded in the tree overhead and Ajax whipped round and bolted for the safety of the mob. 

Hm. 

Big temper when crossed, but still panicking at sudden noises. He’s lived outside up to now, he should have heard blackbirds before - they’re one of our most common songbirds. On the other hand, he’s clearly not ready to face the world without hiding behind someone else on occasion - yet. 

I’m diagnosing youth as his biggest problem - he’ll grow up soon enough but needs some extra careful handling in the meantime while he steadies down into his adult character. He and Achilles are so huge it’s hard to remember they’re still so very young, only just three months, and mentally they’re babies. I may write myself a note and stick it on the wall in the kitchen so I don’t overlook their extreme youth! 

Achilles still doesn’t think meat is food, but he did sniff the chunks of heart this morning and then stood watching everyone else tuck in. The kibble bowl is empty so I’ll leave it that way now - I put some in just so they’d be able to switch over to meat gradually and not stress their bodies with sudden changes of diet, but hunger will do the trick with Achilles now, I think. Ajax is eating meat happily and without hesitation, I’ve no concerns about his diet (provided it doesn’t include me!) 

I trimmed everyone’s claws yesterday (before the biting/wrestling/savaging of humans thing erupted) and they both like salmon oil. 

My finger is very sore, slightly swollen and stiff, but it feels clean and a couple of drops of lavender oil will keep any infection out while it heals. He’s done a good job of ripping surface tissue and there’s a lot of bruising but he didn’t penetrate the joint capsule. Just as well he is so young - I can imagine him taking my finger clean off if he was full grown, with that kind of bite already!

[runningdog]

I’ve just watched Ajax and Joker wrestling. Joker got a bit rough but Ajax didn’t squeak - he just went ballistic, fought Joker off, jumped on him, wrestled him over roughly enough Joker squeaked, then kicked seven sorts of stuffing out of him while hissing through a big mouthful of fur. Even after Joker got free and made off, Ajax chased him across the room and kept jumping on him for another round of hiss-wrestle-kick. In the end Joker hid in a box and I distracted Ajax by throwing a ball of kitchen paper at him, so he killed that instead.

Five minutes later, all was fine again and they were wandering around each other peacefully and sharing a bit of salmon oil in a dish.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ferret with a flash-point temper like that before! Maybe he was a Viking berserker in a past life....   It does make the choice of which to neuter and which to VS much easier, though - with that kind of hair-trigger attitude, I hate to think what Ajax would be like in rut. He’s going to get neutered come spring and Achilles, who seems not to have the anger-management issue, will be snipped if I decide to have a vas hob.