Introducing two ferrets: is this going anywhere?

[Clara H.]

Hey everyone! 
First things first, thank you for being here for all ferret lovers, your support and advice is amazing! Also, my apologies for the long post, just trying to give you as much info as possible on this particular case!

So we have a gorgeous and very spoiled 2yr old girl (Lula), and because she has a chronic gastric condition (diagnosed when she was about 8 to 9 months old), we have been spoiling her quite a lot. She is on meds quite regularly (which she obviously haaaates), so we play, cuddle and give her a lot of attention to compensate for throwing such horrible liquids down her throat so often! She follows us everywhere around the house, and even makes us actually tuck her in when she wants to go for a nap! 

Because she is so attached and dependent, and since we are planning on trying for human babies soon, we've recently decided to get her some furry company, as we didn't want her to feel neglected or that we didn't have enough time for her anymore. 

So with the help of our trusted breeder we carefully chose a little boy (just turned 3months old) that we thought would be a nice company for her - she is quite sensitive and even though she can be rather feisty, we wanted to get a gentler ferret (as gentle as a kit can be!), thinking it would be easier for her to get adjusted to. 

The boy (Naru) has been with us for 9 days now and we're absolutely in love with him. He's ever so adorable and learns everything so quickly. He is a gentle giant with us humans.

The first night he got here he was in a separate cage upstairs, having absolutely no contact with Lula. The next day we brought him to living room downstairs, while Lula's cage is in the hallway. She is a free roamer when we're home, and only has access to the ferret proofed hallway when we're not, but her cage is always open and she can go in and out as she pleases. 

So on the 2nd day she was sniffing through the living room door and at the end of the day I opened the door, but she was mortified and refused to go in. I carefully picked her up and got her closer to Naru's cage, but she was dying to get off my hands. The day after we tried again and he was obviously so happy about his new sister, but she just didn't want anything to do with him. We waited until she was finally ready to go in the living room and approach Naru's cage by herself, to start any introductions. 
We firstly started by having them share some salmon oil, held them in our arms, and only then released them together. At first she was scared, didn't really react much while he was just jumping up and down, teasing her to play. That was for about 5 minutes.

From that day on we've been releasing them for about 10 to 20 minutes (depending on the outcome), and on the first couple of days we could definitely see some progress. At first he would want to play but then she would start attacking him (something to be expected) but nothing very major. A few times there was a lot of squealing but they were barely touching. The last couple of days though, things have had a turn. Naru stands up to her, and she is the one running from him. He starts by inviting her to play, she will ignore him for a bit or avoid any contact at all, but eventually one of them starts the fight. We only interfere if we see some biting and shaking (Naru did that once) or poop (which happened twice with Lula) and stink bombs (which Lula releases every time). There hasn't been blood, but even though there has been progress before, their fights seem to be getting a bit more intense, even though it takes longer for them to actually start fighting. Lula usually keeps backing up and tries to avoid the fight, but keeps on trying to sniff him when he's distracted.

His cage is now in the hallway too, right next to hers. I have to keep her in her cage now when we're not in the house because she is quite naughty and teases him through the bars of his cage, tries to steal his toys, to bite him and climbs up his cage in an apparent effort to annoy him. However, she likes to sleep on the floor next to his cage, curled up in the blanket that we've put over it (it's quite long and reaches the floor). We also swap their bedding every day or every other day, and let them explore each other's cages when the other one is having their playtime in a separate room. 

I'm getting a bit worried about this as she seems to be scared and really tries to avoid him when they're out, and i'm not sure anymore what to do to make this an easier transition for her (he's already fit in). 

What're the signs that might give me a bit of insight about whether they will eventually get over this, or maybe it's all a big no no and they won't really get along well? I know it's all been a week or so, and some ferrets can take a while to adapt, but I just wish for this to be over soon and hope for them to become best buds! 

Sorry for the super long text!

Clara, Lula and Naru xxx

[abbeytheferret6]

Personally, I think everything will be just fine after all the new wears off. One day you will probably find them cuddled together sleeping. Nothing like another warm ferret body.

I had a pvc pipe behind my couch that my new girl Phoebe would run into to get away from my other 2 girls. It took a while before I found her sleeping with one of them--and it was with the most furocious one. I was surprised. I have had her probably a year and half now and she will not tussle and play with them. Maybe it reminds her too much of the fights???


Now if your other ferret is real sickly, she may be trying to get away from him. I have had that happen---but you can tell if one is too sick to play.

[Clara H.]

Aug 11, 2018 5:44:42 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

Personally, I think everything will be just fine after all the new wears off. One day you will probably find them cuddled together sleeping. Nothing like another warm ferret body.

I had a pvc pipe behind my couch that my new girl Phoebe would run into to get away from my other 2 girls. It took a while before I found her sleeping with one of them--but it was with the most furocious one. I was surprised. I have had her probably a year and half now and she will not tussle and play with them. Maybe it reminds her too much of the fights???


Now if your other ferret is real sickly, she may be trying to get away from him. I have had that happen---but you can tell if one is too sick to play.

Thanks, that does give me a bit of hope! She isn't sickly at all at the moment, everything is under control since she is currently undergoing her usual medication. She remains playful and active with me and my husband, and just generally being her usual self. Thinking about it, could she possibly be feeling somehow confused or something due to "partially" being in heat? I say partially because she has been given the Suprelorin 4,7 implant a month ago, and not all her symptoms have gone down yet. It is her second implant, so she never even had a swollen vulva this time, just the smell and some discharge.  

Anyways, we're obviously hopeful and persistent, just want to make sure they both feel okay through the whole process.    Thanks for your help!

[maggiew]

Hi!

We had the *joy* of introducing two ferrets to our three babies. The brother/sister of the three were completely fine with the new brother/sister that was joining the family. However, our rebel, Mini, was NOT. She's the baby, she's spoiled, and she knows it.

We had to do exactly what you were doing. We were lucky because we'd even rotate the ferrets (!) at night so sometimes Mini would be with Sirius, and other nights with Lily. She got used to her family being with the strangers and that helped.

Meanwhile, it took everything I had to let them get comfortable with each other. The first week was no-contact, very controlled limited contact. The second week was controlled limited contact and side-by-side play (one group in a room, one group in a playpen IN the room). The third week 4 of the 5 were fine and I just had to focus on Mini not being too aggressive.

Like yours, the tables turned and pretty soon I was just watching to make sure Hagrid &/or Luna were not teaming up against her. This was really hard because she's so little (not so much anymore. but she's our smallest) but they had to find their own boundaries. It took about three weeks and more than once did they get behind the cage, or in a tube where I couldn't reach them and they had to fight it out. But, three weeks, and now all 5 will be piled on top of each other in the morning when I let them out. so sweet!

[malyfretka]

He's very young... his instincts are telling him there's something odd about that girl ferret (implant, meds, etc). Young ones aren't necessarily as tolerant of "sick" ferrets and she may sense this in him as well. Is he intact? That may cause her concern too. Just keep them to supervised interactions and realize that he may need to grow up before they become friends (and you'll need to spend individual time with each, especially as much with her as she's used to until then.) Most of all, don't stress with either, they'll know...