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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 20, 2020 14:45:18 GMT -5
Winnipeg is scared of going down one staircase, from the first to second floor, but not the other, from the basement to first floor. I have a third staircase to the attic that I haven’t tried him on because that’s a no ferret zone and is baby gated off, and when he works his way up there he never wants to come down.
I try lying on the stairs and coaching him, and we take about ten minutes to descend together one step at a time, but he won’t do it on his own. This just started a few weeks ago after living here five years. It’s happened once before (last year) and it took him a while to get over it then, too, but he spontaneously did. I wish I knew what happened to spook him. Probably slipped and fell down a few steps. Any tips?
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Post by leeloo on Apr 20, 2020 15:00:36 GMT -5
Something similar happened to my friends dog when it slipped and fell down the stairs. What she had to do for a couple days was they would go down the stairs together and the dog would get a treat or they would play a little bit and then go back up the stairs together and get a treat or play a little bit. She tried to get the dog to start associating the stairs with something positive and then the dog got over the fear. I don’t know if that works for ferrets as well but you could try! 😊
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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 20, 2020 17:56:46 GMT -5
I’ll have to try incorporating treats, I have some dehydrated liver laying around still that he likes. No more salmon oil, he gets too much of it to convince him to eat his new foods as it is.
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Post by storm on Apr 26, 2020 20:42:33 GMT -5
I've seen animals get scared of random things at times and it's hard to understand. As much as we want to, we'll never really understand how our animals see the world. It is possible that he slipped or fell. Or it could be something else. A smell or something that only they can detect can set them on edge while we are clueless.
This reminds me a bit of Leapfrog the cat though if you've ever seen her.
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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 27, 2020 12:31:49 GMT -5
I have seen that cat before, yes! Too funny.
Now he’ll descend from seven steps to the bottom, but any higher and he freezes or goes back up.
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Post by Charlie on Apr 27, 2020 15:06:36 GMT -5
Are the stairs covered with carpet or are they ceramic tile or wooden? I'm guessing here but if the stairs are bare it's more likely more slippery but if it's carpeted then there's more grip. Do you have another ferret where they may have accidentally tumbled down the stairs when playing?
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Post by storm on Apr 27, 2020 16:49:44 GMT -5
Something is definitely spooking him. Do you think that it could be something at the bottom of the stairs? If you carry him down to the bottom will he climb back up?
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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 27, 2020 17:22:57 GMT -5
The stairs are wooden, both the basement-first floor that he goes down and the first floor-second floor he wont. No other animals to tumble down with him, so he must have tripped over his own feet! He’ll climb up no problem multiple times a day and then he needs rescuing, just lies at the top looking down sadly, or goes to the very first stair tread and hops back up again after a few seconds. Sometimes if we don’t notice he trapped himself up there he’ll dig at the floor to get us to hear him and notice.
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Post by Charlie on Apr 29, 2020 9:14:44 GMT -5
It's probably because it's wooden and a lot more slippery. Try covering the stairs with blanket and see how he deals with it. It would be a good experiment!
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Post by storm on Apr 29, 2020 13:07:58 GMT -5
That is true. The wood can make things more slippery since a lot of animals use their claws for traction. A blanket could help but if it's too loose it might makes things worse.
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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 29, 2020 18:14:11 GMT -5
I’ll have to try a towel when he wakes up, our blankets are all stuffed comforters that would just turn the stairs into a slide. He now will descend from ten steps up, so we’re slowly making progress.
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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 30, 2020 9:55:43 GMT -5
There was a lot of staring at each other back and forth, wouldn’t go down at all. I picked him up and placed him on various steps and he just paced and looked wistfully on each of them. Try again later. He’ll descend on his own from eleven steps up now, not that much further to go before he’s got the whole staircase, but the first step’s a real lulu apparently! imgur.com/gallery/76fVoDt |
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Post by Charlie on Apr 30, 2020 14:49:26 GMT -5
There was a lot of staring at each other back and forth, wouldn’t go down at all. I picked him up and placed him on various steps and he just paced and looked wistfully on each of them. Try again later. He’ll descend on his own from eleven steps up now, not that much further to go before he’s got the whole staircase, but the first step’s a real lulu apparently! imgur.com/gallery/76fVoDt LOL He's interested in burrowing under the towel. The comments on the video are funny too! Very cute video!! Have you tried coaxing him with a treat or salmon oil? Obviously he can navigate them. He could be playing with you for attention! lol |
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Post by Corvidophile on Apr 30, 2020 16:45:14 GMT -5
I’ve given freeze dried liver chunks as a reward when he gets to the bottom when I start him partway, sometimes he’s interested and sometimes he’d rather run under the couch and roll from the excitement. He won’t eat them on the stairs, too scary. He wants to go down, he stretches out and looks downward, I myself am the lure! Don’t want to give him any more salmon oil, I’m already over the teaspoon weekly suggested limit just trying to get him to eat any meat that isn’t beef.
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Post by storm on Apr 30, 2020 20:42:50 GMT -5
At least he's making progress. It is a scary drop when you're that small.
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