suckling ears

[jinxed-it]

hey, guys. thanks for all your help with the blockage protocol. i am happy to report the little one is doing just fine now.

in the meantime, though, i need some more advice. my youngest ferret keeps suckling on my older ferret’s ears! like nonstop when she’s going to sleep. i keep scruffing her (gently, of course) and separating them, putting her down with something to chew on as a sort of trade up. but she goes right back to his ears.

i know this is probably because she was separated from her mother too early (marshall ferret), but is there anything i can do? i’m worried about her giving my boy cauliflower ears or doing other damage.

[brittanyb]

This is apparently a pretty common behavior in kits that are weaned too early, poor things (f**k ferret mills). I've only ever had two kits and while neither of them exhibited this particular behavior, one of them loved to suckle on blankets. He would also annoy the h*ll out of my older female ferret (constantly in her space and trying to get her attention, etc). He stopped exhibiting these behaviors after his first few months, if I recall correctly.

Here's some advice I found on an old post on this forum that may be helpful to you:"Make sure they have things to chew and suck on like chicken wings and gizzards... I would also pick up some sudocream(you can get it from amazon in the US), and use that on their ears to discourage this."

I hope that helps! Here's the link to the post: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/22548/ferrets-sucking-eachothers-ears