New ferret introduction

[ferratious]

Greetings, writting with hopes to receive some sort of experienced owners advice on what to do.

We just got second ferret to pair with our sprite. But male ferret is still hob even thought we recently (two weeks ago) got him to vet to get him neutered with chemical chip, we also know that it takes time till chip kicks in so we have really unpleasent situation at home.

Both of them are from same business, actually when we went to pick up our sprite, she was in encloser with exact same male so they are both actual brother and sister. Nevertheless, sprite havent met another ferret after we picked her up, so she does have some adjustment issues - moment she saw hob, she urinated and defacated all over, and that was just her first reaction. She is also used to a cage, even thought she is in seperate room with completely open cage to free roam, she chooses to sleep, eat and most of the time do the nature things there, in her cage.

Hob comes from a home where he was allowed to free roam all over the 3 room appartment. He had seperate room, but he never was even introduced to a cage plus he was living with a jill so at the start of his heat, he already was going nuts.

Both of ferrets are well behaved on their own, they are litter box trained, they dont bite, besides hob, but I am aware that it is result of his current heat.

Now the problem is their interactions. We want to introduce them to each other, but in a safe way, we dont want to traumatise our sprite since hob is twice as big as her and he just goes nuts when he grabs her, shaking, biting, chasing. He sometimes even tries to bite her tummy when I try to hold her for a sniffing. We keep them seperated in our home, but we wish to let them roam freely together.

We tried neutral ground introduction in a yard, further from our home. We tried scruff + shaking when we seperate him from ravaging her neck. We tried treats to enforce positive behaviour when there was any hints for that, but nothing helped. Moment we let them go, he just chases her while she screaming, urinating and defacating runs away from him, trying to find place to hide.

Keeping them seperated also introduced us another challenge, our sprite started doing her natural things by the door in the room she usually is. As I understand, she marks territory as a warning for him, so we dont want her to forget her litter training because of that.

So what can we do to make situation better? Is there some ways to help them get well together? Should we wait out the time till hob's chip kicks in?

[Charlie]

Have you given this new ferret a 2 week quarantine before you tried this introduction? The 2 week quarantine does 2 things for the ferret 1) it allows her time to adjust to her new environment and 2) to make sure she hasn't brought home any illnesses she can pass off to your other ferret. It's stressful enough to come into anew environment that she's not familiar to and then put her with a ferret with raging hormones. It's no wonder she urinates and defecates, screams and runs to find a hiding place.

You will definitely have to wait until the chemical neuter kicks in. It takes time for that to work. He has raging hormones and wants to get with her. You will want to do the introductions after his hormones have calmed down.

When introducing them you will want to take your time. They don't always work out and/or it may take a lot longer then you would like. You can't force it. At this point they should have separate spaces and start with short interactions but no contact. She's already afraid of him from the first meeting. Have their cages in the same room far enough apart that they can't reach each other through the cages but close enough to see and smell each other. This should be after the 2 week quarantine. Then you can also switch bedding from each other's cages a few times and then later put each one in each other's cages. Put her in his cage and put him in her cage so they can explore and sniff around and get use to each other's smells with no contact with each other. This will take a few weeks to the point where they are use to their presents in the space but don't react. If he's always trying to get to her then he's not yet calmed down and if she fear poops or pees, then she's not yet ready. In the meantime give them their own space.

[ferratious]

Thank you for such useful info.

Just to clarify. She is not newcomer, he is. And he doesn't have his own his cage. We live in a country where it is kinda illegal to keep ferrets in cages that are smaller than 5 square meters and to find cage that is exact that size is next to impossible. Thats why our female's cage is just glorified bed/cave for her to hide or have safe haven if she needs one, but it is always kept open in a room she is in.

Can it work with them being in seperate rooms with just short interactions with her being in her cage while he is outside of it? And then switch them by putting him to check her cage and her to check room where he spends all his time?

Also you mentioned possible deseases. Our breeder did mandatory vaccine shots to them as their were just kits that cover major threats from outside, like canine distemper and rabies. Is there other risks we should know about?

[jrosebooks]

Pee/Poo/Blood are signs the ferrets need to be separated right away.
I've introducing my old ferret [Chloe] to two new ferrets, and they are JUST starting to be reasonably civil after a MONTH.
All the things I've done:
- First, Introducing only ONE ferret at a time (the milder of the pair)
- Blanket swapping (Change out a couple blankets every day)
- Holding and sniffing. Chloe is old and aggressive and bites the neck right away, so it took a few weeks for her NOT to do this.
- Only two ferrets sharing treat oil
- After two weeks of sharing treats (Now Chloe only gets treats when Brown Bear is around), NOW they can eat civil together.
- Introduce in a neutral room with no toys. (possessive smells)
- Trading play time in new ferrets room. (Meaning two new ferrets have been in my basement ferret room with the cage for a few weeks. Then I let Chloe play/sleep down there, and brought two new ferrets upstairs to play). I am unable to have two cages next to each other. But, I've had one in a cage, while the other(s) are not, so they've interreacted that way. (I have a mesh dog pen that the lone Chloe sleeps in upstairs. Chloe is mostly free-roam in my tiny house.
- Now, their [expected] fights have lessened, and they tend to do one bite each, and then separate. Which is MAJOR progress.

The outcome after daily work is that they reasonably get along, but Chloe scares the other ferrets out of their beds, so they aren't safe to be left alone yet. But it's made harder that Chloe has pred belly, and her hindquarters are weak. Plus, she lost her companion in July 2020, and has been alone since then.

I just watched a video on Youtube that said she'd been working on getting her ferrets to bond/get along/be friends for FOUR MONTHS. So if they're not civil right away, consistency and patience is key. Hope that helps.

PS. Just saw your post on risks, and like humans, there are many. That's why quarantine is important.

[Charlie]

Apr 27, 2022 5:52:55 GMT -5 ferratious said:

Thank you for such useful info.

Just to clarify. She is not newcomer, he is. And he doesn't have his own his cage. We live in a country where it is kinda illegal to keep ferrets in cages that are smaller than 5 square meters and to find cage that is exact that size is next to impossible. Thats why our female's cage is just glorified bed/cave for her to hide or have safe haven if she needs one, but it is always kept open in a room she is in.

Can it work with them being in seperate rooms with just short interactions with her being in her cage while he is outside of it? And then switch them by putting him to check her cage and her to check room where he spends all his time?

Also you mentioned possible deseases. Our breeder did mandatory vaccine shots to them as their were just kits that cover major threats from outside, like canine distemper and rabies. Is there other risks we should know about?

It really doesn't matter who the new comer is, but the new comer still should have a 2 week quarantine.  The distemper and rabies shots won't stop other things like ECE.  It's a bacteria.  It's still possible to get from the new ferret if the breeder has brought in new ferrets into their business and haven't quarantined them.  Now even though they came from the same litter or breeder, the 2 ferrets haven't been together in a while so they have become strange to each other.  I think it may be because his hormones are raging and he wants her.  And as previously mentioned, wait until the chemical castration has taken effect.  So I wouldn't have them interacting until after that.

No, you won't want to keep her in the cage and him outside of the cage because he will be able to climb the cage and you can't stop her from getting close to the cage and him reaching in to grab her.  Yes, you can switch rooms with them so they can spend time in each other's spaces but not together in the same space at the same time.  Watch their reactions.  If he seems like he's trying to hunt for her in her room it's not time yet.  If she is in his room and she pees or poops or running to hide then she's not ready either.  It will take time.  Some ferrets bond quickly and other ferrets may never bond or take a very long time before they become civil to each other. For short interactions you can hold them separate and they can still see and smell each other from a distance.