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Post by angelfish on Feb 10, 2011 18:24:52 GMT -5
I think one of my girls is deaf. She doesn't seem to notice sounds like my other two, jingle balls get no effect and squeaky toys are the same. I got her in mid-December from someone who was nice, but not very knowledgeable about ferrets. She wasn't litter trained, she ate only Meow Mix, and she was a terrible foot-nipper. I was told, but don't really believe, that she and her bedmate had been introduced to a cat and got along well with him. Well, she does not. When she sees my cats or dog, she makes a direct beeline for them, nips at them, and holds on for dear life. Seriously, I've never seen a ferret move that fast. I've also seen her try to jump on the cats back. The thing is, I'm not sure if she' trying to play with the cats or hunt them. I've never seen her run so fast when she's playing with her cagemates. Everyone is separated, obviously, but when we want to ferrets in the living room, the cats have to be locked away in the bedroom. I was wondering if anyone has any experience introducing deaf ferrets to other animals. Ideally, I'd like everyone to get along relatively well. As far as her other bad habits, she's come a long way. She's mostly on raw, but still kibble fed at night. She's litter trained in the cage; we're still working on outside. While she still nips feet, she seems to get the point that if she nips feet she's going to get scruffed and given a gentle shake. (I tried timeouts and she couldn't care less. EVERY time she came back out she went straight for my feet. )
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 10, 2011 19:52:57 GMT -5
I've had ferrets on all sides of the spectrum with other animals, my deaf girl Precious (RIP) was the best with my dogs, she wasn't afraid of them in the least and loved to hang out and play with them. I've had some who are super afraid of the dogs, some who ignore them, some who want to play, same with the cat, some want to nip her ankles and take her down and others really just want to sniff and play with her, my cat wants nothing to do with the ferrets so she just jumps out of reach, runs away or smacks them.
However I don't really care if my animals get along, the cat knows to stay away, the dogs generally are put up if the ferrets are out just because the risk is far too great of injury, even with a cat if a ferret nips them they could get a nasty bite or scratch in return. Some cats get along great with ferrets, but many don't like how nippy and rough they can be.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 10, 2011 21:07:01 GMT -5
I've got a hearing ferret who's like that with the cats. They basically learned to stay out of her way. As for the time outs- it sometimes take a few weeks to have an effect on the more...willful...ones ;D But sooner or later, it does work, lol! My deafies NEVER took to being scruffed. One became a revenge biter(well- let's face it, she was from day one!). Scruff her, she'd yawn, then immediately lunge for you and bite when you let her go. The second was abused, and would scream and twist to sink her teeth in if you so much a threatened a scruff.
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Post by angelfish on Feb 11, 2011 0:07:30 GMT -5
I suppose by "getting along" I really mean "ignore each other". :-P The other to furbrats are fine with the dog and cats. They walk up, sniff, cat/dog walks away, they sniff and move on. Sugar, on the other hand, really GOES for them. Sometimes I wonder if she'd be good at catching a mouse. (I'm afraid she would leave the killing of a maimed mouse up to me though so I'm not about to try). I prefer time outs myself. Pita, our baby, responded much better to timeouts than to scruffing. When we hadn't gotten anywhere with Sugar in a month, I figured we need to switch tactics. We literally couldn't be in the room without a white ferret at our feet trying to nip AT ALL TIMES. The person who gave her to us said she liked to nip toes, but it was ridiculous. Single-minded obsession is what it was. Actually, come to think of it, she used to go for our feet like she goes for the cats. When she saw feet, bare or otherwise, she instantly stopped whatever she was doing and beelined to nip them (and not softly either). Playtime was impossible when all she wanted to do was nip. 'Course she's a snuggle-puss now. Her screams are sometimes disquieting though. When there's an argument over sleep spots or she's being picked on (I think it's because she's not in the mood to play), you can hear them from the other side of the room. That's my first hint that she may be deaf because I've never heard ANY ferret makes those sounds. I watch them play when I hear her scream and, usually, the other ferret isn't mouthing/biting at the point where she's vocalizing. They may have a paw on her but her sounds don't coincide with her being hurt. Sometimes she makes little squeaks in her sleep too. She's an odd little duck.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 11, 2011 0:33:45 GMT -5
That's a deaf ferret for you Scream, hiss, bark, dook, whimper, etc. And all usually inappropriately as well. Hissing when they should dook, dooking when they should scream, and so on! As you have found out- they are really different. The nipping/biting is because they don't cue in to verbal, like any other ferret. And let's face it- they are generally a very vocal species! So not having that particular sense really has these little ones at a disadvantage. Actually- here's a really good site on deaf ferrets, tons of tips: wolfysluv.terrabox.com/blind_ferrets.html Just scroll to the very bottom of the page, and you'll see the link for the deafies.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 1:02:34 GMT -5
I'm sorry I don't have any experience with introducing deaf pets to other deaf pets, but I thought you might like this video if you haven't seen it already and if you have even the slightest doubt as to whether it is truly deaf -
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 1:19:34 GMT -5
I wish I had some advice for you...our Akiko is deaf, but introducing her to the cats was easy. She was checking out a room, the cats jumped in to check her out (we already knew they were good with ferts), she gave them a good sniffing over while they did the same to her, and that was it. She actually gets along great with them, I catch her grooming their ears and she'll pounce them sometimes but they're pretty good natured about it and play back if they're in the mood or walk off if they aren't. I'd just take it slow, closely supervise their time together and treat her attacking the cats just like you did her attacking your toes...deafies may be harder to communicate with but they're as smart and stubborn as any other fert, I'm sure she'll catch on that cats are just as inappropriate as feet for nipping. Maybe you could try distracting her while they're around too, divert her attention to a teaser with a mouse on the end... Even if you're afraid of trying her with a live mouse, it doesn't make a mess to drag around a frozen or fake one and it might remind her of what appropriate prey is .
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Post by joan on Feb 12, 2011 13:26:24 GMT -5
Every hob I've ever had has treated my cats like prey by the time they hit 3-4 months; ie, chase and try to get them by the neck. It became very obvious that any atttempts to train them out of this behavior was a lost cause, as their prey drive was too strong. The jills tend to ignore the cats after being slapped in the face a few times for trying to jump them. While the cats do occasionally play with the jills if they're in the mood, they learned to head for higher ground when they encountered a ferret if they wanted to be left alone.
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Post by Heather on Feb 12, 2011 23:12:36 GMT -5
I only have farm ferrets, except for Odin and Thor but I wouldn't be comfortable to allow my guys to play with small kittens. I have large cats (fat cats ). The three boys all exceed 15 lbs. They are 14 yrs old and have little desire to play with the ferrets. The ferrets on the other hand fall into two groups...the ones that really couldn't care less about the cats and the other group who I've never been quite sure if they're playing with the cats or hunting the cats. Let's just say that the game may amuse the ferrets but the cats are not happy about it. The game usually involves the ferret either grabbing the cat by the neck or throat very similar to how they hunt rats or grabbing at their soft underbelly at the inside of the hind legs again very similar to how they hunt rats that are too large for them to use a strangle grasp. I've had to on a number of occasions found the need to intercede on the behalf of the poor cat who cannot unlatch a ferret from a soft spot. Having watched my guys hunt larger prey, I wouldn't be comfortable allowing small kittens to play with even my smallest fuzz. I know that some of you have cats and ferrets who are best friends, I've spent close to $1000 to repair the damage done by my one cat to one of my ferrets. Both creatures are creatures of the hunt. Both very well able to do serious damage to the other and in my opinion (and that's all it is ) to be handled with care when in the company of one another. ciao
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Post by Sherry on Feb 12, 2011 23:30:22 GMT -5
Now that IS interesting. I can understand why Watson is so paranoid about Zeus and Suki. That is exactly what they do with him, going from behind to bite/nip him there. They don't seem to attack "with intent", but he's very nervous when they are behind him. I've even found him(10lbs) cowering against a stair riser with Suki(1lb) "overwhelming" him by jumping on and over him nonstop. Yes, I intervened.
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Post by Heather on Feb 13, 2011 0:09:37 GMT -5
It very much reminds me of the gutting of an animal on the run. I've seen my guys do this in the hunt they did on the rat. Let's just say it makes me uncomfortable enough that I will move in and break it up. It makes me nervous enough that I will never bring in a kitten into the house. I usually adopt adult cats anyway but watching my guys hunt makes me realize that I just couldn't risk the life of a baby kitten ciao
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Post by Sherry on Feb 13, 2011 0:15:39 GMT -5
You're right in that, especially as they have a lot of experience in hunting. All it would take is the kitten running in play for the prey instinct to kick in
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Post by tinytippytoes on Feb 13, 2011 9:00:21 GMT -5
Her screams are sometimes disquieting though. When there's an argument over sleep spots or she's being picked on (I think it's because she's not in the mood to play), you can hear them from the other side of the room. That's my first hint that she may be deaf because I've never heard ANY ferret makes those sounds. I watch them play when I hear her scream and, usually, the other ferret isn't mouthing/biting at the point where she's vocalizing. They may have a paw on her but her sounds don't coincide with her being hurt. Sometimes she makes little squeaks in her sleep too. She's an odd little duck. Do you know deaf people are not always quiet either? I know a few deaf people who grunt all the time. They cant hear that they are making sounds so they naturally grunt. Deaf ferrets I'm assuming must be the same. I know of dogs (deaf)when they are puppies become aggressive when they are not taught sign language because they have no way else of responding. They get frustrated quite easily and become biters.
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 13, 2011 9:45:40 GMT -5
It makes me nervous enough that I will never bring in a kitten into the house. I usually adopt adult cats anyway but watching my guys hunt makes me realize that I just couldn't risk the life of a baby kitten ciao My group of 3 from my friend can't kill a mouse for anything, but they were trying to kill kittens at their own home, which is why they ended up with me, apparently the people couldn't safely keep momma cat/kittens separated from the ferrets and came home to tug of war with kitten one day. kitten was fine btw. When I had a larger group here they used to try to take down my cat, a couple jump on her back, some at her ankles, actually managed to drag her down one time, most people don't believe that about them but I definately think a bunch of ferrets could pose a risk to a cat if they wanted to. She knows to steer clear now, she's nuts about food but will no longer jump into their room no matter how much she wants it.
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Post by angelfish on Feb 13, 2011 12:28:04 GMT -5
You know, that makes sense. We know to worry about a dog's prey instinct, but we don't think about the fuzzy 2 lb carnivore's prey instinct.
My cats don't fight back when Sugar nips at them which I find strange because they'll fight other cats and each other on occasion. Both my cats hunt smaller creatures but when they met the ferrets they didn't know what to do. My hypothesis is that the ferrets don't smell like prey; they must give off signals that they're predators, but they don't look or smell like cats, so they're confused.
We figured out how to use a piece of glass from an old desk as a gate, so now we don't have to keep the door closed and sequester people in there anymore. The cats sit on one side and stare and the ferrets sit on the other and stare. Thankfully, no one has figured out how to climb the glass yet. (I think Spice is tall enough to get out if he tried to jump, but he hasn't figured that out yet). My one cat will jump the gate to get to the pet fountain on occasion, but she makes a run for it if she sees anyone headed toward her.
As much as I'd like to have everyone have access to the whole apartment, I'd rather not put anyone in harm's way.
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