Experience with ferrets?

[Jeanette]

My brother and his fiancée have two wonderful ferrets.
One is a male and the other is a female. Both are about the same age and both came from very reputable breeders.

They are both happy and as well behaved as ferrets get (no biting humans, etc.). However, Po (pronounced "Poe", short for Polar Bear, the male) has this weird habit of scruffing Taz (the smaller female) and dragging her around. Taz doesn't really seem to care and they both get along wonderfully. They sleep together, eat together, etc. and have never fought.

Po gets a 'time out' whenever he is caught doing this and doesn't do it after the time out. It's not a vicious/aggressive thing he's doing... he is just hyper. They have the ferrets out a lot and give them tons of exercise (they looooove to chase the dog, lol... the dog adores them).

So has anyone else had this problem? What do people recommend?

 

[obcsed]

I have 4 right now. None of them do the scruff and drag but I have had others in the past that did it. It is a dominance thing. As long as the one being dragged doesn't mind, it isn't a problem and usually just encourages a good retaliatory dance and tumble. If it starts to escalate to where the victim is screaming and running away, the male might be suffering from an adrenal problem and should be evaluated by an good ferret vet.

 

[Jeanette]

Do you think that all of the scruffing will harm her?
I don't want for her to have puncture wounds and them get infected.

Po is regularly checked by a vet, but I'll see if his adrenal glands have been checked.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Do you think that all of the scruffing will harm her?
I don't want for her to have puncture wounds and them get infected.

Ferrets have thick skin on their necks. When they are play fighting and such, this is usually the area that they go after the most. I wouldn't worry about a puncture or potential wound unless one shows up. Since she isn't protesting or screaming, he is probably not being overly aggressive with her or hurting her.

 

[threewingedfury]

Ferrets have thick skin on their necks. When they are play fighting and such, this is usually the area that they go after the most. I wouldn't worry about a puncture or potential wound unless one shows up. Since she isn't protesting or screaming, he is probably not being overly aggressive with her or hurting her.

Exactly. My Snowball does this to Isaac. Snowball is the oldest out of the crew, but she's the agressive one. Poor Isaac gets picked on all the time, he's the lazy dude of the bunch. When I let them out to play, he'll come and rest on my bed and lay next to me, and Snowball will come try to scruff him and try to make him play with her. She'll literally try to drag him off the bed. It doesn't hurt them, it's like a cat scruffing her kitten.