Posted by fullottermoon on April 16, 2003 at 04:11:02:
In Reply to: It\'s true! posted by s_simpson on April 14, 2003 at 08:28:18:
:I've had experience with a lot of ferrets and I can say the following....
:Males are harder to train because they're dumber. Now, I love ferrets, but I believe in calling a spade a spade. And boys are dumber than girls in the ferret world (and, my wife tells me, in other worlds as well! lol).
:As for the biting... Girls seem to be far more aggressive. If you played with my ferrets, there are only two who'd be a "bite risk" and they're both females. You could not provoke a bite from my males unless you really tried to hurt them.
:Interesting, the "crazy biters" -- the ones who seemingly just can't be trained or rehabilitated not to bite -- seem to be overwhelmingly boys.
:So, as for these nippy girls -- they're just being aggressive. They can be trained out of it with time and patience (most likely).
OK- maybe I misunderstood.... but you say that the females are easier to train yet they are more aggressive and can not be entirely trusted not to bite.... exept after training for awhile with time & patience- maybe.
Then you say that the males are harder to train (as it goes with so many male species - lol!) cuz they're not so bright. But, you say you cannot provoke a bite from your males unless you hurt them.
Now, maybe we're talking about different kinds of training. I was asking about the biting (maybe I didn't make myself clear- entirely possible! lol). As I said, the female that I had that was not entirely trustworthy- esp. near the face- I attributed to a neglectful past. Maybe it was just her nature- although I still believe that she suffered in the past. The thing is, I recently purchased an approx 5 month old male who is a handful, but then he's a ferret! The 3 females I handled at the same place gave nasty bites! A friend had to pry one of them from my finger! Do I want to deal with that in the future? What do you think? I've had 3 males and 1 female. Thanks!
Nancy
