# Anti-social with other ferrets



## SarahLily (May 18, 2012)

So i've been taking Bramley, roughly 10month old gill, into the rescue that I volunteer in - they have roughly 10ish ferrets there, and we tried mixing Bram in with a few of them.

Firstly a really happy go lucky girl, who I adore, but after about half an hour Bramley really went for her, and the poor girl was petrified, too much so for us to try and mix them again over the next few days.

We then tried her with another non-submissive ferret, but they both just attacked eachother.

We then tried her with three boys, separately, and she 'beat up' the first one quite quickly, eventually went for the second (who was apparently the dominant male out of the male group) and the third, she mostly ignored for about an hour until she eventually repeatedly tried to go for him.

It did seem that she was getting better and better as we went along, she did look like she was attempting to play at times, but for the most part acted completely disinterested. 

If I persist in mixing her and getting her used to other ferrets, is it likely she will eventually socialise normally?

She came to me at roughly 7 months as a stray, so I have no idea whether she's lived with another ferret previously - I have been wondering if perhaps she's been taken away from mum too soon (sold in a dodgy pet shop most likely) and so doesn't know how to interact properly?


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## DKDREAM (Sep 15, 2008)

Hi 

Is Bramley spayed do you know? also it is normal for ferrets to fight and bicker when introduced if they are both adult. If you want another ferret my advice would be wait until the rescue gets young kits in, she should accept a kit if she dosent accept a baby then she is one of these ferrets who are agressive towords others 95% of the time an adult will just accept kits with no fighting.


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## DKDREAM (Sep 15, 2008)

how bad was the fighting? it sounds like to me like they are just finding their place in the group. did she latch on and spin? or was it just screaming and nipping


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## Lavenderb (Jan 27, 2009)

DKDREAM said:


> how bad was the fighting? it sounds like to me like they are just finding their place in the group. did she latch on and spin? or was it just screaming and nipping


I'm wondering the same knowing how aggressive their 'play' can look when its all teeth and dooking lol. To an outsider it would seem they terrorise my dog but she enjoys it as much as they do. It's all noise and wrestling but never any blood.


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## oscar1658 (Oct 5, 2012)

funny but ive started to wear gloves with my oscar if he really wants a battle! iyts really good as hes gentle until he sees the gloves are on and he starts dooking


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## SarahLily (May 18, 2012)

Really sorry for the delayed reply!

Yes I had her spayed about 2 months ago.

The ferrets in the rescue that she mixed with all ranged from 6 months - 12months.

At times it looked as though she was trying to play, and I was quite hopefully, however she would then jump on top of the other ferret and try to latch onto his/her neck, sometimes they would see her coming and manage to 'block' her with their behind, and run away, but others she just lunged straight at them and latched onto their neck.

They were screaming and some of them sprayed quite badly, there were atleast two that, when we tried mixing them again the next day, just refused to be in the same pen as her again, and were clearly really scared of her.  

I'm taking her back in a week or so to try again, she definitely did get better every time, as though she was kind of getting used to other ferrets.


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## DKDREAM (Sep 15, 2008)

it sounds like she was just trying to see who was boss, ferrets need to sort that out its not common for ferrets just to accept eachother without any bickering at all, and if the rescue keep swapping her then she may feel stressed, my advice would be get a 12-14 week old kit and watch her with the kit.


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