Pet Forum

Does your ferret keep biting people? Dues he bite everyone? You are not alone! A lot of ferrets have a problem with behaving badly like this. Many of them will just grow out of it, but others will not unless you help them. I collected some information from ferret owners on how they got their ferret to stop biting people. I hope this helps someone.

1- I have found that if you hold it's head with one hand and it's trunk in the other and bite them back hard on the back of the neck until they scream, eventually, they'll realize humans will bite back. I have cured all of my biters within a week by doing this. Sounds a little cruel to the poor ferret, but this man says it workes. Is this animal cruelty? It's very close. I would personally never use this technique.

2- You will never get him to stop until you find out why the ferret is biting. Examine each situation in which he has bitten try to find some common denominators in the instances-if he is biting in play try giving him a time out. I have a ferret that bites when you sqeak a toy whoever has it will get bitten no matter what I've tried. We just don't play with those toys anymore. I have another ferret that is slow and quiet and will walk up to you and just bite. I don't know why I think she is trying to initiate play but she is old and her teeth are dull so I don't scuff her I just take it and try to get out of the way when I see her comming. All the rest of mine-with the exception of baby,understand we don't bite or we dont play. If they do they get put away that's it. I dont want them biting other people,if it were just me that handles them I wouldn't care but I am very mindful of what other people think of ferrets and what kind of problems I may encounter if one of mine bit the wrong person. So my advise to you is to find out or try to find out what's going on in his little mind,is he playing is he scared does he not feel good maybe he needs a vet trip? Is he very young and could he possibly be teething? Has he been mistreated who had him before you? Are you guys too rough when you play and maybe she feels threatened? Who knows? Before you go too far with discipline that isnt working try to find out his deal.

3- We use Bitter Apple, a spray bottle to correct bad behavior with him, and of course the scruff/drag method sometimes. But I will put my index finger in his mouth and lightly press on his tongue when he bites. When nip training you have to be consistent. Every time he nips he has to be corrected. You want him to associate the nipping with whatever corrective solution you chose to use. I know ferret nips sometimes if he gets excited and but since we've been trying to correct him, when he nip he'll run away because he knows it was bad. But they are like a little kid!!! You tell them not to touch that hot curling iron, and what do they do? They touch it anyway! But after they learn that that's HOT, they don't do it again.

I hope this helps some of you that are having problems with a biting ferret. If you have any other suggestions, please tell me.

That bitter apple spray really does work. We had a ferret that would not stop biting anyone that got within 3 feet of him. Within two days of getting the spray, he was cured. Good stuff!

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