Your Ferret Training
Ferrets as a part of their natural behavior nips. It is not really biting like others would claim. In fact, nipping is their way of playing. If pinching becomes hard, that would mean that they feel that they are harmed. Their nipping is like what puppies would do. In the natural habitat, the parents of ferrets will do the teaching on not to bite but when we become the owner we become responsible of teaching them.
Ferret training must start as soon as possible. If nipping is not stopped from the start, it becomes a habit hard to break. To help you out, the simple method of drawing his attention will be good enough already. You can utter word like ‘ouch’, ‘hey’ or ‘ow’ will indicate that you are hurt. Try not to scream because that will only excite the ferret more. If his nipping persists, you can cut his action by turning away. It will make him realize that his act is unacceptable and you will not get near him until he stops is his nipping.
If your technique in nipping does not work, you have to put him in his cage for sometime. This way, he will be quieter because an aroused ferret tends to nip. The worst punishment he will get is that you will stop playing with him. You will notice that the most basic principle of stopping the undesirable behavior is when you withdraw your attention and when you stop the playtime. It will be effective also when you give measure and positive attention if the play is done without any nipping. You have to show that more attention will be given if there is no pinching.
In some cases, the task of ferret training is easy but there are hard situations too. A lot of ferret owners would do scuffing or gently shaking in order to stop the nipping. You can also pin the ferret down until his excitement dies down. Scruffing your ferret is said to be the most impelling. This is done by holding the loose skin on the back of the neck. Be warned that there could be a bad effect to ferrets especially the ones who are reacting badly or strongly to physical restraints. Before doing some rastic measures in stopping nipping, you also have to understand that there are underlying reasons why ferrets nip.
There are ferrets which have been treated badly and punishing them physically will only make them fearful and will not trust you.
