Since i got my second ferret, Jazzmyn, my first ferret Fiona is acting up and sometimes will not sleep in her cage all night. She will bite the bars to her cage and rattle the cage until i take her out again, after she has already had at least 2-3 hours out, and I let her run around again for an hour or more before she plops into her favorite corner for a nap. I then carefully lift her and put her gently into her cage, and sometimes she starts her rattling all over again.
Most of the time, she happily sleeps in her cage with Jazzmyn and has no issue at all. Is this common, for them to have restless nights occassionally? Am i "spoiling" her by taking her out when she does make a fuss? She has 10 good nights for every one night where she just won't stay in her cage. A little background: she was a solo ferret for only about 3 months when we got Jazzmyn, and that was about 1 month ago, so i know its still pretty new for her to have a cagemate. Its a 3-level cage, so avoiding each other if they need to should not be too difficult. On average, they get one hour of "out time" in the morning before i got to work, and 3 hours of out time at night, until they crawl off to a corner to fall out.
thanks.
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ferret with bedtime tantrums.
Replies (3)
You've taught her that rattling the cage bars will get her more out time. You may never completely undo that habit now. I've had one little girl for about 4 yrs. She came to me doing it and although I've never let her out when she's rattled the cage she still does it. Unfortunately, one of my cages would open when she did it and reinforced the behavior. Just quit letting her out and eventually the behavior will become less frequent.
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I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it.
Thanks for the input. I have heard that ferrets can go through Terrible Twos-like phases early on, and i attributed the behavior to that, but i guess you are right and i have reinforced it. I just get concerned about her biting the bars because i have actually seen small blood stains on the white bars after she does it if she doesnt get her way. She is a stubborn little fuzzy!
Yeah, you do have to be careful with them doing that. I had a little boy come to me with broken fangs because he had gotten cage rage while his previous owners boarded him at the vet. When Pirogue was really bad about it I would put bitter apple on the bars so they'd taste nasty. It did help deter her some.
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I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it.
