I need some advice/opinions on my ferrets please. Basically, I have recently (as in 2 days ago) rescued two new ferrets. They are both male, recently castrated and quite young. I have owned ferrets for a number of years now, and rescued each and every one of them. In the past introductions have gone extremely smoothly and within a day or two the new arrival has been living with the current fuzzies quite happily. Now, I know it is very early days yet, but one of the new ones has settled in happily with my other three. It took about a day for them to really accept him, but they slept in the same bed last night and have spent two days together with little supervision.

The other new ferret is a different matter. He seems to be quite the bully. He's obviously been trying to assert himself with my older three, and to be honest they don't seem too bad. However, put him anywhere near the other new male and they fight tooth and nail. Is this normal? I know that introductions between ferrets are noisy and look quite nasty, but this is more than that. They do the 'crocodile death roll' whenever they get one another, and the larger one 'rags' the other (he shakes his head violently when holding the scruff/neck of the other).

What I'm basically worried about is that they won't get along. I understand this may take several weeks, and even months to settle down, and they have only /just/ been castrated. How do you suggest I go about trying to get these two boys to like each other?

How long have they been castrated for?

it can take 8 weeks for hormones to settle, if it's been longer than this then looks like you may have to accept they won't get on, what you describe is agressive behaviour and not just sorting a pack order out, i woudn't keep trying them if thats how they react the least dominant is going to end up with a very bad neck wound not to mention stress.

If they have been castrated less thn 8 weeks then leave them untill their hormones are settled and try again on neutral ground.

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Tiggy, 13 yr old Collie x Alsation, Lucy 11 yr old epileptic cross breed, Kara, collie x whippet

Both been just over a week. So I'm hoping that it is just the hormones that are causing the problem. Now, since posting last I have continued frequent but short introductions with them and to be honest they seem to be getting a little better. They have now started to play for short periods. Also, they have switched roles, it is now the smaller one that was being bullied that's actually starting the tussles. This usually happens in stages, they play, (chasing each other and 'dancing') Then they start to play fight, then for some reason they get serious again and I have to seperate them.

But I will certainly try again when they've settled down a bit more. Both are very lovely ferrets, and I'd hate to keep one on their own, so I am fervently hoping that they sort this out. Thank you for your advice, I shall remember it

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Proud owner of 4 dogs--Cody, Babe, Ella and Bridie. 2 cats - Klimt and Mia, 5 ferrets -- Leola, Drucilla, Tommy, Spike and Pippin and 1 horse -- Puzzle

Hi given it's only been a week then thats why, i have had to split up hobs that have been together all winter.

My guess is you will be just fine, but after just a week they still have all the hormones as if they were entire, just leave them for another couple of weeks it sounds like they will be fine, we usually say four weeks before they become infertile but it can take upto 8 weeks before being fully infertile and hormoneless.

If you need any more info please ask, i've had ferrets for 15 years and run a rescue so i've encountered pretty much everything

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Tiggy, 13 yr old Collie x Alsation, Lucy 11 yr old epileptic cross breed, Kara, collie x whippet

Well.... it's been three weeks, but they have finally spent the whole day together.... unsupervised..... in the pen. They all went to the vets this morning for a general health check, and other than the new boys being a little over weight (which I knew about, the rescue centre over fed them) Everyone is A-ok. They have been put in the same bed over night and I'm just hoping that everything will be ok.

It should be, they've been sleeping in the same bed all day, just not locked away. I am very happy that they have finally got to like each other, and in fact wont leave one anothers side. I always had a sneaky suspicion that they would become best buds.

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Proud owner of 4 dogs--Cody, Babe, Ella and Bridie. 2 cats - Klimt and Mia, 5 ferrets -- Leola, Drucilla, Tommy, Spike and Pippin and 1 horse -- Puzzle

Well done for persevering, I'm sure there'll be the odd spat, but hopefully now it won't be serious

Thanks. Yeah, I'll still be on the watch just in case. But they've been fine over night and like I said before, now won't leave each others sides. It's certainly been a challenge for me. All of my other ferrets have literally got along within the first day and didn't 'fight' (of course they had scuffles to work out dominance but they were extremely short lived) So it has been a working progress. I'm glad that Mr Pippin can finally play with the others all the time instead of being shut away in a different pen.

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Proud owner of 4 dogs--Cody, Babe, Ella and Bridie. 2 cats - Klimt and Mia, 5 ferrets -- Leola, Drucilla, Tommy, Spike and Pippin and 1 horse -- Puzzle