How big should a full-grown male ferret get? Also having disciplinary problems.?

Question

length and weight please, my 'little' guy just keeps getting bigger! Also his biting seems to be getting worse, i know he's still a baby and he's teething, but some of his bites are quite agressive, i've tried scruffing and raising my voice, i've had female ferrets who have respoded to this but he seems to retaliate more. should i just keep this up till he gets a bit older?

Answer 1

Five pounds is the biggest I've seen in the ferret groups here in our city. A 'big' male is pretty long, with a body (not including tail) of about 15". When holding him under the armpits the fingers of your hand don't even meet.

Three pounds is more the norm though. And some males are female size, about 2 pounds.

There are ferret lists, join one and check with some other ferret owners how they handle the hard nippers. (Remember that you can put bitter apple on your hands, they hate the taste of that).

Answer 2

Kits get repeated vet appointments, anyway, so get a general health check and also have his teeth checked. In over a quarter century with ferrets we have had 3 ferrets who had dental eruption problems. For two their faces were too short so there was not enough room for comfortable teething. In fact, one had a molar erupt through his palate and required surgical removal.

Another came to us as a battered kit. She was biting, but the people in the store never noticed that she had retained a kit canine which had become entrapped and an abscess had formed. While still there I had them bring me a pair of tweezers and slid out that canine which should have been shed. It was followed by an volcano of pus. The ferret immediately got relief, looked shocked, turned to me and gave me kisses, and never bit anyone again. Of course, she went right to the vet in case the infection had spread to the bone.

If there is not a medical cause then I know the PERFECT site for you to learn about training a problem ferret, with multiple approaches. Not all of the links from it impressed me positively the last time I looked, but the pages of this particular site themselves are wonderful:
intro:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probintro.html
then
Index:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probindex.html
then
understanding why:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probmed.html
then
thinking like a ferret (with subsections):
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probhead.html
then
where you fit in:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probyou.html
finally
success stories:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probstories.html

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

Answer 3

It sounds like yours is going to grow up to be a big guy. As for the biting, there is a pet friendly spray called apple bitter that I've found useful. You spray it on yourself wherever he keeps biting you and it makes you taste terrible. It won't hurt him but it will leave a bad taste in his mouth every time he bites. If you're consistent with it, he should eventually learn not to bite.

Answer 4

Take a look at my pic's and you can see most of my male ferrets

Answer 5

It is usually the size of a "kid" cat...not kitten but stage between kitten and Cat. Hope I sorta helped!