So, you think you may have a deaf ferret?

You say he bites and you cant break him from it?

Maybe he bites harder than your other ferrets?

He bullies the other ferrets and doesn't stop when they scream?

You may have a deaf ferret indeed.

How do you stop him from biting when he can’t hear you?

How do you get him to come to you when he cant hear you calling him?

Well the same method for stopping ferrets biting can be used on deaf ferrets, but first of all you have to understand how he feels. Most ferrets are jumpy little critters and a deaf ferret is going to be even more so, since he can't hear anything if you come up from behind or if your picking him up before he is awake you may just  startle him into biting you. Even I'm known to jump and bite when I'm snuck up on :)

Other Ferret interaction

  Our ferrets here have learnt to be wary of Ida and know when they have upset her they go and hide until she has forgotten about them. Ferrets have this unwritten law that if they scream the other ferret lets go! Well Ida knows this rule because she screams she just cant hear when the other ferret screams. Ida plays fine with the other ferrets although she is much in her own little world most of the time, often she goes off discovering by herself and is never very far from me but when the other ferrets play their rough and tumble games Ida is included and if one of them gets too rough she will let them know !! what they don't know is she cant hear them scream so they think she is mean :(

Approaching and waking

My little girl Ida is deaf and I always make sure she knows its me before picking her up and she always makes sure its me before coming to me. When approaching her I will open my arms wide and clap I know she cant hear the clap but she does feel the breeze and sometimes will catch a glimpse out of the corner of her eye with my over exaggerated movements and it works for us :) If she is asleep I will rub her belly and gently blow on her she knows its me and its time to play her eyes shoot wide open.

When Ida bites (which is very rare these days) I pick her up, looking her straight in the eye and tell her NO in a very firm not raised voice I know she doest hear me but I do know she can see the frown on my face. Afterwards I will give her a snuggle and kiss and put her back down. These days I still get a nip now and again usually when kissing her and usually its my nose or lip this is the hard part you can't pull a ferret off otherwise you end up with blood and screaming doesn't work .... I've tried :)  So try to remain calm and wait till she releases but better off , try to avoid the situation.

When I'm going to give her snuggles and kisses I hold the little darlings head in my hand gently holding those little jaws shut give her lots of kisses, belly raspberries and "I love you" spoken onto her belly. I have also found that what works with a hearing ferret will also work with one that is deaf. 

A Wonderful Deaf ferret site to visit :

http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv/deaf-behavior.html

Blind ferrets is still under constuction if you can HELP! Please leave me a message.

All ferrets have bad eyesight ...

Blind ferrets can get around just fine, they make a mental map in there head , so you  have to take a few precautions when moving the furniture or adding something new to the house. To see them play you would never know.

So you see don't think because a ferret is blind or deaf that its not going to be able to have a normal ferret life and have ferret friends. As with everything, love and patience is the key and when your little fuzzy has learns to trust you.

 You will find you have a faithful, fabulously funny little friend that will give you back every ounce of love you give him and then some.   

We are not  vets and do not claim to be experts on the subject.