Hissing ferret

Question
QUESTION: I have a 5 month old jill, and we have just been through the no biting routine.  
however as of recently it appears now that every time I try to hold her or pick
her up or just be in the same room as her she hisses at me. Also if she
misses a jump or cant reach at the thing she wants to destroy she hisses at
that too!
I understand that this means that she is annoyed and angry, but she hisses
more times than not now. she is coming up to be desexed soon but I'm
worried that this will make no difference to her increasingly cranky moods.
I was wondering if there is anyway to stop this behaviour and make her less
annoyed and angry!



ANSWER: This may sound like a poor answer, but a lot of the behavior may be related to her being intact.  Once she is spayed, give it a couple of weeks, then email me again to tell me if it is still a problem.  A lot of the behavior is probably related to hormones and her coming into season - even though she is only 5 months, the breeding season is here and that could be a huge contributing factor.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I wrote to you a while ago regarding a "behaviorally" challenged ferret. I have recently gotten her spayed and the issues I mentioned earlier have still not settled down. She still remains hissy and extremely cranky and annoyed. She has up until now been allowed to roam our house freely, but I now feel insecure about letting her roam unsupervised as she gets into every corner - even the top of our wardrobe and throws items off the shelf!! Is there anything I can do, or do I accept that she will never settle down?

Answer
I'll start with the easier one - ferrets get into everything which is why we don't generally recommend free-roaming them.  They can get into anything the size of their head so any room they are in should be carefully ferret proofed.  Regarding the behavior, now that she is spayed you should be able to slowly get her used to being held and being around you.  Be patient with her and try to figure out what it is she is bothered by, specifically.