jills

Question
My son has two jill ferrets which are sisters and has had them together since they were weened from mum.They are now about a year old and we have just had them mated by infertile male. when they came back one of the jills as just started to drag the other around by the scruff of her neck and she won't let go. she is sometimes making her squeal. Why is this and can we stop it or will it stop naturally, we have split them at the moment to give the jill a rest from her. was this the right thing to do?  

Answer
Hi Diana,

It sounds as though the one female is just trying to re-establish her dominance in the house, I'd just let them go through what they need to in order to get the pecking order back to normal. I would not break them up unless there is blood shed or "fear pooping". If you break them up every time they try to re-establish the pecking order they will have to start over again each time they see one another so I'd just let it get done in one go instead of a never ending cycle.

I'd also suggest going ahead and getting them spayed to lessen the chance of them getting mammary tumors (breast cancer) and/or pyometria (infection of the uterus) which are very real and very dangerous conditions that can occur in any unspayed mammal.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Adrienne Mortimer
(from the other side of the pond!)