I think the time I spent kind of ignoring her and just letting her do her thing was helpful. She doesn't jump every time theres a noise now, and she doesn't freak out when the screen saver changes on my computer anymore. This is a big change from the first week we got her. Grant tried to play with her by throwing her a blanket (which Marley and every other ferret I've ever had LOVES) and she let out this weird scream like I had never heard come out of a ferret. It shouldn't be funny, but after I got over the initial shock of hearing that noise I couldn't stop laughing. She actually seeks us out to play with us now, which is a step forward. This said, she is still pretty skittish (she frequently runs around the house with bottle brush tail for no apparent reason), which is something I'm not sure if she'll ever overcome.
She also spent a few days doing this weird dominance thing over Marley. If Meeka was in her cage and wanted out for playtime, she would scruff Marley and try to drag her around. Now Marley didn't look like she was in pain (she just yawned a lot like she was so over it), but it made me nervous. I think Meeka finally stopped doing it when she realized that it resulted in Marley getting out for playtime and her staying in the cage. It only lasted a few days.
She has effectively made a nest in my couch with discarded, crumpled up essay papers, and she has several hidey holes where she stashes all my stuff (which she believes is rightfully hers), so I think shes made herself at home and it's time to move onto the next step of applying some reinforcements.
Her biting has definitely calmed down now that shes used to us, to the point where sometimes she'll let me pick her up without the gloves sometimes, and not bite me. She also does this mild have bite sometimes where she doesn't actually bite, she just puts her teeth down on me, which I think is her way of warning me. I could live with that.
Shes really at risk to bite when she thinks shes playing, when she doesn't want to go back in her cage, when she is startled, or when she doesn't want to be picked up. So my plan of attack is this: let her out for good long playtimes until she tires herself out and to not startle her. I going to try handling her the most when shes wiped out from playing and doesn't have the energy to fight me. Depending on how I feel about her mood, I may still wear the gloves, or I may not. When she bites I'm going to use the same reinforcer I did when she was bullying Marley: Jail time. She seems to effectively associate it with something she isn't supposed to do, and it's the least mean of all the negative reinforcers, so I'm going to go with it. As a positive reinforcer, I'm going to hand feed her treats as much as I can, to associate myself with a treat.
Sorry there are no pictures this week, I'll post some later on in the week when my phone decides it wants to send my picture messages again.
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