Domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are becoming more and more commonpets. But people still don't know basic morphological and behavioural differences between european ferret (Mustela putorius) and sub-species mentioned above. The public widely believes that ferrets are dangerous. Purpose of this graduation thesis was to introduce the chosen species, to explain issues with biting, to find the causes of such behaviour and to describe appropriate and inappropriate methods to discourage biting. Methods included review of articles about ferret biting, observation of behaviour, ethogram elaboration, online questionaire for ferret owners and it's statistical analysis. 75 questionaires were answered and analysed. Data was processed with IBM Statistics SPSS 20. Variable properties demanded use of non-parametric tests. Data collected via ferret behaviour observation was transformed into an ethogram. Results show that ferrets don't bite very often, when they do, it's mostly during play and that older ferrets bite more often than younger ferrets. Most aproppriate and most frequently used methods of disciplination are time-out, scruffing and raised voice.
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