Dear Ferret Folks-

As Anne in Chicago noted, no, a day in the cage will not KILL your
ferrets. I know this for a fact because mine have spent the occasional
day in the cage over the years that I have had ferrets, and I have
never found them dead the next morning, little articulated weasel
skeletons curled up in their hammies like museum displays.

They did however give me that *look* that let me know they were *not*
pleased, no, not at all. Well, I would not be pleased to spend 24
hours in a cage, either. I would get bored and cranky and stiff and
resentful. It's a given. Twenty four hours must seem like a very long
time for little animals that seem to live from moment to moment, almost
in freeze frame, when they are not conked out in death sleep, of
course.

But in many cases there is an alternative. The bathroom. Just a few
minutes of ferret-proofing makes the average bathroom a great Time Out
place when you positively cannot give them their usual and deserved
Time Out in the house itself. Take an empty laundry basket. Put
anything you don't want the ferrets to have, like loose cosmetics or
drugs or knick-knacks into the basket. Put the basket just outside the
bathroom door, where it all stays together and nothing gets lost, and
you don't have to do a lot of carrying. Close the toilet lid. It seems
hard to believe, but I have it on good authority that ferrets can and
*do* drown in toilets. Potted plants? Put them out near the basket.

Put ferret toys and blankies in the bathroom. Some in the tub, too.
If your shower curtain is a fabric they could climb, flip it up over
the shower pole. I drape the bath mat over the edge of the tub so that
they can climb in and out easily, and so that they don't poop on it.
I put their food and water dishes in the tub for easy clean up. Most
bathrooms have vinyl flooring, so dookies are easy to clan up.

Now here is the real beauty of the closed bathroom. Say you are not
feeling well? You can even put the ferrets in there *overnight* when
the bathroom doesn't get much use and there is low escape risk. The
ferrets are just happy to be *out*. They will play in there, not just
sleep. They will get up around dawn and romp and stomp while you are
asleep, warm in your hammie in another room.

You'll be happy, they'll be happy. Isn't this better than the 24 hour
cage option? The real problem with the 24 hour cage is that it's so
easy, you start doing it more and more, reasoning that "well, it didn't
kill them last time." No, but it's a very bad habit to fall into.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 5748]