While I do understand that a lot of people have busy lives (I am
working on a PhD right now, and any of you who have been through the
white tower of academia mill know that most mentors delight in making
you work cruel hours just to see if you "can", etc), I never use this
as an excuse for putting my own needs above those of my fuzzies on a
regular basis.

I suppose it comes down to asking yourself if your fuzzies needs are
as important to you as your own/those of your family. If they are not,
then it would seem ridiculous to stress over not allowing them out of
cage time each day. However if, like me, they are as important to you
as your own...well imagine that your mother locked you up in a small
room for a day or two (providing you rations of food and water and a
few toys) when you were a child because she was simply too busy to deal
with you or had a bad headache. This might seem like an extreme case
to many, but things of a similar nature actually happened to me when I
was a child, so I am probably one of the few people on the FML who can
actually empathize with fuzzies who do not get enough time out of their
cages. Of course, they may not be capable of the feelings of rejection
a child would feel in this situation (which is debatable), but I am
certain they are subject to the feelings of frustration and confusion.

Also, as a point of perspective, would you lock your dog or cat in a
crate for a day or two at a time with food/water/pee pads and a toy or
two? Or do you provide them with safe environments either inside or
outside your home to be free to explore, play, and enrich their lives?
These are questions I ask myself when making decisions about how my
fuzzies are treated. I would not treat other intelligent, carnivore
pets this way, so why the fuzzies?

As others have mentioned, you could at least provide a safe play
environment for them where they don't need much supervision to run
around in for a few hours a day. A ferret-proofed bathroom (with child
locks on the cabinet doors and a small piece of wood or two nailed into
strategic places) makes a great play place. Ferret toys roll nicely on
linoleum and tile floors. Also, you can buy one of those 11 panel play
pens with the vinyl liner for your fuzzies to play in. Put a long tube,
some toys, and a box of rice in there for enrichment (just make sure
it's shallow and in the center...one of my craftier kids can use this
as launch pad to jump over the 3 foot or so barrier...other than that I
have no issues with escapes, etc....if you do, put a board or piece of
plexiglass over the top for an easy, cheap fix).

Playpen:

<http://www.ferret.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=650889&Category=Ferret%20Cages&subCategory=Ferret%20Playpens>

I am not trying to lay judgment on those who do lock their fuzzies
up for long periods (though I do not agree with it, I don't feel I'm
morally superior to these individuals either). We all make our own
choices about what is acceptable and what is not. I do realize that
my perspective may be extreme to many, but I just wanted to provide
the rational from the other side of the argument. I would not leave
my child, dog, or cat locked up for days at a time if they were
inconvenient to me, so I would not do the same to my fuzzy. The *only*
time my fuzzies have ever been locked up for more than few hours is in
situations where it absolutely could not be avoided...e.g. we went on
vacation for a weekend and they were boarded at the vet's or they were
in the car with us in a large travel cage for 18 hours, etc.

As far as ferret-proofing goes, this baby gate is my favorite. It works
very well for us (as long as we don't mind stepping over it..hey, it
keeps me limber...we rent so can't really wall mount it, but that would
be most convenient for many I think), can be mounted for "swinging"
function, and is impossible for fuzzies to climb (I have a *bad*
climber, so I ought to know hehe). She *can* however, slip through the
one inch square hole that is created on one side when it is pressure
mounted to the wall. To solve this easily, I had some of those egg
cups that holds a single egg for eating soft-boiled eggs, etc) in the
drawer in the kitchen. When I pressure mount it, I put the "waist"
(slimmest part) of the egg cup between the gate and the wall. The
fuzzies absolutely cannot move or damage the egg cups (they are usually
made of hard plastic or ceramic), so it makes a cheap and easy fix.

The gate:

<http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265784&cp=&sr=1&f=Taxonomy%2FTRUS%2F2254197&origkw=baby+gate&kw=baby+gate&parentPage=search>

egg holders:

<http://www.tias.com/cgi-bin/google.fcgi/itemKey=1922424879>
(you can buy these very cheap at target, walmart, etc).

If you cannot afford 30$ for the baby gate, you can do what we have
done in our kitchen and front doorway (the baby gate is too small to
fit in these large door ways). We bought a cheap piece of particle
board from the home improvement store. You can nail it to the wall or
use hinges and latches if you want to get fancy and convenient (and you
own your home, so this type of modification would be ok). We rent, so
we just "weight" it against the wall with vittles vaults filled with
30lbs of food (a cooler full of hard-back books works in a pinch too).
If you have jumpers (we have one who can get over the 2.5 foot board),
then buy a suitable length of large PVC pipe (we use about 2 inch...I
think a large piece only cost us like 4 bucks at home depot) and use a
saw to cut it lengthwise. Force it over the board at the top. It should
fit tightly on it's own (if you don't cut the slit too large), and the
jumpers cannot get a grip on the smooth surface of the PVC. This
modified gate works great in our kitchen doorway and probably cost us
less than 10$.

We use these techniques to keep the fuzzies constrained to the living
and dining room areas, but this would also be a nice way to keep them
in the bathroom, if you need to, yet still have pretty easy access to
the room (by stepping over the board). Therefore, our fuzzies are fully
integrated into our lives (free-roam), and if we have very busy days
where we don't have a lot of time to play with them, etc, at least they
can run around these rooms and entertain themselves and each other
rather than being locked in (a rather large) cage (but still a cage,
nonetheless).

I hope someone finds this info helpful. I know I first read about the
baby gate here on the FML, and it has been so helpful to us.

Rachael

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[Posted in FML 5750]