> From: Rebecca Clayton <[log in to unmask]>
> My ferret is caged when I'm not home (unfortunately, for 12-14 hrs some days;
> this gainful employment thing has a definite down side!). She has been
> using a pet rodent type drip water bottle hung on the outside of her cage.
> Lately, she has knocked it down several times, and been left without water
> until I got home.  (Never more than 8-10 hrs, but I think that's too long!)
> I keep attatching it more firmly with more wire loops, but this just offers
 her
> a challenge.  Does anybody have suggestions for a different way of providing
> water?
 
She must be pretty persistent -- the only time our water bottles have
fallen off was when the loop was too close to the top.  Maybe a piece of
duct tape could help secure it?  A heavy dish can work if the ferret
doesn't play too much in it, or manage to tip it over.  There are also
some open dishes that attach to the cage -- I was using one that worked
all right, but it was galvanized steel, and I got worried about the
corrosion leaching into the water.
 
> Please don't flame me for ferret neglect; I can't leave her out and about
> all day to drink from the cat water bowl, (preferably when the cats are
> trying to do the same), because there are some things about my house that
> are un-ferret-proofable, and if she had all day to think about them, she
> could get into trouble. (She ALWAYS gets at least 2hrs supervised play with
> me & the cats & the birds every day, and she's a great girl (who has learned
> to--almost always--use a litter box; and to not bite--too hard). On weekends,
> when she's out most of the day, she goes back in her cage to sleep & eat, so
> I think she's OK with it.
 
Sounds like a similar situation to ours, and our ferrets have always
seemed pretty happy -- they really like their time out -- it's
important.  But when we lived in a place where our ferret could stay out
most of the time, she spent most of the time sleeping if we weren't there
anyway.  I preferred leaving her uncaged for the day, but when that's not
possible, they seem to do fine.  (I did add a third floor to the cage --
I added a hardware cloth addition over the top of the cage so they had an
additional open area to be in.)
 
> From: [log in to unmask] (Jill A. Kaszynski)
> Date: 11 Nov 94 23:12:21 EST
> Subject: tracking litter
>
> every time i clean the litter boxes and vacuum all around them, my room looks
> really nice. but then, the first time one of the ferrets uses a litter box,
> they manage to track the litter all around it. they don't dig in it, it just
> manages to follow them out.
> i use plain clay litter. does anyone have a way of preventing this, other
> than vacuuming every day?? is there a better type of litter i could be using?
> and if so, where would i get it? i've never seen any litter other than the
> plain clay kind and the clumping kind.
 
We've always used a litter called Good Mews.  It is made of recycled
newspapers, and shaped in pellets like rabbit food.  I'm not sure how
widely it is distributed, but it doesn't get tracked around nearly as
much as other litters, and it's easily biodegradable.
[Posted in FML issue 1011]