>>Also, we don't know how to house train Farrah. She usually goes on paper
>> we're set out for the purpose, but she still goes in other places as well.
>>  What's the best way to train her?<<
>      IMHO, ferret are not 100% housetrainable.  They will never be as good as
> a cat outside their cage.  Keep using the paper or confine her to her cage
> until she does use the litter pan and THEN let her out.
 
We have two ferrets, a Male, Taz (13 months old), that we adopted from the
local ferret rescue, Ferrets Etc., and a female, Coffee (19 weeks old)
that we got from a store.  We have three litterboxes.  One in each
bathroom and one in their cage.  They use them almost 100%.  The only
times they do not is if one has been uncleaned for a little too long,
then they give little hints by going right in front of or beside the
box.  Taz was almost always really good about the litterbox (he needed a
little reinforcement when we first got him), and now he voluntarily goes
within minutes of waking up.
This may sound strange, but I think the ferrets learned in part by
following us into the bathroom and watching while we went.  They figured
that we go there so they should to, and so they started pooping right
beside the toilet.  So we put a box by the toilet.
At first we had boxes in other places, as well, but over a little time
Taz took to just using the box in the cage when he was in the cage, and
one of the boxes in the bathrooms when we was out of the cage.
When we got Coffee she was a little tyke of about 8 weeks.  She hadn't
had a lot of box training.  However, she learned pretty quickly through a
combination of reinforcement from us and watching to see how her big
buddy Taz does it.  She also would follow us into the bathroom and go
right alongside at first.  Now she's near perfectly box trained, as
well.
 
 
Kirk Haines
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[Posted in FML issue 1138]