>From:    "Michelle Z. Matta"
>Subject: outside cage
>...I thought of looking for a 2nd cage to keep outside, but money's a
>little tight right now, so buying one is out.  I thought of looking for
>something extremely cheap, or better yet, making one similar to a dog
>playpen (its an octagon shaped contraption that folds flat for storage).
>...Has anyone had any experience with something along these lines?...
 
Just a thought...........(we only have 2 ferrets, so this is big enough).
What we did to let ours have an outside cage during the day was to convert
my kids' old roomy playpen.  It's one with a wooden base which is in 2
halves and coloured bars all the way round ( plastic covered wood).  It
folds up as the sides are hinged, two of them fold in half inwards and the
base folds upwards.  Sorry if I'm not describing it very well, anyway, it
folds up enough to be able to carry it if you need to.  We bought some fine
metal mesh and covered all the sides with that as well as making a lid on a
wooden frame which clips on to the top bar of the playpen.  Then I lashed a
basket from the freezer to the sides to make a sleeping platform and filled
an old hessian sack with hay to make them a sleeping bag for when it's
chilly.  I fixed tubes to the sides and corners so they can run through
them and an old denim jean leg as a hammock .  They have a water bottle on
one side, a litter tray in a corner and a food bowl in another.  Countless
toys all over the floor which is deep litter wood shavings(- not cedar!!!)
eg. the plastic *eggs* from Kinder-surprises filled with raisins, covered
ferret balls and the odd chicken wing or two.  Then we bought some of that
corrugated platic sheeting and cut it to make a rainproof roof which can be
lifted off if it's sunny and we had enough to make a couple of windbreaks
for the sides if it's a windy day.
 
We've situated it on the patio against a tall hedge which protects them
from some wind and rain anyway, and it's not too sunny there either.  They
probably spend about 4-6 hours a day in there.....mostly sleeping, of
course!  We let them out for a run around the house or garden or take
them out for a walk with the dogs in the morning and they have another run
around before I give them their supper in their nighttime hutch which is
all cosy with hay in the sleeping compartment.
 
So..........any chance you could find an old playpen and tart it up?  It
didn't cost that much to do ours, just time to make sure it was ferret
proof.  We paid about 15 pounds for our playpen when we bought it
secondhand for the kids and it did 3 of them, so I reckon we've got our
money's worth.:-)
 
K.
[Posted in FML issue 2640]