The first thing to do to find out if your ferret is wimpy is to build a
thing to test it.  What my roommate and I build is a ferret slide.  The
basic equipment you need is one of those 20' long ferret tunnels.
Additional luxury is a little wire cage with 2 holes that joins the tunnel
ends and a top that opens.  We build a little cage to go with our slide.
 
Our slide is about 5 feet high, and 5 feet wide, and goes a little longer
so the ferrets can slow down.  Cut a length of the tunnel to match that.
Attach the cage to the wall at the top and connect an end of the tunnel to
the cage.  Secure the top end of the tunnel using a strong string and a
screw (I highly recommend the Buildex e-z mini ancor, it is a self-drilling
anchor that is very secure for dry walls, other anchors we used before
always become loose, you can get these at home depot).  Secure the other
end of the tunnel to the bottom of the wall twice, about 2 feet apart.
kind of like the following diagram, the * is where you want to secure the
tunnel.
 
   |  |
   |  |-*
    |_   \
      |_  \*_*
 
Connect the other length of the tube to the cage, and attach the tunnel
to the wall at intervals, making sure there are enough bends so that the
ferret can climb up it.  This makes the "stairs".
 
One thing you should also do is to duct tape all the areas where you wrap a
string around the tube.  You may also want to duct tape the slide bottom,
depending on how much your ferret scratch.
 
Test results:
Wuss:  Birch, Storm
Normal:  Dief, Wasabi, Sabre, Sand, Sprite
Crazy:  Bear, Cloud
 
how to tell:
- The Wussy ferrets are the ones who always run back down the stairs.
  When you push them into the slide and block the opening, they brace
  themselves against the tunnel and walks down it.  What a waste!
- The Normal ferrets just slides down with a whosh and thinks nothing of
  it.  Of course, the heavier ferrets will slide down a little faster
  than the light ones.
- The Crazy ferrets..  These are also likely to be wired weasels.  What
  they do is the move into the slide, turn so that their backside faces
  down, and then shove off with their hind legs.  They go down with a
  WHOOOOSH!!!  Then they run back for more.
 
other things you can tell
 
laziness: This is when your ferret stands next to the stairs, looks at
          you, and wait for you to play "elevator".
peseverance: These are the ferrets that manage to climb up to the cage
             via the slide...
Then there is Storm, who won't go down the slide, but will climb up to the
cage and sleep there...
 
Of course, before you spend all this effort to build it, you might want to
simulate the slide and drop a ferret into it to see if they like it.  Ours
did.  We got to make the stairs a bit better, it's a bit of a tough climb
and our guys are lazy.  We are getting sick of playing elevator :)
 
Hope someone else can have fun with this!
 
// ***********************************************
// Selina, Birch, Dief, Sprite, Storm, Sand & Bear
// http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~ssiu
[Posted in FML issue 2899]