Gary says that finely ground black pepper deters his ferrets from digging at
carpets.  Well I tried that a number of years ago with our first ferret,
Belle, who loved to dig up the plants.  We had had great success it using it
to stop our dog from getting into the trash.  It didn't work for the ferret.
 
Actually, I used red pepper.  What happened was "dig dig ah-choo! dig dig
dig ah-choo!  dig dig dig dig ah-choo!" Each successive digging was more
furious than the last as she sought to get past the nasty pepper.
 
We now use rocks or wire to protect plants.
 
And the carpets are a dead loss by now anyway. Besides, they scratch on the
doors themselves too. Sigh...
 
Linda Iroff
North Coast Ferret Shelter West
"The Raisin Retreat"
http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html
[Posted in FML issue 2349]