Hi.  We're happily acculturating a beautiful new female ferret, Sabrina, to
our home, which is owned by an established male ferret, Rorty.  We have one
of the great big multi-level "condo" cages in which Rorty has been living
for a good portion of his life -- it's about five feet tall, with two
removable levels and ladders, etc.  Once Rorty was big enough to climb
effectively, we moved him to this cage, and I arranged hammocks in such a
way that he couldn't fall far without hitting one... and everything was
hunky-dory.  Rorty is a big, healthy ferret for a Marshall Farms (we didn't
know there was any other kind when we got him, and no, he's not a wimp ;)),
and has never had any trouble navigating the cage.  Sabrina, on the other
hand, is significantly smaller than Rorty (she's also a Marshall Farms,
by way of a very nice shelter), and while she doesn't have much trouble
climbing, etc., it is much easier for her to fall through hammock-less
spaces due to her smaller size.  This is compounded by the fact that Rorty
is still in "let's jump the newbie" mode occasionally, and has a tendency
to knock her off of shelves/hammocks while playing rough.  The obvious
solution to the problem was to take out the shelves, and the hammocks that
were tall enough to pose a danger (in my mind... I'm pretty protective).
Essentially now we have a very big, very expensive one-level cage.
 
My question is this -- how do you deal with a small new ferret, or ferrets
who play rough, in a multi-level cage?  I read every now and then about
ferrets peacefully coexisting in condos, and I'm curious as to how you keep
them from tossing each other off of the top levels.  Ours are happy with
the new one-level arrangement, and get ample extra playtime to compensate
for any loss of exercise, but it seems a shame to have these nice fun
levels and ladders and hammocks and not be able to use them for fear of one
of the fuzzbutts getting injured.  The first time I heard Sabrina go
*thunk*, I nearly had a coronary and yanked the high stuff out immediately.
Any advice that anyone who has experience with this could provide would be
greatly appreciated.
 
Otter Driver
[Posted in FML issue 2659]