Hello All:
 
I haven't posted in a long time, but I am an avid lurker.  To refresh your
memories I have 3 ferts: Juicy, Phoebe, and Persephone.  Juicy is the
problem lately.  He has totally regressed into not using the litter box.
They are free roaming and I have litter boxes in practically every corner
in the house.  Most of the time he doesn't even care if he uses a corner.
He will just back up against the molding of the wall and go.
 
Clean up isn't the biggest problem though I feel as if I have killed a
hundred trees worth in paper towels.  The biggest problem is that he
smell's to high heaven.  He is not descented and his waste is the worst
smelling ferty poop I have ever experienced.  Because he does not go in
the box, his belly drags in the pee.  Then his bedding smells like it and
eventually the rest of his body smells like ferret pee.  I have had to
bathe him twice in the last month (I was using a lot of restraint), and I
usually only bathe my ferrets twice a year.  I can't keep bathing him
because I know it isn't good for him.
 
So, I have decided to start all over again.  I am caging him and giving him
free time in my bedroom a couple hours a day with the door closed.  Until
he can be more consistent in using the box, he doesn't get free roam.  Now
naturally I feel terrible about this.  My ferrets are much happier and
healthier when they are free roaming.  I have tried all the tricks I have
seen on this list: using their sleep stuff in the corner, putting ferretone
in the spot they like to go, rewarding him every time I see him use the
box.  He just goes around all the stuff I put down.  I am not kidding:
exactly where the linatone stops, he goes.  If anyone can think of an
alternative to caging him, please let me know.  I am at my wits end.  By
the way the other two ferrets are almost perfect when it comes to the
litter box.
 
Thanks,
Yasmin and Juicy (I don't wanna go there, ma!), Phoebe (When can Juicy
come out and play again, ma?), and Persephone (Hey more raisins for me!)
[Posted in FML issue 2560]