I've seen alot of articles on here about everyone wanting a decent size cage
at a reasonable price. Let me tell you what I've done, and you could do too
for about $150 at most.
I have a small cage (one main level, and a small "loft" corner section), and
a medium cage (2 levels) and a Large cage (Actually a Dog Cage I bought at
Kmart for around $50 bucks that I had to put 1" chicken wire on the outside
to use for Ferrets) that are all INTERCONNECTED!
You could buy all 3 cages of one size and one level and have a cage that's
more inexpensive and MORE FUN for your ferrets. I just used what I had
available at the time.
How do you interconnect them? If you have a Lowes, 84 Lumber, or even a
hardware/plumbing store nearby, you go and as for 4 or 6 inch flexible
ridged & vented drain pipe. I got it at Lowes for $1.80 per 10 ft section.
Then all you need is a pair of wire cutters. Simply cut a hole in one cage
slightly smaller than the diameter of the outter rim of the pipe. Then
squeeze the pipe thru the hole. Make sure it's a tight fit. Squeeze enuff
pipe thru the hole (about 6-10 inches of length) so that the ferrets don't
try to squeeze out around it and they realize it's a sort of tunnel entry.
Then do the same with the other cage, and cut the pipe the length you want
the other cage to sit from the first cage. Now you have a 2 room condo that
the ferrets will love to go back and forth thru the tunnel (pipe) to! For
security and saftey reasons, only use Vented pipe, and secure each end to
the cages with Cable ties or wire. (if you use wire, make sure you leave
any sharp ends on the outside where they can't harm the ferrets) The easiest
way is to use the cable ties thru 2 of the vent holes in the pipe and around
the cage wire. You can add numerous cages this way to a setup, and if you
allow enuff pipe, the cages could set one on top of the other so as to take
up little space! Just make sure you allow a decent bend in the angle of the
pipe and it's vented so the ferrets can climb thru it both up and down.
I have 3 setup this way as I said earlier, and I have the medium cage first
on a stand where the hose goes out the side and down to the large cage
that's on the floor, (pipe is at approx 45 degree angle so they can climb
back up easily) and then a pipe from the bottom cage to a smaller one that
is on top of the larger cage. So the ferrets have 2 tunnels to crawl thru
and 3 "rooms" in there Fuzzy condo! I've also considered putting another
section of pipe from the smaller cage back to the medium size cage just for
another tunnel for them to play in.
They love climbing up to the top cage and sliding back down thru the tube to
the medium one. Also, if you have 3 ferrets like I do, this gives them
hours of "catch me if you can" tag with each other, and lots of excersize.
It also allows you to easily clean any given cage at any time without them
sticking there nose into a litter pan your cleaning, or going where the
litter pan space is when you're dumping there litter. All you do is get
them all in one cage, then stuff a rag or blanket in the tube entry, clean
the other 2 cages, then let them in the other 2 and clean the one they were
in. Works great, and the ferrets enjoy digging at the rag that's blocked
there tunnel.
So if you're on budge, buy 2 or 3 small cages and a some vented ridged
drainage pipe, hook them up, and you have a ferret condo suitable for 1-2
ferrets, and if you have a medium or large cage, well...you could have a
ferret commune!
Like I said, I spent approx. $100-150 on the setup I have, ($10 of that
being for chicken fence for the cage I didn't think they could squeeze thru
that they proved me wrong on) and I have 3 very active fuzzy's that really
don't mind when you put them back in the cage after having them out to play.
One side note...if you have your ferret condo setup anywhere near where you
or someone else in the house sleeps, make sure you take out any balls, bells,
or other items that they could drop/drag thru the pipe tunnels,(because they
will do so, and loudly, at any time night or day) before you go to sleep.
Also, incase any one of them would inadvertenly trap himself out of one cage,
it's a good idea to have a Water bottle in all cages, and maybe even food.
Also, it's a good idea to have one cage with a large litter pan and all the
rest with a small one...they tend to forget, or probably don't care, that
just because there's no litter box in this "room", doesn't mean they can't
go there.
Below is a ruff diagram of my setup. (angles of pipe are made less steeper
in actual setup so they can go down or climb up)
This setup works well if you have enough room for it, but as I said earlier,
one cage on top of the other with pipe tunnel running from one to the next
works well too and doesn't take up as much space. I call it a "Ferretrail"
since it's similar to the the Hamster Habatrail(tm) setups.
Med cage
,___________________________, Small Cage
| | ,____________________,
| ,___________, | (shelf loft) |
| | \|---------------- ,_|_______________
| 2nd level |_________,, \ | \
|___________________________| \ \ ________________|________________ \
| |,----\ \--------------------, \ \
| || \ \ | \ \
| 1st level || \ \ Large Cage | \ \
|___________________________|| \ \ | \ \
============================ | \ \ | / /
HH HH | \ \______, | / /
HH (Table stand) HH | \ | | / /
HH HH | \_______| ,_________________/ /
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH | | /
HH HH | |___________________/
HH HH |____________________________|
_________________________________________________________________________
Joseph K. Carlson LCS shift Supervisor
Micro Systems Consulting/Programming VSOMS programmer,mgmt
Center for Academic Computing LCS Payroll Supervisor
P.S.U. Email: [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1675]
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