Hi everyone!  I posted a question a few months back on how people with
multiple ferrets handle it on a daily basis, but I need more help!  I
have six ferrets ranging in age from 1.5 to 5 years old, one with Adrenal
disease who is on Lupron shots monthly, a dog, and am expecting my first
human infant at the end of July.  My questions are: 1.  How can I get the
ferrets to stop pooping all over the house?  2.  How can I confine the
ferrets to a smaller area than they are used to being in when out of the
cage?
 
The ferrets have had the run of the top floor of our house for the three
years we've lived here and have taken over the area.  The top floor
consists of our bedroom, 2 bathrooms, the office/ferret room, hallway,
living room, kitchen, and set of five stairs leading down to and including
the foyer.  The living room, bedroom, office/ferret room, and hallway are
all carpeted, while the bathrooms, kitchen, and foyer are linoleum.  Since
we acquired our two youngest ferrets, both female, last September, it seems
like there is poop everywhere, with no rhyme or reason.  They used to only
poop along the edge of walls, occasionally, but now there can be poop in
the middle of the floor at any location, you have to watch where you're
walking constantly.  We keep the litterboxes very clean, and there is one
in every room except the hallway and bathrooms.  WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?
I can't tell who exactly the culprit(s) is/are, except one of the girls.
My oldest four are all males we've had since they were 8 weeks old and they
all used the litter boxes 90% of the time previously.  Does age play into
it, or are they all going where the little girl has gone previously?  We
try to clean the carpet well, but it frankly is so common now that it gets
tedious and we may not clean all spots as vigorously as others.  The two
girls (the 1.5 year olds) were shelter ferrets that we adopted, and they
were both biters and most likely not trained before we got them.  The one
who I see pooping at random locations is no longer a problem biter, but the
other one bites whenever she can.  The ferrets are all out of the cage to
play from about 7PM to 10PM Monday-Friday, and are out for about a four
hour stretch or longer on Saturday and Sunday, depending on how the weekend
goes.  When our baby arrives, I need to confine the play area for the
ferrets to the living room and kitchen, possibly their room and the
bathroom, too.  If I shut bedroom doors, they will stratch at the door
until they rip holes in the carpet.  The same thing will go for the
hallway, since it's carpeted, too.  We need to keep the ferrets out of our
bedroom because that's where they go when they're out of the cage but are
done playing- they continually poop on the floor all around the litterbox
in there, and have taken over our dresser and hutch completely.  Before we
got the girls, the boys just stole all of the socks from the drawers, or
got all of the clothes hairy, but now (this is grose) I find poops in the
drawers, too.  Any suggestions on how we can deal with these issues?  Our
basement is not finished yet, so that's not an option yet.  Any help would
be greatly appreciated as I would not get rid of my ferrets, but don't want
to have to keep them caged all of the time, either.
 
Thanks in advance for your emailed responses- it's tough for me to read the
FML often, and I'd like to start working on a solution ASAP!
 
Dawn
[Posted in FML issue 3438]