This is to Leslie who has been having problems with her Midwest cage.
 
We have had exactly the same problems with exactly the same cage.  Our
solution to the ferrets falling (in our case knocking each other) off: We
had a piece of wood cut that is as wide as the shelves that come with the
cage and extends about halfway the length of the cage.  We put this in the
cage and held it place while one of us hammered nails into the side of it
so it would rest about 9 or so inches under the topmost shelf.  This gives
the ferts about twice as much space to sleep, roughhouse, etc., since most
of the bottom of the cage is taken up by litter pan and food and T-shirts.
Another note: to keep ferrets from seeing this vast new expanse of shelf as
a big old corner waiting to be backed into, you can tie a T-shirt into each
corner, so it can't be dragged down the ladder.
 
We also had the problem of guck getting stuck into the groove of the cage.
What we did for that was buy a piece of that clear carpet runner protector
stuff, (you can get it at Home Depot).  This will just fit the bottom of
the cage with about 2 inches left over on each side hanging out.  When you
clean the cage you can take this out and hose it off (or for apartment
dwellers like us take it to a 'do it yourself' car wash).
 
Other than these problems I think the Midwest is a pretty good cage!
 
Leigh Whitaker and Fargo, Fonzi, Kami(kaze) and Moon Boy
[Posted in FML issue 2420]