Most clay litters including the scoopable kind tend to dry out the ferrets
skin.  Several alternatives exist all of which are better but tend to have
disadvanteges as well.  I don't consider ANY clay litter as acceptable for
use with my ferrets (of course others are entitled to their own opinions).
 
Non-clay litters such as Litter Green (if I remember correctly) don't
seem to work very well in my opinion.  When I tried this stuff the smell
was horrendous with the smell of ammonia every day.
 
Recycled paper litters are fine.  Not great at odor control and can
become projectiles in the hands of high spirited ferrets.  Quite messy in
my house.
 
Non-clay litter based on pressed pine "Pine Fresh".  This is the best
store bought cat litter for ferrets in my opinion.  There is very little
pine scent so I think it is unlikely to have the problems of pine chips.
The litter starts as pellets that disintegrate into sawdust like stuff as
moisture is absorbed.
 
Corn cob litter is a harmless as can be to the furries but it is very
NON-absorbant.  Clean often as the smell grows quickly.  We tend to use
this in with our nursing jills as we WANT to clean their litter boxes
daily to reduce chanes of mastitis (never have known how to spell that).
 
Pressed wood stove pellets are the latest rage aound this area.  Dirt
cheap - 3 dollars for forty pounds!  Great absorbant of moisture and
odors.  Works exactly the same as the Pine Fresh.  I would love to credit
the people who first started using this but I don't know who that was.
The biggest disadvantage is that it comes in forty pound bags.  Fine with
me since we buy three or four bags at a time even at this size.  We also
go through a twenty pound bag of Iams Cat food in less than a week
feeding our personal pets (our neutered animals), our breeding stock
(that is just a different group of pets that isn't neutered) and our
shelter ferrets.  With the price and performance of this stuff it may
well become the only litter we use.
 
We learned about both the corn cob litter and wood stove pellets
indirectly from the Cheesemans of Dancing Bottom Ferrets here in
Woodbridge VA but don't know where they learned of these or if they
'found' them originally.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 1198]