Ahhhhhhh! So, I think I'm smarter than a ferret, do I! I think I knows
what's BEST?

Many of you have written to find out how the cage remodeling for
Codo -- the ferret with good control of only one leg -- went. As the
smart all-mighty human, I decided to change how litter habits were
completed in the cage. I've never had ferrets that appreciated litter
boxes in the cage (out of the cage was fine), so I always filled the
entire bottom of my Super Pet FerreTrail Multi Floor home (32x20x60
in.) with wood stove pellets. That was fine, because I used to have
eight ferrets who used three different corners in their two connected
Multi Floor homes; it's impossible to fit two litter boxes on one side
of a Super Pet cage (unless you've got the Kingdom), so litter all over
the cage bottom became the norm. The current crop of furkids are in one
cage and generally use the same corner. This is where the lightbulb
appeared over my head announcing my idea to put in a litter box in that
corner, leaving more room for soft things on the floor of the cage for
Codo to lay on.

I took apart the cage. I washed all the shelves, wire, and the base. I
readjusted the shelves. I decreased the slope of the ramps. I only used
tubes that Codo could navigate (elbow fun-nels). I put three locking
crocks throughout the cage. I put two stoneware dishes on the floor of
the cage for food and water. I put one of those Marshall rectangle
litter boxes ( about 16x10x6 in.). I covered the rest of the base of
the cage with soft beds, sacks, and other great places for a ferret to
nap. Somebody (or somebodies), absolutely a male ferret, objected to
this new cage format.

The best way (in my opinion) for a ferret to make a point is to poop in
the wrong place. This can mean he is sick, mad, or hurt. The "somebody"
was mad. Poop first appeared on the shelf above the litter box. Next,
there was urine on the next shelf up, on a sleep sack. Poop showed up
all around the litter box: beside it, in front of it, etc. Pee and poop
in one of the beds that Codo liked was the last straw. Until I could
get help lifting the cage off the base to remove the litter box and
refill the base with litter, I removed all the bedding near the litter
box, but some little devel dragged a sleep sack back in front of it
and peed on that too. Did I mention I have to hand-wash all the ferret
bedding that gets messed up? We have a laundry room at our apartment
complex, but you've got to have $2.50 in quarters to wash and dry one
load -- not worth it for one sleep sack on Monday, and then another on
Tuesday, and then the bed on...

So, the annonymous "somebody" ferret wins. The cage is now back to
having wood stove pellets all over the bottom. I've got another genius
human idea to help out codo on the bottom of the cage. If I make a wood
platform that fills up one side of the base, perhaps two inches tall, I
can cover it with soft things for Codo. I've got soft things down on
the pellets now, but the pellets keep catching in the fleece of some of
the bedding. Round two is coming. Maybe, just maybe, the mystery ferret
was only objecting to the litter box, not the bedding on the floor of
the cage; maybe.

Thank (enter deity of your choice) that I've got the FML to write to, a
group of folks that actually understands why I cleaned up all the poop
and wash the bedding by hand and remodeled the cage and... You all know
I haven't lost my mind, I'm just ferret crazy.

To be continued....

With respect,
Lori in Huron, Ohio
Ferrets: Rhys, Frost, Ayla, & Codo
Cats: Reaganne & Little Miss

[Posted in FML 6326]