>RE: Sandbox for ferrets?
>...knowing how much ferrets love to dig, I was thinking of putting
>it in my room as a sand box....
 
Dear Jeff:
    I suspect you're right about your carpet shark chewing through a
cardboard sandbox; I KNOW my Spike would.  I also thought he and his girl
friend Madison would enjoy a sandbox since they love up-rooting our potted
plants!  My wife came up with a solution that works very well for our two
fur snakes.  We bought a large 21x16x17 plastic storage box with locking
lid.  We cut a hole in the box about 6 inches from the bottom and duct
taped a length of dryer hose to the hole.  The free end of the dryer hose
is attached at a corresponding hole in a piece of masonite which is wired
to block off the open cage door in the lower level of their day cage.  To
assure the fuzzies adequate ventilation and light we cut out a large
rectangular hole in the lid of the plastic storage/sand box.  This hole is
covered with metal window screen secured with more layers of duct tape on
both the inside and outside of the lid.
    The kids love it....and the window screen keeps the sand and potting
soil mixture INSIDE the sandbox.  Unfortunately, after about a week of
concerted effort, Spike found the screen does NOT keep the ferrets in.  We
modified the skylight by adding a layer of hardware cloth (3/8" heavy wire
mesh) to the bottom of the skylight to keep the ferrets inside and an outer
layer of new window screen to keep the sand and potting soil in.  Works
great so far.  No escapes in two weeks with the new setup.
 
Dave
 
 *-----------------------------------------*
 |        Dave Howery - Biologist          |
 |=========================================|
 | email   [log in to unmask]  |
 |                     IP 149.152.20.1     |
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[Posted in FML issue 1272]