>On the subject of ferret names, I only have four, and I sometimes call
>them by the wrong names, too.
 
I've got 15 ferrets and I manage to never mix up their names, except
sometimes I think Sophie is Tunk and vice versa since they're both sables.
Gotta be able to see Tunk's white feet to get it right.  I think I've just
been lucky so far :) My grandma has 11 kids and 23 grandkids and I asked her
"How on earth do you keep them all straight" and she smiled at the ferrets
gamboling beneath her feet and said "I don't know, sweetie, you tell me."
 
However, we are also boarding 15 more ferrets (which isn't too bad except
that they are in every room in my home).  One friend brought 7 to stay with
us for the month and the only problem I have been having is with their four
sable males, who are all very similar in size, age and appearance.  They go
by the names of Okisi, Toby, TJ and Sinbad, but for my purposes they now go
by the names "Big One", "Dark One", "Pink Nose" and "Dark Nose".  Otherwise
I have no idea which is which.
 
On the subject of litterboxes - I notice that nearly every rescue/boarder
who comes in poops or pees on their bedding and not in the box the first day
here.  After that, we never have any trouble.  The ones who come in their
own cage don't make that mistake, so I think it's fear/confusion.  But since
ferrets adapt so readily, they settle in rather quickly and use the box.
Now we always have two sets of bedding ready so we can clean up the old mess
and put in fresh stuff as soon as we see the error of their ways.
 
Finally, about barriers - we have two barriers that can be used virtually
anywhere in the house and they often are.  We took that white metal shelving
stuff that you get at Do It Yourself Hardware stores.  We cut them to fit
slightly wider than the doorways, but since they arene't very tall we had to
zap-strap two together with thin metal poles zap-strapped vertically to keep
the structure solid.  So I guess they are about 3.5 feet tall now.
 
Then we cut the Big-O black dryer/plumbing stuff (that we normally use for
tunnels) to fit the length of the structure, slit it down the side and
popped it over the top.  So the ferrets are very capable of climbing the
barrier, but the Big-O tubing stops them from getting over.  We have hooks
screwed into the walls on either side of the doorways and the rungs of the
barrier hook right over them.  The beauty of these barriers is that we can
see through them so if we need to be in another room we can still keep an
eye on the activities of our fuzzbeans.  I think the whole thing cost us
about $40.00.  The barriers used to be the panels of our puppy playpen, so
we really are getting the most for our money.
 
We decided it was time to improve our barriers when Christine's ferret Theo
looked at our old one, sized it up carefully for about .5 seconds and hopped
it in a single bound :)
 
Sheena
Wherret Ferrets Halfway House and Ferretry
Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver
"Thank goodness our roommate moved out - there are 10 ferrets in her
bedroom!"
[Posted in FML issue 1652]