Liz, can you tell us what type of 'store bought' toys your ferretie finds
boring?  At our house the favorites are a set of Seseme Street charaters.
The plastic is very hard so the chewers don't try to remove ears or noses,
and they are small enough to run with to stash in the appropriate places.
All our ferret toys come from the childrens section.  A set of nesting
cups, rings that stack on a cone, plastic sea creatures.
 
For a cage ferret, you could make a small maze from drainage pipe,
attaching it to the side of the cage with plastic tie strips, all from Home
Depot for less than $5.00
 
Check all small toys for hardness.  I returned a set of Winnie the Pooh
toys as they were softer than was acceptable.  There is also a set of
small Teletubbies characters that are very hard.
 
Rotating the toys will increase their being played with.  Ferrets seem to
constantly expect us to provide NEW things!  If they haven't seen it for
three days it's new!
 
Georgia - the left coast one...
[Posted in FML issue 3009]