Our super did not come by at night, and we had a peephole so could
claim to "not be decent right now" instead of opening the door.
Luckily, ours never let himself in, but we could not be sure the
assistant manager of the complex would not do that.

So, romp times were at night and in the tiled bathroom where damage
could not happen.

In the day our two had a dark secret place to sleep in medium sized
carry cages complete with litter pots, hammocks, and food and water
dishes hung on the doors. We have a platform bed with wood all around
but above that base wood is a larger overlying frame that leaves a wide
opening on each side -- plenty of air circulation but if you just look
at it you don't know about the large open areas. The mattress is on
slats well above those wide openings. The two carry cages went under
the bed when we had to be out, with the bed made so that a curious
person would not disturb it. It wasn't that hard and could even be done
quite rapidly. Plus, it provided dark areas for rest which is good for
melatonin production. To this day ours like to climb in there to sleep
though now it has towels and an old comforter for that.

Optimal for the ferrets? Not in some ways, certainly, but it did
prevent them from being discovered that year. One of those ferrets
lived to be 9 years or older and was trustworthy enough that she slept
with us at night, too. (She was a retired breeder we got.)

Actually, 2 funny stories about her. She OWNED my belly button. Just
plain owned it, and if it smelled of Steve at all she would get very
upset and have to groom it. Those little incisor nibbles they do when
grooming are NOT pleasant on the edges of a belly button!

The other is that when she got older she decided that the best way to
go to the bathroom was to hang her rear end over the edge of the bed
and left fly, then climb back into the covers. That changed sleeping
arrangements...


Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6293]