Amy, we made the transition to not having a cage in the ferrets room gradually. Since we have 2 groups, of 2 ferrets each, once we had the room, we alternated who was out, each pair returning to their own cage. Then one of the cages broke, sending bubble tubing crashing to the floor and terrifying my largest ferret. We then alternated who was in the remaining cage, but it was the smaller one and didn't give the 2 big boys any room to play. We divided the room in half with a 5/8 inch laminate covered shelving board, 24 inches high and 8 feet long. The finished edge is down, the raw top edge is capped with a plastic cover for shower rods. Once we were comfortable with having them out all the time, had made nest boxes, etc., we removed the cage completly. They'd been staying out over night, that had been part of the program early on, and when there was only 1 cage left, only 1 pair of course could occupy it at a time. Petco, by the way, gave a full refund for the cage with broken tubes. Some of our ferrets are climbers and jumpers, so they were never able to get into their cage(s) from the floor. The cages had to be up on tables out of reach or they'd have been used as launch pads to other objects. Spacing is important. Short objects can be used to climb to tall objects, from whence a dedicated escape artist may attempt to launch themselves over the barricaid. Be sure to let us know what you come up with regarding your ferrets new room. Georgia - the left coast one... [Posted in FML issue 2997]