HI Steve, I was looking at a ferret web site which I don't have right here on me but can look it up and they used a heavy crock bowl in a long low side storage box in their ferret room. This works great as my guys love drinking and playing in water. They hardly drink at all from their water bottle now unless they are too lazy to get out of the cage. They are in their own free roam ferret proof room all the time. The cats that go in the room love it too because it keeps the floor dry. We change the water 2x a day because they do tend to play in it as well as drink from it. They had no problem getting into the plastic storage thing which might be 3-4" high to get to the water. It is funny because now that they are a little bigger they hang over the side to get the water. No more wet towels and damp floor. I do use a larger size short side crock type bowl and this has really worked well. Hope this helps Love & ferret hugs Debbie [Posted in FML issue 3608]