I make extra floors for the night time cage from cloth. They are easily removed and cleaned, they provide fall breaks when positioned intelligently, they are great for exercise with the way they shift under feet, they are fun for ferrets to wrestle on, they are good to sleep on, and they allow the cage to be rearranged often so they are good mental exercise. It just struck me that I don't think that I have heard of any shelters making these, yet some shelters make marvelous ferret items. BTW, if three sets of ties of sets of clips are put on then the outside edge can be turned up to provide a fall barrier. Sort of: X | -----------------------| X X with ties or clips at the Xs IF the illustration works for the digest (fingers crossed but I kept it short to improve the odds). If a person wants one in the middle of the cage just put one four sets so that both sides that don't meet the cage sides can have a turn-up. I make ours with pillowcases and have for decades now but I am no seamstress. Right now my shoulders are covered by the absolutely most gorgeous throw blanket/afghan from http://stores.ebay.com/things4feritz of S.A.F.E.. Shelter http://www.saferrets.org which is dense, has marvelous colors and bears beautiful pictures of ferrets. If someone wants to save on heating costs this winter but wants to be comfy with something pretty that will last for many years I strongly suggest it as a great use for holiday money. Speaking of holiday money: this is OT but so many people here have older or handicapped relatives, friends, or themselves have needs for special items that I wanted to tell you about a very positive experience I had. We were sending some things for the holidays to my dad and step-mom, but you know how during the holidays every place has some temporary help on staff so error rates go up a bit. Well, that happened at Gold Violin <http://www.goldviolin.com/>, too, and items arrived here instead of there. Do you know what they did? They told me to keep the items sent here, and they rush shipped a replacement order down to Dad and Blanche! Wasn't that sweet? That is such a highly reputable thing to do! We have also had luck with Mom's <http://www.momscatalog.com/> for such products, but some OTHER catalogs which provide items to help those who want to maintain independent living are real rip offs, so I am happy to know of these two and know others also have needs. (BTW, one item I personally advise AGAINST on non-carpeted floors or if the legs or ankles are too weak is one that injured me quite a bit and because of how it slipped out from under me on first use back when I was still in day time braces, but which some reputable catalogs have recently begun trying to sell, is a roll around chair with a bicycle seat and three legs. That was a nasty fall that could easily have been worse but for a little luck; bad enough that it is in the federal consumer product safety files.) Anyway, I know some folks here will be interested, but back to ferrets now since I just thought of some other questions for you. Why do so few places make turned up sides on their cage floors? Even a short side prevents a lot of falls from our experience. Does anyone hang the expandable plastic tubing in cages as safe extra ramps and play fun? What techniques and materials do you use to do that? Other tips and suggestions? (Can you tell we will be changing our night time caging and retiring the old one so are open to new ideas?) Anyone do it with PVC pipes for play and ramps? Tips? Has anyone found any sturdy plastic bowls with handles on top -- like a plastic basket? We used to hang a basket on one rope as a swing for our ferrets and they loved it, and we were thinking of doing that again, but Hubble chews baskets so we need a plastic substitute. What are your ferrets' favorite cage toys? Anyone else hang plastic and fleece balls for knocking around and ringing? We used to hang one of those hamster roll around balls and had one who absolutely loved that; maybe we can do that again, too. Oh, and also OT: I am open to hula hoop use tips (human use). I got one from <http://www.hoopgirl.com/> for my birthday so I have a skill to learn that should help strengthen my ankles' lateral stability and my feet once I move some of the furniture and the holiday tree comes down. -- Sukie (not a vet and still catching up for sleep lost but will lose more tonight) Ferret Health List co-moderator http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives fan http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ replacing http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org International Ferret Congress advisor http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 5097]