Ahhhhhhh! So, I think I'm smarter than a ferret, do I! I think I knows what's BEST? Many of you have written to find out how the cage remodeling for Codo -- the ferret with good control of only one leg -- went. As the smart all-mighty human, I decided to change how litter habits were completed in the cage. I've never had ferrets that appreciated litter boxes in the cage (out of the cage was fine), so I always filled the entire bottom of my Super Pet FerreTrail Multi Floor home (32x20x60 in.) with wood stove pellets. That was fine, because I used to have eight ferrets who used three different corners in their two connected Multi Floor homes; it's impossible to fit two litter boxes on one side of a Super Pet cage (unless you've got the Kingdom), so litter all over the cage bottom became the norm. The current crop of furkids are in one cage and generally use the same corner. This is where the lightbulb appeared over my head announcing my idea to put in a litter box in that corner, leaving more room for soft things on the floor of the cage for Codo to lay on. I took apart the cage. I washed all the shelves, wire, and the base. I readjusted the shelves. I decreased the slope of the ramps. I only used tubes that Codo could navigate (elbow fun-nels). I put three locking crocks throughout the cage. I put two stoneware dishes on the floor of the cage for food and water. I put one of those Marshall rectangle litter boxes ( about 16x10x6 in.). I covered the rest of the base of the cage with soft beds, sacks, and other great places for a ferret to nap. Somebody (or somebodies), absolutely a male ferret, objected to this new cage format. The best way (in my opinion) for a ferret to make a point is to poop in the wrong place. This can mean he is sick, mad, or hurt. The "somebody" was mad. Poop first appeared on the shelf above the litter box. Next, there was urine on the next shelf up, on a sleep sack. Poop showed up all around the litter box: beside it, in front of it, etc. Pee and poop in one of the beds that Codo liked was the last straw. Until I could get help lifting the cage off the base to remove the litter box and refill the base with litter, I removed all the bedding near the litter box, but some little devel dragged a sleep sack back in front of it and peed on that too. Did I mention I have to hand-wash all the ferret bedding that gets messed up? We have a laundry room at our apartment complex, but you've got to have $2.50 in quarters to wash and dry one load -- not worth it for one sleep sack on Monday, and then another on Tuesday, and then the bed on... So, the annonymous "somebody" ferret wins. The cage is now back to having wood stove pellets all over the bottom. I've got another genius human idea to help out codo on the bottom of the cage. If I make a wood platform that fills up one side of the base, perhaps two inches tall, I can cover it with soft things for Codo. I've got soft things down on the pellets now, but the pellets keep catching in the fleece of some of the bedding. Round two is coming. Maybe, just maybe, the mystery ferret was only objecting to the litter box, not the bedding on the floor of the cage; maybe. Thank (enter deity of your choice) that I've got the FML to write to, a group of folks that actually understands why I cleaned up all the poop and wash the bedding by hand and remodeled the cage and... You all know I haven't lost my mind, I'm just ferret crazy. To be continued.... With respect, Lori in Huron, Ohio Ferrets: Rhys, Frost, Ayla, & Codo Cats: Reaganne & Little Miss [Posted in FML 6326]