In answer to"won't they learn to hate the carrier"........ferrets don't like carriers regardless if they are put in it for time out OR to go to the vet......but some of the difference is going to the vet they can have blankeys and toys and "stuff" so that is different. Their minds at time-out is not "Oh I'm in a carrier, I hate carriers" but rather "I only bite that lady a little bit, I want back out there, I gotta get back out there, I was having fun, this ain't fair, I want back out there, I gotta gotta gotta" By the 2nd time you do that over a certain behavior, it does cross their mind "OH if I do this, I'll be locked away from it" The difference is NOTHING in the carrier vs putting them back into the cage - they don't hate the cage but the cage does give them other things to occupy their minds with so not a good place for a time-out (sorta like sending your kids to their room for an hour where they have phones, computers, tvs, I-Pods and whatever is the craze now.) The carrier Works but trying to thump them on the nose for bitting or saying No No you mustn't do that does not work, as we all know.. Retraining ferrets to potty boxes. What I tell people who call/write with the problem is to cut down cage space, give them ONE shelf to live on, potty box on one side, food water on the other, a nice hammock hanging in the middle, and a blankey wadded up in front of the potty box. They get the idea in a hurry its not nice to potty on that blankey, its better in the box. Then start giving more space and make sure they go back into their potty box. After that, the world is the limit, their world that is. Millie and her ferrets and Danes www.txferretrescue.org [Posted in FML 6811]