MIDWEST CAGE WOES Howdy! I recently acquired a MidWest cage as a second home and travel cage for my gang, and I faced many of the same problems that you described. To prevent your ferret from falling from the third story to the bottom of the cage, stratgegically hang hammocks to break his fall. Personally, I made two large, simple, square hammocks that fill the space between the shelves and the other three walls of the cage. Even if you don't sew, you can make these simple hammocks by taking a baby blanket (or other material of the right size) and putting an eyelet in each of the corners. You can buy a wonderfully simple eyelet tool at WalMart (look in the fabric section). Use shower curtain hooks (the metal ones) to hang the hammocks. Digging in the food bowl can be prevented or reduced by purchasing a food bowl that attaches to the side of the cage. Hang the bowl at a height such that the ferrets put their front two paws on the rim of the bowl to meet. Obviously you don't want to hang it so high that they can't reach it comfortably, but you want it high enough that the ferrets don't dig out the food. Litterbox digging is a tougher problem to solve. I find that my guys dig in the pan more often if it's clean (newly changed). Usually they don't dig in a dirty box. I've also found that as ferrets get older, they "grow out" of the litterbox digging phase, but your mileage may vary on that one. I've also noticed that my guys dig in the box if they're bored. The obvious preventative for boredom is plenty of playtime out of the cage and some interesting toys and such in the cage. And, yes, setting up a digging box outside of the cage will make your ferrets very happy. I recently purchased a child's swimming pool and filled it with one 40-lb. bag of (chemical free) potting soil. My guys love it! >For those of you that have Midwest cages, you know that they snap into a >plastic base (no removeable pan) and we are having a problem with the food >and litter pellets getting in the sides (where the cage snaps in) and it >is very difficult to keep clean. Has anyone devised a way to keep junk >from getting down there? I experienced this frustrating problem too. Yuck. To diminish the problem, remove the cage from the base, lay one or two old bath towels down over the base, and replace the cage. Obviously, you can't latch it in, but I have yet to meet the ferret who can lift the cage off of the base. The towels make the channel around the base less deep and easier to clean quickly with the skinny nozzle of a vacuum cleaner. Then you'll just need to remove the cage from the base and change the towels periodically. Best wishes, Gina Hart/Sage Ferrets [log in to unmask] (home) or [log in to unmask] (work) visit the Sage Ferrets web site at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/2040 [Posted in FML issue 2420]