Ferret Nation Has Been Floored!

The girls were still very apprehensive about the steep ladder used to exit the new cage. Despite ample time to practice, they still began each descent down the ladder with a slow start at the top which soon became a stumble, slide, bouncy-bounce, somehow ending in them sliding down sideways into a jump to skip the bottom all together. I was never happy about the extended height and lower level shelf anyway. The height just made the already too big cage look even bigger, and the bottom shelf invited clutter.

So off with the legs!

I wanted to skip the bottom during the original assembling, but was afraid it wouldn't go together right if I veered from the instructions. So this weekend I finally took the legs off. Mom and ferrets are now happy! When the door is open it sticks out over the ferret gate putting it at perfect level for Mom to hit her knee on every time she enters the room. But, its not the worst thing to happen since ferrets took over my home.

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

This weekend the girls said goodbye to their old cage and hello to a new Ferret Nation cage.

I think this was hardest on Mom because I loved the old three level cage. It was designed perfectly with its first level bathroom and kitchen, second level half floor for sleeping sack and hanging hammock, and third level full floor for plenty of play boxes, balls, and tubes. So why did I replace it? One word: Mokey.


This perfect cage is all wire: sides and floors. Mokey feels that she should be able to poo anywhere she feels like. She wakes up and poos in the nearest corner, getting poo on the sleeping sack or raining down each wire on the side of the cage. She poos on the third level so it falls down into the hammock. She poos right up against the wires so it falls out onto the wall. In one more word: Ew.

Common toys in the play space were a shoe box
with tissue paper and balls, tube, and jingly strawberry.

I couldn't stand a half hour cleaning project every time I came home from work. It's much harder to get the poo out of the wiring than I would ever have thought.

Most ferret cages are made with shelving so tiny and weak that it is very unsafe and there is zero play space. Also, these genius cage designers design the cages to have ample open air space as if to accommodate a bird. This also causes the ramps to be very steep and the ferrets to fall frequently. One cage has a tube ramp that goes straight up and down. Um, ferrets don't know how to use rip cords.

So Ferret Nation it is. Ferret Nation is sturdy and has enough room for playing. It is also way too large and set up on a rolling shelf so the ferrets cannot get in and out and it takes up twice the space for no reason. Also, you have to buy a separate ramp (not included) so the ferrets can get in and out. This, by the way, costs more to ship than buy. It is also way too high off the ground so the ferrets are afraid to use the ramp and usually do a few tentative steps down before sliding, rolling, and toppling to the ground. And, yes, this is the best ferret cage on the market.

So anyway, despite its flaws the girls seem to like it. We'll see how it holds up to Mokey. So far it's done well its first day and a half.

Fawn helped with the unpacking.

Mokey tried to help by running off with the bag of screws. So all three got to wait in the old cage until Mom was finished with the assembling. Three hours later, Ta-Da!