Advice on litter training please

[Marissa]

Hi, I am Marissa(19), a fairly new ferret owner. I've had my boys for about two years, Dexter (2y) and Hulk (4y). I've done all the research on litter training, what litter to use, etc. For some reason, they will not consistently use their litter box. I clean it every night, have not changed their litter, but they just will not consistently use it. Hulk has recently started going in other spots of the cage, even when I block the corners with his favorite blankets and shirts of mine. He also will not use any of the litter boxes that are set up throughout my home. Dexter will also do this, they usually alternate, but he will stick to one corner, as where Hulk will not. I'm not sure what to do or how to fix it. It is truly causing odor in my room, as that is where their cage is, and throughout my home in general. I am completely and utterly STUMPED, any advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

[unclejoe]

I know your frustration. I've had very little luck with litter boxes outside the cage, so I have puppy pads throughout the house. My ferrets have been good with those, but they have to be changed regularly. If oyu have room in the cage for 2 litter boxes you could try that. I have 2 in the ferret nation and they never miss in the cage.

[abbeytheferret6]

He also will not use any of the litter boxes that are set up throughout my home.

Start blocking off areas in your house. Like i do not let my boy in my bedroom nor a hall bathroom. I also have a long Marshall farms playpen stretched out across an area blocking my sun room from the rest of house(new carpet). Me an hubby have duck legs, so it is not fun to step over. When I put him in his ferret room at night then we open it on one corner. so basically you want to tighten in access areas and have plenty potty pads or potties there.


I use to use litter pans but i have changed to puppy pads---larger space area for them to pooh on. U do not have to wipe pooh off the the pan walls and scooping pooh out of litter pan ---just throw away pad. 


I did have to let my baby ferret live in Marshall farms playpen at night and during day also when my Abbey was out because she she despised her. So for about six months that was her home. she did well using potty pan in it, not to say she was great as she got older. I think too much room and their short digestive tract, and then if they have a sickness....

Speaking of sickness and litter pans---I cut all mine down in front so they would not have to crawl over. I did this for Abbey as she was sickly towards the end. Then I changed to paper towels in them because litter would spill out. I had about 13 litter pans ---of course 4 -5 ferrets free roam. Some would not pooh behind others.

Also they like to pooh up against long stretches of walls and I went to goodwill got lot of baby blankets. long table cloths, or sheets and laid them up against wall baseboard always putting the potty pan in corners and near door entrances and favorite places. One day  I changed to potty pads---not regretted it.

[marissasorrell2]

Thank you guys, I will definitely try the puppy pads for outside of the cage. Last night seems to have had no accidents inside of the cage, so that is good. I also have a problem with them going underneath their cage, where the storage area is, but cannot block it off well enough, so I will try puppy pads for that as well. They have free roam of the house because I cannot seem to block off the underneath of the doors, I have tried draft stoppers and they just pull them right out.

[abbeytheferret6]

I live in a dble wide and it seems the doors are higher off the floor than a normal house, so i had that problem too. It has been so long ago, but i think I used 1"x 1" strips of wood that I glued to bottom of doors. I use duct tape to hold them while it dried. I guess you could use Hard as Nails, a type of caulking that is a glue. 


Woops----Liquid Nails not Hard as Nails
www.lowes.com/pd/LIQUID-NAILS-Projects-Off-White-Multi-Purpose-Construction-Adhesive

[silentdook]

Dec 8, 2021 9:05:26 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

  have a long Marshall farms playpen stretched out across an area blocking my sun room from the rest of house(new carpet). Me an hubby have duck legs, so it is not fun to step over.  

 

I made a pet gate fence from Amazon into a gated fence for that reason. I'll find the link to the one I bought, I used panels from the Marshall pen to reduce the width of the wires so they could not squeeze through.

Also, for OP, There are rodent blocker strips that can be nailed or screwed to the bottom of doors. I used L-shaped baseboard strips for our doors, although we had to use wood screws since the stronger ferrets will pull them off.

[unclejoe]

lowes has about 2 dozen door sweeps. one oughta be stiff enough if installed right. I live in a double wide as well, but with no carpet. put the sweep on the inside of the door so they can't get to it.

[marissasorrell2]

I will look for them. Still having trouble about the accidents in the cage, going to deep clean everything tonight and set up the puppy pads and hope that helps.

[unclejoe]

I have had 30 ferrets, and 2 never took to litter boxes. That's why I never got floor liners for the ferret nation.

[Charlie]

When I got my ferret he wouldn't go in the litter tray all the time and only went beside it or switched corners on me. I'd move the box to that corner and then he would use the other one. So what I did was make a BIG litter tray that covered half the bottom of the cage. This was before he got his double ferret nation cage. His first cage was only 1 level like a single ferret nation cage with a shelf but longer. It was an extra large rabbit cage. He also learned how to open the cage door hence the new ferret nation cage but that's another story. So the litter tray covered half the floor and had 2 corners covered while the other 2 corners had toys and blankets in it. He did great with it and started using the litter tray. Also when I would wake him up to come out, I would first take him and put him in the litter tray to do his business before he got to come out of the cage. Then when I moved him into his ferret nation cage I put in 2 litter boxes, one on each level, and he never had a problem using the boxes since then. There have been a couple instances where he has accidentally not made it into his litter box but that has been far and few. He's in his box 99%. Outside of the cage is a different story. I use puppy pads too. I just get them at the dollar store.