Ferret Proofing an Apartment??

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My husband and I live in a two bedroom apartment with our ferret babies. Right now they have the entire second bedroom as a playroom (the "ferret room"). They stay in their FN cage during the day while we're both gone at work, but when we get home we play with them for several hours in their room. I still hate the idea of them being cooped up all day though. I feel like the room is already ferret proof- the closet is inaccessible, no cords laying on the floor, it's a pretty wide open room with just their cage, a desk, and a sewing table, so no furniture to dig into or under. I'd like for them to be able to have free roam of the room all the time, with access to their cage to eat, drink, sleep, etc. I guess I'm just really nervous because we're both gone during the day and I don't really see a way to test it without just letting them loose and hoping for the best! I just would worry myself sick all day while I was gone, like what if I forgot something, what if they find something I missed... you know? Any ideas?

Also, how do you guys keep the potty messes at bay? Being in an apartment, I can't really do anything permanent. But I also will get in big trouble at moveout if I've got damaged carpet. And Dexter is a kicker- I know if I put puppy pads or something like that down, he will lay down and kick at them until they're all crumpled up, and then I'll come home to poo and pee all over my carpet (disagree) Maybe a piece of vinyl or thick plastic? There'd have to be a way to stick it to the carpet. Would love some suggestions!

Ultimately my goal is to work up to letting them free roam the whole apartment while we're home, but I figured I'd tackle the one room first. Baby steps

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Hello Elleena! I live in a one bedroom apartment and have similer issues. First lift your power cables off the ground, tape them to the wall out of reach or stick them up there with the cable clips (from home hardware or simaler retail store). Any furnature in the apartment should have heavy fabric stapled to the botom to stop your carpet sharks making there way into the workings. There is foam, fuzz and a whole bunch of sprongs, cogs and splinters. Perfect place for a misshap

As for the poop find out where your little ones go and lay down a plastic litter box (you can see DIY options here on the forum in training section). to get them going in one spot inside there cage, find where they go, put a litter box down (my covvers like half the bottom of Hurleys cage)fill it with Worlds best or another all natural dust free product and darken the corner somehow. This will encorage them to go in that corner and in the litter!

to keep them entertained, try aranging boxes, washer tubes and other toys to give them stimulation.

Also read everything on this forum, there is so much good info already here!

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Thanks for the suggestions zenzao I will have to poke around some more and see if I can't find some ideas on here. My guys are pretty picky with litter boxes- they have a plexiglass one in their cage that spans the entire length of one side so they're used to having a ton of room. I don't think they'd use a plastic one that wasn't at least the same size and had basically no lip on the front. They'd also just kick it out of the corner in a second I think I'm going to end up just doing trial and error.

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I have to admit, there is anxiety in leaving free range home alone. With Ponce, he was an only child and I was always worried. In Florida, I was sure the house was safe, I just worried about one of the kids opening a door or not paying attention. Here, with Roamy and Juliet, again I'm sure the house is safe, but Roamy is a climber and I'm still learning their personalities. Ponce didn't chew anything, these two will. And I worried someone would break in and leave the doors open. We had a break in (before Ponce) and they did leave the door open. I don't have to work anymore, and we're home more often than not, but I still get anxious when they're alone. So, you'll have to consider that, and decide how anxious you will be. As far as the litter box goes, like you said you can experiment. Those heavy vinyl floor protector pads that they make for office chairs might work. One other thing, if you're in an apartment, does the apartment maintenance people make unscheduled visits, you might talk to the office and maybe even leave a sign inside on the door.
I really do like letting the little guys go free range, they seem so happy!

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Oh man, that's so scary! Bad enough to have a break in at all, but have them leave the door open so your baby could escape! I'm not really worried about that where we are, we're in a pretty good area (though you never know). I think I will probably try it a few weekends in a row, just let them run around that room, where I'm technically home and can just poke my head in to see how things are going. They've already had supervised free roam in that room since we moved back in March, so I'm mostly just worried about them digging at the carpet and going to the bathroom where they're not supposed to Apartment maintenance only ever comes in if they've left a notice on the door a few days ahead of time, so no worries there.

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My lot free roam in their own ferret room, i just leave the cage open and they go in and out when ever they like. The only time i cage them is if im cleaning the room or access is needed to the small rear garden. We have a improvised gate to stop them from escaping into the kitchen theyve never have upto now.
But this room is solely for them so theres no wires or normal furniture of any kind its just all there toys.

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I'm in the same boat as you. Two bedroom apartment and the extra room is their room. They have a FN cage in there and I removed one of the bottom doors and they have a ramp to get in and out but they are rarely in there. I have a plexiglass barricade with a little lockable ferret door cut into it so I don't have to close the bedroom door when I'm gone. I do close the door at night because they scratch at the ferret door when they want out and it's really loud.

You have to get down on all fours and just make sure there's nothing they can get into. I lock them in their room overnight and when no one is home mostly to keep poops out of the rest of the apartment.

They have about 6 litter boxes on either end of the room and two in the cage (which never get used). Even then, there are almost always poops outside the boxes on the floor. It's so frustrating to have poops on the floor and completely unused litter boxes. I used to use piddle pads but that didn't work out. They would get lazy and just use them and it's more of a pain to change those twice a day than the 1-2 poops I would have otherwise. They're really good during the day with poops but overnight they tend to protest poop - especially if I want to sleep in lol! They have a bedtime of 11:00pm every night and I'm almost 100% consistent with that. It keeps them on a fairly regular schedule. Sometimes they will be cute and playful right at 11 so they get to stay out an extra half hour. They get let out around 8-9am, sometime later if they don't wake me up by scratching the door.

I try to change their room around whenever possible to keep them entertained. But I do get lazy lol. It used to be my study room as well so there's a giant desk in there. Thankfully they can't open the closet door. Sometimes it's not completely shut and they get it open but there's nothing in there within their reach that they can get into.

They have tons of sleeping spots, each has a name "the nest" "the den" "the burrow" "Ferret club only - Fully air conditioned" etc. They have their food and water on the floor and an extra water bowl in the cage, just in case.

They have some toys in there but not many. Only ones that I know won't cause trouble. There's tubes, a ball pit, shredder paper box etc.