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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 12:58:39 GMT -5
Well it's just like anything, you plan and plan and plan and then when the reality is there, everything changes. I had originally set up our FN182 inside a Marshall Playpen 11-panel with 2 extra 3-panel add-ons. That is 17 panels of fun. I thought it would be perfect for them. Well, after watching a bunch of videos with ferrets running after each other and war dancing and playing, I realized that I didn't think they had enough space. So my husband and I rearranged our office a bit (its really half of our finished basement - totally open space). Now, the TV wing of the office is the Ferret wing of the office. Also, my guys don't give a care about corners. They will back up into a wide open space and go right on the floor. I believe this is because the rescue has a similar setup, but rather than use litter boxes, they just put newspaper in all of the corners. So these guys got used to just going "on the floor" and while they do have a 90% success rate in the litter boxes, it is that 10% that I'm avoiding with the newspapers.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Nov 13, 2013 13:01:16 GMT -5
Very nice. I'm sure they are loving the extra space.
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Post by Heather on Nov 13, 2013 14:43:23 GMT -5
Very nice set up. Looks like it will keep them well occupied until they figure out they can climb their "wall" lol ciao
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 14:51:33 GMT -5
well they're never unsupervised and if they ever come close to figuring it out, mommy will stop them! (bounce)
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Post by Heather on Nov 13, 2013 16:14:35 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 16:23:35 GMT -5
OH no, don't send pictures like that... what if my ferrets see them and figure out that they too have the necessary agility and muscles to do that? I'll keep my eyes peeled for sure. So far the only thing they climb up to is the fouton and we have that placed nowhere near the gate. If they figure out getting up and over the cage, I'm sunk. Well, actually... if they figure that out, I'll just have to build a wall and make that a real room instead of just a gated room.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 17:23:24 GMT -5
When they tell you about ferrets, you hear all sorts of tales....you're warned about biting, pooping, great doorway escapes. You will see snuggly ferrets, bouncing ferrets, happy ferrets, but often they don't warn you about climbing ferrets. These are a couple of pics of something that ferrets do very well when given the opportunity. The very last one is a warning....ferrets also think about how to do things. They use their toys, boxes and other "climbable" items to get at things they want. That's Serenity's thing that took us off guard when we realized it. She has an insatiable curiosity to climb things! Fortunately, Malcolm does not, hes too much of a little fat boy to get his bulk up anything. But Serenity will climb anything and everything she can, and really susprised us one day when we left her alone in a room for a short while, and then heard some noises, went to go check on her, and she had climbed up onto the bed, jumped from the bed to the dresser... and start pushing things off the top of the dresser in her efforts to try to reach a shelf above it that she fortunately never got to!
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Post by Sherry on Nov 13, 2013 18:35:58 GMT -5
I cannot count how many times we have pulled the gods alone know how many ferrets off the top of cages, including the 143, lol! However- until the figure it out I am SO glad they have that much more space to just be ferrets in
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 19:11:12 GMT -5
One of mine occasionally climbs to the top of the refrigerator. She doesn't use any fancy tricks; just goes to the back side of it and pushes her back against the kitchen wall while she climbs.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 22:09:43 GMT -5
That looks like they will have loads of fun!
I need to redo my fert room again. I'm toying with the idea of a wall maze of tubes but I want to paint the walls a cheery bright color first
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 22:17:52 GMT -5
Great setup! I had my ferts in a different room for a few months but when we found out my Neichei was sick (insulinoma) we moved them back into my room so I could be with her more. We're going to move in about a year or so and I am hoping to have my room in the basement (bigger space) and have a similar setup, with the playpen and such.
Oh, silly question but, where did you get your Ferrets harness at? (in the pictures) I want to buy mine some, but all I can find in the store are velcro ones and well, we all know ferrets are stronger than velcro (twitch)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2013 10:37:32 GMT -5
Looks like a Living World brand harness to me. Petsmart has them on their website, but I don't know if that means that every one of their stores will carry it. I have two of them (they work wonderfully), but I bought them from a local non-chain store.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2013 17:18:24 GMT -5
Spot the ferret! I no longer have this setup for obvious reasons.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2013 18:08:36 GMT -5
Well I think its only a matter of time *cringes*
Today as I'm sitting on the floor, Rufus climbed up me. He's sitting on my shoulder and next thing I know he's taken a flying leap off of me! I nearly had a heart attack. I think sitting, my shoulder is like two feet off the ground. He landed fine, doesn't seem to be hurt. Mommy is freaking out and gave him lots of cuddles and snuggles to make sure he was ok.
Needless to say, that jump was aimed towards the gate, so he's definitely trying to find ways to get out. Time to get out the tool box and start designing walls.
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Post by Sherry on Nov 14, 2013 21:27:20 GMT -5
It's so hard to judge. I've had them unexpectedly dive out of the third level of an FN and have zero issues. Others have had them topple a foot and have paralysis.
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