New Ferret Nation is here!

[Deleted]

Finally got the new Ferret Nation delivered yesterday, I would have posted some pictures then but we were pretty busy last night... Though despite that I still managed to take a few pictures, just didn't have the time to upload them anywhere till now! 

So without further ado, a couple of BEFORE pictures!



Serenity and Malcolm know something is up, they just don't know what it is!
They can hear us putting together, the new Ferret Nation, in a another room where they can't see it!




I came into the room to take these pictures and told them we had a surprise for them!
Malcolm, like the little kid he is, was just all "PRESENT!!    GIMME GIMME!"
While Serenity got a little wide eyed and just went.. "Whhaaaat?!"





Now with those pictures taken, I went back out to help finish building the 182.

We got that finished and I went back into the playroom, and wheeled Serenity and Malcolm into another room so they would not see the Ferret Nation Cage being brought in.  Also, because I wanted to clean and vacuum up the floor under their old cage, and then I went and took a few things out of their old cage to put inside the 182; notably their Banana Hammock, they both love it so much then it would be recognizable to them in the new 182 and they would know that it was theirs...

Then I rolled the 182 into place!








So now the new cage is in place.

Serenity and Malcolm still have not yet seen it, they're in another room...

This is the moment when I wish I had a video camera!

I went and fetched them out of their old cage, and brought them into the play room, and set them down to discover the new cage for themselves!

The both went straight to it!  she quickly pulled herself up, skipping the ramp entirely while Malcolm went and found the new litter box!


Serenity:
"I hereby declare myself; Queen, of the Ferret Nation!"
"What is this? A ramp?  I don't need a ramp!  You!  Human Servant!  Remove this from my Palace at once!"

Malcolm:
"HEY!!  I FOUND A TOILET!!  THIS IS AWESOME!!"







Then his ADHD kicked in...


Malcolm:
"OH HEY! WHATS IN THIS THING!  WHOA!!!  IT SWINGS!"

Serenity:
"Maybe... hmm, just, maybe.. if I push this shoe over, he'll fall and hit his head on it, and I'll finally get a peaceful nap for a change!"





Malcolm:
"Hey whoa!  There's RAMPS!!  Hey whats up here!  This is totally awesome!!






Then we decided to bring in the old cage to take a couple pictures for size comparison.

Malcolm is still obsessing over those totally awesome and cool ramps...

Serenity is still trying to figure out what to do with that old shoe!




THEN...

They saw the old cage brought back in...

Malcolm:
"WHOOA!  Hey!  Can we have BOTH?!"

Serenity:
"Human!  Remove that ugly thing from my sight at once!"
"PAY attention to ME!  I'M the only one whose important here!   Pay attention to ME!"







...and there you have it, Serenity and Malcolm and their first experience with their brand new Ferret Nation 182 cage!

I actually DID end up removing the middle ramp, both of them just kept skipping it and would just pull themselves up into the upper unit.  If I ever have to separate the units then I'll just reattach that ramp and put it in its up position.

I couldn't believe how unsafe it was; it would seem the construction of this cage now prevents that ramp from being pushed over to the edge, as when you put the cage together its got holes soldered into place on the back panel and door panels; that the pegs on the side panels slide into those holes... and right where that ramp goes, the hole is soldered right into the corner and prevents you from hooking the ramp into that corner... so now it forces the ramp over to the left by at least an inch and a half; and both Serenity and Malcolm were climbing up and down through that little gap between the bars and the ramp. 

Also with the ramp up, Serenity would still easily be able to squeeze herself through that gap, which sort of makes putting the ramp up rather pointless... so I just took that ramp out.  I mean, i have seen her squeeze herself through openings smaller that that gap, so I knew it would be pointless... 

I'll try to post some pictures of it later tonight in this thread --> holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/13101/fn-182-ramp-safety-hazard -- as not sure if this is a recent change to the cage or not, but it seems the "gap" is more pronounced then first described in that thread; and some have posted that they were able to slide the ramp over further to the right... but now the construction of the cage seems to prevent sliding the ramp over like that.

I'll also probably take the other two ramps out, as it was not long before they both discovered that they can just pull themselves up onto the individual shelves and thus skipping the ramps entirely.

I also just got the pan covers delivered today, so we'll add those on tonight... all the bedding you see in there now are a bunch of nice little blankets we found at Walmart, that turned out to be perfect, they were like $5 each and their claws don't get caught in them and they both love to dig down between the folds, curl up and just nap down in there...

I also just received today, the other Accessory Kit that included the Cozy Cube, Hammock Hideaway, Busybody Blankie and the Hide & Seek Tunnel... We'll add the Cube in tonight, and maybe put that Blankie in somewhere too.

They (petsupplies.com) also accidentally sent me a second Kit with that cube, hammock, tunnel and blankie.... for free...

It was supposed to have been part of a promotion; buy a 182 and get a free accessory kit.... only the promotion was supposed to have been over.  when I bought the cage, there was no info provided anywhere telling me that I was going to get a free accessory kit with it, so I bought and paid for that same accessory kit...

They  sent me the one I paid for, and then accidentally included the free one and when I called them about it this afternoon, they told me I was not supposed to have been sent a free one, because the promotion was over, and Midwest had only allowed them a certain number of free ones...

SO, they're letting me return the one I paid for, and I'll get a refund for it!  Since it was their mistake in sending it to me, they sent me a prepaid shipping label, so woo hoo!

[Heather]

There have been a number of complaints with the FN through the years and unfortunately they're safety issues, but these cages are by far the best on the market for access and safety. I've had a number of different types of cages and the FN is by far one of the better made. I'm not as fond of the 182, I do have one. It seems they've made better ledges (one of the issues of the old FN)but have created some issues with the ramps and assembly. What I don't like about the FN is it's built on the vertical leaving seniors with having to be able to negotiate ramps when butts just don't climb any more. There are ways around it, which is what I spent the holidays doing which is putting a number of the FN's together so you have a horizontal cage vs a vertical. I think there was some conversation about repairing or making a fix on the ramp between levels but I'm not sure what it was.
I'm happy that both you and your little ones are enjoying their new living space
ciao

[Deleted]

Did you figure out how to do the ramps? When I first got mine they were a bit tricky to install without the fuzzie knocking it over.
I bet they love all the extra space & I'm sure your loving the ease of cleaning with the huge doors.

[unclejoe]

Looks good! I would like to see the assembly process some time.

[Deleted]

I thought about taking pictures of the assembly process...

But my girlfriend likely would have fussed at me for "not helping" and "getting in the way" ! LOL

So I decided it best that I help with the assembly process.

It was a lot easier then expected, though yes you WILL need a hammer... so when they say "no tools required" they're kinda on the fence there; as some of the panels just won't get together unless you beat on them with a hammer. Midwest recommends a large rubber mallet; but I don't have one of those so I used my regular hammer and just placed a small piece wood over the panel pieces so the hammer would smack the wood and not the metal.

Some of the pieces have these little pre-installed metal pegs that are designed to slide into holes on other pieces, the pegs seem to be soldered into the metal, but we got one that was bent almost at about a 45 degree angle... clearly a manufacturer defect... and it would have ruined our day, but I decided to just lay the panel down, and beat the "peg" into place with my hammer and that did the trick!

So far, its worked out great.

The fuzzies love it and climb in and out on their own during play time; though Serenity still cage rages, I swear that girl was definitely NOT intended to be a kept/caged ferret... but they will both willingly climb back in for their naps during play time; as they get quite a few hours a day to play outside the cage, sometimes longer... They'll get excited, chase each other, wrestle each other, play with their toys, run around, wardance... then eventually they'll go climb back up into the cage looking for their food or water, and then go take a nap for an hour, then want to come back out again.

They also seem to get around just fine without the ramps in place!

[Deleted]

I love your picture diary here! And you totally 'talk' for your ferrets like we do... they all have their own little personalities... in our mind anyhow. Our kids even do it and they are only 4 and 6! Its also to the cat, dogs, turtles, ow and their little sister (1.5 years old). haha