Advice on moving to a smaller space and potty training

[Deleted]

So right now I'm living with my parents as my boyfriend and I get adjusted after moving back to our hometown. I'm lucky enough to have very generous parents, who live in a three bedroom house and have let me convert their extra bedroom into a ferret room for my two three month old babies, who came into my care after moving back in with my parents. Unfortunately, with so much room to run around and play in, they have come under the impression that the world is their litter box. To combat this I bought them an eleven panel playpen to surround their cage so that they're a little more confined and hopefully more inclined to use their litter boxes. No dice. They're at least using them some of the time now instead of never, but still going in random spots in their play pen and their cage a good amount of the time.

My issue now is that in a few weeks my boyfriend and I will be moving into his sister's place with her, which is a two bedroom condo. Meaning that the ferrets will need to share a room with us. The cage that I have for them now was the one that the family who I bought them from gave me, which they bought I'm guessing as a starter kit type of package from the pet store. It's kaytee brand and much too small to keep the both of them in for any length of time. What I'm looking for is either a relatively cheap premade cage that is large and sturdy enough for the two of them to sleep, and stay in for 8-9 hours of the day (they'll be free roam in our bedroom/the whole condo whenever either of us is home) or any good ideas/advice on building one with little to no tools. I've been looking into getting a few sets of those wire storage cubes to build one, if anyone has any experience/advice on that it would be much appreciated. And also any tips on potty training them so I can get them to a point where I can let them be in their playpen in the living room while we're at work without ruining the carpet.

Thank you so much in advance for reading this super long post, and any advice you can give!

[Deleted]

The best thing you could do at the moment would be to grab them everytime you see them go to the toilet and place them in a litter pan or puppy pad. Having a few puppy pads and or litter boxes helps alot. Make sure to leave some starter stools on the litter boxes or pads. The whole process of litter training is just to be repetitive with your ferrets. The more you do it, the more they will begin to learn. It can take time, but you'll get there. Also keep in mind, they are babies, babies have accidents and that is understandable.

[Sherry]

In the cage start litter box boot camp. It is in the Enrichment board, Training Tips, and scroll to the bottom. Follow it strictly as they are only 3 months old.
For out of cage(using the playpen) follow behind and put butts in boxes when needed, and give a lick of oil every time the box is used out of cage correctly.

[Deleted]

I haven't had to potty train a ferret in years, but your best bet for a cheap cage would probably be camping out on Craigslist and hoping something good shows up; There was a basically brand new double FN about an hour away from me for like $100. Alternatively, you could look for, or make a cage out of those square wire shelving/etc panels that a lot of people use for guinea pig cages, and do something like this www.etsy.com/listing/498327515/large-bunnyrabbit-condo I've seen quite a few ferrants use them too(though this is the first time I've seen them double-wide). The cheapest place I've seen to consistently get Ferret Nations is ferret.com, right now it's $190 with free shipping but I've never seen it over like $230 there. I'm not sure if a FN is too big for what you're thinking/etc but ferret.com also has a few other types of cages if you want to look around there.

[abbeytheferret6]

I've been looking into getting a few sets of those wire storage cubes to build one,

Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/22065/advice-moving-smaller-space-training?page=1#ixzz4TJ1vwwzk


Be mindful of the width between bar spacing. You do not want ferret's head to get stuck between bars. Marshals playpens and ferret nation cages have 1 inch spaces between bars. Seems to be pretty safe spacing for ferrets. If it is going to be tall, you will need to put something like plexiglass or somethng similar around bottom to keep ferrets from climbing cage. Maybe 14 inches or 15 high (looking at playpen to first horizontal bar).

[LindaM]

The easiest way I found to potty train my ferrets was to figure out what they wanted first. Loki never had much like for the usual corner style boxes, he wants a fully enclosed box (and the opening has to be low to the ground, he's lazy). So off to our local Target Superstore, bought some nice looking plastic containers with easy to remove lids, cut a nice opening in one of the smaller sides and smoothed with sandpaper, added our mix of litter and placed one in our bathroom, one in the kitchen, and one in the cage. Here's a link to the the exact containers we used: www.target.com/p/-/A-50663768 (I have yellowish greens with purple lids).

To get him to religiously use his box, at first if he was going to go in a corner he shouldn't I'd rush over with "Loki No" which stops him and gets his attention, allowing me time to pick him up and place in a box, and after using the box, praise and hand a treat. After a while, he began using the boxes more, and each time I saw him use a box, he'd get a treat.

Because of my new baby ferret, we also have puppy pads out since she sometimes will go in front of the box, or occasionally a corner. Which has made Loki want to go on some of the pad next to the boxes, but I can now just say "No, pottybox" or "Loki pottybox" if I see him aim for the pad, and he'll go in there instead.

Occasional mistakes still get made sometimes, which we clean up as soon as we spot it and clean thoroughly with a cleaner to remove the smell to discourage the area as a pooping spot, but those are far and few between. Neither of them go on the carpets at all, only the hardwood floor if a mistake is made.

As for inside the cage, again, mine like the closed box and we clean it even more regularly than the others as it sees more use. A ferret won't go if they think it's got too much in there either. For Athena, since she's still learning, and wants to use the piece of pad sticking out in front of the box, I'll use a poop scoop and lift the poop into the box, and she's started catching on that the box is the place to go. We have a Ferret Nation cage and we have all the pans covered in fleece liners (but you could do the same with the levels in other cages) which makes them believe it's a comfy sleep and play place, not meant for poops, poops go in that box instead. Eventually or even quickly sometimes, they get the idea that you wouldn't poop in your bed, so why poop anywhere but the pooping box.