[brody]

and be glad you dont live closer to me

in a little piece of the latest madness that is my life the local animal control looks posed for a strike ... the manager of the local facility has asked for help moving the most vulnerable out

including a ferret ... (and kittens, cats, dogs, rabbits, mice and a hamster - no labs yet)

I know very little about ferrets but have a foster home lined up - except I need to provide housing for the critter - I'm hoping a tall cockateil cage might suffice .. it's 4 feet high and square side to side
my other option is a long low cage (4 feet long)

any experts here? thoughts welcome

cheers and thanks

 

[BigBrownDog]

I think they can escape from anything wider than their head. How tight are the bars on the bird cage?

 

[cinderbay]

it might chew its way out of a tiel cage

 

[brody]

bars are 1 inch apart
it's 3'6 by 24 by 24 not ideal I'm sure but with hammocks and shelves hopefully doable??

 

[gailatmsu]

We have a ferret. A little girl named Daisy. Her cage is about 3' tall with three levels. The bars have about 1/2" gaps between them.

I'd go with the long cage. We took her levels out for now. She won't use her litter box with them in. We have her a little tent and hammmock to sleep in and a high back, long litter box is important (not the corner ones - we learned the hard way). Litter has to be dust-free (we're using a mixture of crystals and yesterday's news). For food, we're using evo ferret food (though considering switching to blue buffalo cat food for her).

They are VERY playful, but sleep a lot too. Socialization with the family is important as they can become nippy without it. Daisy and the cats & dogs get along wonderful and play together. I'm not sure if that would be the case for all, but I was worried since my cats are mousers. They love balls (esp with bells), those feather on a stick toys for cats, and you can teach them simple tricks like roll over with food or clicker training.

She's a fun pet. . We've only had Daisy about 6 weeks, but me and hubby met because of a ferret so we have prior experience of a few years. .
I'm not sure if any of this helps, but ask away, and I'll try to answer. There's a ferret forum at forum.ferrets.com that's a good resource.

 

[Baloo317]

Any parts of it plastic? ferrets make labs look like novices in the chewing department.

Also, they have very, VERY high prey drives, if you have any small animals at all (birds rodents etc) put them under serious lock and key.

 

[brody]

Thanks guys - I know about prey drive and ferrets

will remind foster mom ... we'll see what happens