So that's basically it! My bottom floor now has a rectangular litter pan, food, water, some sleep stuff, and a few toys. I stretch a towel/ blanket across the bottom tray and place the cage on top of it so it's kind of like a carpet. -Oh, and I ripped those annoying clips off the bottom tray! I don't need them. My ferrets aren't going to lift the darned thing off the base! The second floor has food, water, a second litter pan, hammocks/sleep stuff, and hanging tubes.

I put the litter boxes on first two floors in the same corners. On the third floor the entrance to the tube to go down is in the same corner that the litter boxes are in on the two floors below -as if to say, "if you're coming to this corner to pee... go down!" (My own version of ferret psychology!) One of my ferrets was pretty blind when I modified this cage so I figured this method of "litter box placement" would cut down on accidents since she couldn't look around and instantly know which floor she was on or what corner to run to. This method worked well :)

The very top floor is a work in progress. Generally it's used for play. No food or litter box (they can get that just one level down!). It has some more dryer hose (wire edges taped for safety), empty boxes, a plastic milk jug with holes, and a few other toys. It's the younger one's favorite place to hang out! :0) Oh, it's also got one of those large balls with all the holes in it that looks great in the pictures but that every ferret I know ignores! Mine only started using it when I capped off two of the holes with Super Pet Bubblecaps and put a round cushion in the center. It then became a favorite sleep spot. I call it "The Satellite." That's Whitney sleeping in it there with Hope in the dryer hose. Oh, and there is a solid floor on top of that horizontal wooden dowel! It just doesn't look like it in this picture because the floor is clear plexiglas, but it's there!

* One More (optional but very cool) Thing

Sometimes when a ferret was ill, I needed to keep it separated from the others to monitor food, water, and stools. In the past I would remove the tubes and close up the holes in the floors to separate them or I would put one ferret in a separate cage or a large carrier. Well no more!

I looked around for some screw-top containers that had the same sized openings as the funnels -and I found them! The kind I found were round "Sterilite" containers but any screw-top plastic container with similar dimensions will do. I don't think a pop-top would be as ferret proof or as easy to work with.

I bought 4 containers and cut them close to the rim, then fit a small rim piece over each end of the funnels and duct taped them into place. Once I did that, I could screw a top onto the newly added pieces at the ends of the funnels and cap off a tube at both ends to restrict access to and from a floor. I no longer had to change or remove anything! If you do this, be sure to cap off both ends of a tube so no ferret will climb all the way up or down a tube just to meet with, and get trapped at, a capped off end. Also, make sure that each floor is equipped with food, water, a litter box and sleep things.

Being able to "cap off" tubes was also very helpful when I wanted to restrict access to the "play floor" at night so I could SLEEP! At bedtime I'd simply remove all ferrets from the top floor and cap it off -which would restrict everybody to the bottom two floors for the remainder of the night. The bottom two floors had had no loud toys, just food, water, litter boxes and lots and lots of quiet sleep stuff! Every morning, when the ferrets were let out to play, the top floor would be uncapped again for the duration of the day.

Intro | Supplies | Bottom Door | Middle Door | Edging | Top Door | Floors | Tubes/Ramps | Finish