Of course, since I took and posted all of those nice detailed cage pictures, we had to go and rearrange the cage. It’s a minor adjustment, really. We added a water fountain!

Fish supplies really come in handy for this ongoing ferret cage project.  The feeder we use is an automatic fish feeder, and this fountain is a fish filter!

This isn’t the first time we’ve had a water fountain for the ferrets, and even the last one was made from a fish tank filtration system. The last one didn’t work out very well, it leaked/spilled all over the place, it ran low on water too quickly for that reason, when it ran out of water the pump would need minor repairs to get going again… It was a short lived experiment, let’s just say that.

We were talking about that fountain the other day, though, and it got us to thinking of ways we could have improved it. Which led us to the aquarium store, and eventually to the fountain you see above. It’s a little messy, still, but we’re working on it. I’m not reshoooting the cage photos until we’re sure we’re going to keep it. We had to move the fan, because the fan sat right under it.  So if we decide to stick with the fountain stay tuned for new pictures of the whole cage soon!

The ferrets love it, by the way. They love water, and they really seem to enjoy the steady flow of it. I’d imagine the trickling sound is probably pretty calming, too!

Today is a beautiful day. Sunny, breezy, low 80′s. It’s a perfect day to have the ferrets outside! Over the winter, we found a great place to buy custom cages, called Martin’s Cages. We ordered an outdoor ferret cage in anticipation of the spring. I’m so glad we did, because it’s really been great for the ferrets. They really enjoy being outside!

Sometimes we’ll pack it up and go to a local park. When we do that, we put the cage out on the grass and let them have fun. This usually involves a lot of digging holes, which in turn requires us to move the cage around a few inches at a time, so they don’t actually dig themselves right out. Ling is the biggest digger, and Jeff will stand behind her, getting pelted with dirt, and moving her dirt out of the way. He likes to help keep the digging area clean.

What we do most days, though, is just bring them out to the back patio. It is made of pavers, which are pretty rough, so when they scratch they actually file their nails! Some people say that depriving ferrets of natural sunlight cycles can damage their health. For this reason, we always try to keep them on a natural light cycle, and we think that bringing them outside really helps. When the weather is this nice we will have them outside from the early morning all day until the sun sets, then we’ll put them into their room with the lights off. I don’t know if it really effects their health, but I always try to do everything I can to keep them healthy.

When we bring them out, we have a large plastic storage container in the cage, just like the ones we use for the food and litter boxes. We put some holes in the top for ventilation, holes on 2 ends for entrances, and a t-shirt inside. This gives them a darkish place to hide out, if they feel too exposed, or just want a quiet place to sleep.

A lot of times that I’ve brought them outside recently, it’s started to rain and I’ve had to take them in early. Today looks like a perfect day, though, so they will hopefully get their full day in the fresh air!