Lovable Little Devils

Thank you Grannyweasel! 🙂

Hi JC,

Haha.. nono, I heard you right. 🙂 I just meant that I thought about using newspaper in their pans as well because the newspaper bedding is expensive. 😛

Hi Anon,

Don’t get me wrong, I really regretted my wording after I posted this page. Don’t worry, my babies arn’t going anywhere. 😉 I refuse to be another one of those statistics of people who give their new pets away just because they don’t want to put in the work. And hahaha, the taking care of a 2-year old is a PERFECT way to describe having ferrets.

We have one more week in the dorms and I really can’t wait until I get them home so I can take them for more walks and take them everywhere with me and not have to worry about smuggling them in and out. 🙂

And hmm.. very interesting and shocking about the bi-odor! I felt the same way in the beginning when I was stocking up on supplies the day I brought them home and turned my nose up at the stuff at first. But I kept hearing about it and the results people got. And it made me feel better knowing it’s all-natural (or so they say).

If it were just me in the apartment I probably wouldn’t mind the smell, but I’m living with two others who may not be so understanding. So if anything I plan on giving the bi-odor a trial just for the sake of peace.

I really doubt it’s harmful to them; if it was Marshall would have an angry mob of owners after them. I’ll do more research on it. 🙂

I’m glad that you are loving your babies. I do hope that feeling is remembered when you move into your new place. As a shelter op, I see too many fuzzies that are surrendered because their owner had to move and couldn’t be troubled to find a place that would accept their “beloved” pet. (So there is no misunderstanding, I am not saying you will do this) 🙂

Ferrets are said to be as much work as a human 2 year old. I totally agree with that! I wouldn’t trade that work for anything. I have 11 personal and permanent resident ferrets (and fluctuating numbers of shelter ferrets) and I adore them all, they bring me so much joy and so many smiles.

Good luck with that potty training, it can be frustrating at times. We use large puppy pee pads around here in the places they choose to potty in. That can get very pricey with all the ferrets we have, but with two it shouldn’t be too bad. You can get them at WalMart or any other store that sells pet supplies. Between using the pee pads, and keeping the ferret cages and bedding clean we have no odor problems in our shelter. That is very important since our shelter is run out of part of our home!!

BiOdor is a waste of money IMO…and might even be dangerous to use. I did some pH testing on our water several years ago using the BiOdor. My concern was that if someone were to use too much of this product, what effect it would have on urine pH in the ferrets (you know the thinking, “if a little works, more might work better”?). What I found was that the more BiOdor I added to the water, the lower the pH of the water. IF this were to happen in the ferret’s urine, it could cause kidney problems. I cannot say for a fact this will happen…just that there is enough of a question there for me to reconsider using it on my ferrets. Again, keeping cages clean and bedding laundered will greatly reduce ferret odors.

Best of luck with your fuzzies…I wish you a long, happy life with them.

Sorry, I think you misunderstood me on the newspapers. I don’t use the bedding kind from stores. I use reg. newspapers & just folded them to fit in their littler boxes. It works for me.
You’re sure to find something new with them every day. They are such a sweet pet!

I personally don’t like the idea of giving my babies additives like the bi-odor. Sometimes it’s what you are feeding them that makes for bad smelling poo. I feed mine Wysong. It’s hard to find in pet stores. I order mine through the mail.

Re pictures of my babies — if you go to LOLferrets, most of my kids are on there. Nona has it listed here on this site. It’s funny & I love it.

Great idea about the cardboard.

I use newspaper in the corners of the rooms where my ferrets roam but I also put down pieces of plastic carpet protectors underneath, so that if they poop or piddle a lot, it doesn’t get thru to my wooden floors.

Maybe that’s another thing you can consider too?

BTW – love the photo of your devils – they are just too adorable for words 🙂

Hi JC,

Yeah I contemplated using newspaper as well when I was still using the pans; that bedding litter is expensive!

I’d love to see a picture of your babies! 🙂

That’s great, I use newspapers in all my babies’ boxes. As for the smell, well I have no answers for that. I just change their papers 2 or 3 times a day.
Glad you are enjoying your sweeties.

Hi JC, thanks for your well wishes and advice! 🙂

Harry and Draco were doing so well with their boxes at first but then one day decided they decided they liked them better as beds (even with poo in it! Blech!) And started pooing other places.

I remember reading somewhere that someone resorted to simply using cardboard pieces where their ferrets liked to go because they refused to used their litter pans.

So I stared doing that and not only is it cheaper than purchasing several pans and litter (What I had done. What a waste!!), but it’s easy clean up. When I see that have have pooed in a corner, I simple pick up the cardboard piece, throw it away, and lay down a fresh one.

I spend about 15 minutes every week with a box cutter and some free boxes from Walmart. Just take the box cutter and cut the boxes up into large squares that can fit in a corner.

I’ve found that 2-ply cardboard works better than 1-ply, simply because it has two layers as opposed to one. It doesn’t always happen, but with the 1-ply, sometimes their urine soaks through the cardboard and gets to the carpet.

Now they have a 100% hit rate with cardboard in all of their favorite corners rather than the.. what was it? 75-80% hit rate people are reporting with their litter boxes? I think that my little devils find it to be too much trouble to climb over the 1 inch border of their pan.

I love the cardboard so much more and I’m not always frustrated with my babies anymore. 🙂

I’ve been hearing a lot about the bi-odor water additive from Marshall Farms that helps reduce ferret waste odor. If that helps decrease the smell of their waste as well, I think we’ll have a happy ending with the apartment. 🙂

Hi JC, thanks for your well wishes and advice! 🙂

Harry and Draco were doing so well with their boxes at first but then one day decided they decided they liked them better as beds (even with poo in it! Blech!) And started pooing other places.

I remember reading somewhere that someone resorted to simply using cardboard pieces where their ferrets liked to go because they refused to used their litter pans.

So I stared doing that and not only is it cheaper than purchasing several pans and litter (What I had done. What a waste!!), but it’s easy clean up. When I see that have have pooed in a corner, I simple pick up the cardboard piece, throw it away, and lay down a fresh one.

I spend about 15 minutes every week with a box cutter and some free boxes from Walmart. Just take the box cutter and cut the boxes up into large squares that can fit in a corner.

I’ve found that 2-ply cardboard works better than 1-ply, simply because it has two layers as apposed to one. It doesn’t always happen, but with the 1-ply, sometimes their urine soaks through the cardboard and gets to the carpet.

Now they have a 100% hit rate with cardboard in all of their favorite corners rather than the.. what was it? 75-80% hit rate people are reporting with their litter boxes? I think that my little devils find it to be too much trouble to climb over the 1inch border of their pan.

I love the cardboard so much more and I’m not always frustrated with my babies anymore. 🙂

I’ve been hearing a lot about the bi-odor water additive from Marshall Farms that helps reduce ferret waste odor. If that helps decrease the smell of their waste as well, I think we’ll have a happy ending with the apartment. 🙂

Maybe if you watch to see what corner they go to the most & place a litter pan there, you might find it easier to train them. I found that each of my ferrets have their own special corner. Whether it’s in their cage or when they are out playing. There’s a lot on the internet on training a pet ferret. This site is a great site to start on.
Hope you enjoy your fur babies as much as I do mine.
Good Luck!