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 Messy Messy Messy! Ferrets kick bedding and food everywhere! How to fix?
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Jabberwockie

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Messy Messy Messy! Ferrets kick bedding and food everywhere! How to fix? - Monday, July 28, 2014 5:19 PM
My two ferrets make such a mess! They are still in the process of litter training too so they tend to poop over the cage edge and its driving my crazy to have to mop the kitchen floor every day.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? I was also thinking to cut out the shelf under the cage and finding a glass or plexi tank to be the bottom of the cage to make clean up easier. Though to do this it is a lot of work...

How do you guys prevent bedding, litter and food from being spread out over the house?
whiskandbowl

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Re:Messy Messy Messy! Ferrets kick bedding and food everywhere! How to fix? - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 9:52 AM
Get rid of the disposable bedding. Ferrets don't need bedding like Carefresh or similar. I use fleece blankets in my cage.

When litter training, I like to bring the ferret down to one level. Make sure you are using a large square litter pan. I like Marshall lock on pans. Favorite litter is paper pellet litter, though I know many use wood stove pellets. Avoid clay and clumping cat litter.
If your ferrets are young, they do tend to go through a stage where they dig and play and sleep in the pans. Thankfully, most tend to grow out of it. 

Food, I use lock on bowls. For a food digger, get a ceramic bowl, and place it in a larger bowl. Then when the food is dug out, it just lands in the bigger bowl. There will always be some crumb mess, as ferrets tend to like to move around to a corner to eat. (I don't miss it one bit since switching to raw!)

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer
unclejoe
Re:Messy Messy Messy! Ferrets kick bedding and food everywhere! How to fix? - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 12:02 PM
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lnsybean44

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Re:Messy Messy Messy! Ferrets kick bedding and food everywhere! How to fix? - Wednesday, August 06, 2014 10:55 PM
I use a large cement mixing pan that I found at Home Depot. It fits into the bottom level of the ferret nation and holds everything in. It has ~10 inch high sides and the ferrets have no problem hopping in and out over it. When I have the cage on wheels I have a ramp that I built that is slid in front of the cage to allow them easier access in and out. 
wacferret

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Re:Messy Messy Messy! Ferrets kick bedding and food everywhere! How to fix? - Wednesday, September 03, 2014 8:10 PM
YEP ditch the bedding. Use old t-shirts, towels, pieces of carpet as their bedding. Easy to clean (just drop in washing machine) $0 cost as you are using your old shirts, towels, blankets. 100% reusable so you are being green too boot. And they can't toss it out of the cage, it is also cozy places to hide or sleep, just make sure your ferrets are not cloth chewers. Only use the litter in the litter-boxes. I agree with the suggestion of limiting their space while litter training. Restrict them to 1 level only. Food in one corner, water in another corner, sleep sack/igloo(sleep spot) in other corner and litter-box in the last corner. this way they tend to be neater (at least with where they poop) Most ferrets will not poop where they eat/drink or sleep so if they have no other choice they will only use the litter-box corner for their bathroom needs. If the entire bottom of the cage except the litter-box has soft comfy bedding (towels,shirts,etc...) then they should start to associate that as a sleepy spot and 'should' refrain from pooping there. Of course this is not 100% true for all ferrets I have one lazy fert who will just poop where ever he gets the urge. As far as keeping the litter in the box get a high back litter-box (you can cut down one side if it is too high for them to get in/out easy)or even a cat litter-box with a top so only where they come in and out is open should limit the amount of dug up litter being tossed around. You may also want to make then a Dig box so they can get out the urge to dig but in a positive way in a spot you intend them to dig in (dig box directions and pics on this site) good luck

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