Hello! My ferret Gustavo is definitely up there in age, approximately 7 years old. He is getting very frail and his muscle mass is lessening. Can't always make it to his restroom area, etc. His energy only lasts about 30 minutes when he is out and then he finds somewhere to sleep for an hour or so. He has been falling down his ramps for the last few weeks and I think it's time to move him from his Ferret Nation double into a single story cage. I'm going to be selling his current one with accessories he doesn't/won't be using and would like to use that to get him a cage that is safer and less stressful.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with old farts with limited back leg muscles and what your set ups are like. Any help would be appreciated!

Can't you just put the ramp to the second level up and take out the shelf?  A single level should still be big enough for a litter box and bed.  I don't know if you are planning on another ferret some day, but if not, you could sell the whole cage instead of pieces.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

I think I would take the ramp out of the cage.  I always put down baby comforters and sleep sack for the floor of the cage.  My older ferrets like to sleep on the floor of the cage in a warm sleep sack....I will also put down some baby blankets for them.

If you have other ferrets in the cage.  You can also hang the hammocks up, this way they have to climb into the hammocks.  I don't use ramps or shelves in my FN cage.  I have two or three hammocks hanging....and sleep sacks and blankets on the floor.

I hope this helps

I rescued three older ferrets and had a big set up for them. There are large one-level guinea pig cages available on Amazon that worked fantastic. One half was set up entirely with big comfy blankets (that they could lounge in). One corner had litter on a cookie sheet- which prevented them from needing to use strength to get into high-sided litter boxes. I just felt it was more ethical. My food dishes were very shallow so they wouldn't need to reach up. I also had a water dish, rather than a water bottle, so they could easily hydrate without needing to reach up. I had a kittie-heat pad that I used with one of my older ferrets and it really seemed to help her muscles. She was significantly more limber after she began sleeping on the pad. To supplement their muscle-mass I also fed them a high-calorie supplement for cats, that helped them keep their weight up. I added a lot of powdered egg and dried chicken into their food too to keep up with their fat and protein content. I also took them outside for walks on good weather days. The bright sunlight really seemed to help their mood and the change in scenery gave them some good exercise- which definitely seemed to help them (if nothing else by just giving them the energy from some fresh air). As two of my ferrets got older they could no longer chew hard food. I put the food in a coffee grinder and ground it into a dust, then mixed in water with it. They could 'slurp it up', and it worked really well for them when they were a bit too weak in their last few months to eat solid food. Hope this helps!