litter training Ferrets?

-Minimize the space in her cage, remove ramps and levels if you can

-Get a big rectangular litter box, most ferrets like having their entire body in the cage

-- Like this one (http://www.ferret.com/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemNo=65078...

-Have your corners covered! Use old tshirts or towels as bedding. Chances are your ferret will not poop on his or her bedding.

--Put the blankets in the corners and food bowls or water bowls or toys.

-Put some of the ferrets poop in their litter box so they know that’s a place to go pee or potty.

--make sure the litter box is secure in place, sometimes this makes or breaks the process for some ferrets.

Litter

-Never use clay or clumping litter as it can cause serious problems to your ferret

-- Some good alternatives are wood pellets, recycled newspaper (yesterdays news).

Just minimize their space, start in their cage, are they litter trained in there? All the corners you don't want them to poop it put things they don't associate with going potty, maybe some bedding or food water or toys.

Then watch them like a hawk, when you see them back up or look like they are going to poo, snatch them up and place them in the box. Once they go (make sure they arent faking it) give them treats and or praise them for being such good ferrets. In time they will get the hint and catch on.

I have successfully litter box trained my ferrets so I can tell you what works for me. My kids are free roam in my home all day and they try really hard to only use the boxes. Ferrets will not be really conscientious like a cat but they get pretty close.

Ferrets have very short digestive tracks and an equally fast metabolism so they must eat and poop about every 3 hours or so. They do not have a problem with obesity and should have food whenever they are hungry. Frequent pooping is normal and expected. That is just what ferrets do, it's biological. The secret to my success came when I finally realized that ferrets do not look very long for a box, in fact they don't look or try to smell out a box, when they have to go they just back into the nearest corner and eliminate then they go off on their exploration. So, you must have several or as many litter boxes as required in all rooms they use. Have boxes in all the corners they like to use as a toilet.

Next, the boxes must have a low front so they don't really have to make a lot of effort to climb in. I made my own boxes out of cheap cat liter pans. I cut the front down with my dremel and put heavy tape across the sharp edge. I left about an inch of lip to keep the litter in the pan. Now they can back up like a care and deposit.

Now to help them get the idea, when they are out, watch them for the very predictable backing up and pick them up and put them in the box. Don't worry about trying to punish them for mistakes or get frustrated, just calmly pick them up and put them in the box and talk nicely to them. Just keep doing this and they will catch on.

Ferrets get really scared if you make sudden movements or aggressive sounds that make them fearful. Keep your emotions and actions very pleasant and calm. If they get scared they will just get frightened and aggressive which is not going to help them learn to use the pan. Just remain calm and summon up all your patience and keep working with them. After a while they will just use certain litter boxes and you can remove some of the pans. I have a pan in each bathroom, one in each kids room, about 4 in my room including the one under the dresser and 3 in each of the living areas. The secret is to have a pan where they need one, not where you think you want one. It's all about the ferrets. They are such cute little critters and they really want to please you, so don't give up. Patience and persistence.

How old are they? My son's two ferrets trained themselves right away. They had their accidental poops when we'd let them out to run around but we never thought to put litter boxes in those corners they always went to.

Those corner litter boxes are great and inexpensive now. Maybe put them on each level in each corner until they learn they have to go in those and not everywhere else.

Maybe you are feeding them too much.

A word of advice, though, watch them at all times when they are running around your house. Lock them up securely at night. One of my son's ferret's got out because my husband let him out of the cage while we were sleeping and didn't tell anyone. My husband also didn't shut the garage door all the way, so the ferret got right out and cruised down the alley. This one was deaf, so our calling her while searching did not help. We were picking up our Campisis pizza a couple days later and one of the managers was bragging about how his roommates dog was fighting this thing (he couldn't describe it) and grabbed it by its neck and shook it around violently. The guy thought it was funny. I looked at my other son and said that has to be the ferret. I bravely went up to the manager and told him it sounded like my other son's pet ferret and he told us we could go pick up the box they put him in. It was SO SAD. So please, watch him carefully.

Best of luck. Have fun with them. They are a blast!

For the cage, Do the poo in one spot? If so, you can buy a litter box at Petco.

And outside of the cage, I don't think you can do much about it.