The Ferret Nation Club

[inzeos]

Also, has anyone had trouble with their chins escaping from these cages. I have a cage now with bars just slightly larger than an inch apart and one of my boys is able to squeeze out! I'm hoping the ferret nation will work..

Kits will escape the bars when they are young. We unfortunate had one little guy get through and he spent some time exploring the soft carpet under the cage. Outside of being the runt of the litter he has been doing fine.

We solved the problem by using a roll of 24" hardware cloth with 1/2" x 1/2" spacing wrapped around the 3 non door sides and the top of the cage. We then cut out smaller pieces and trimmed them to cover the doors.

You attach the hardware cloth to the cage with washers and bolts in places that the chins can get to chew and then use zip ties around the base of the sides and doors where a bass pan prevents the chins from chewing.

Once the cage is done up with the hardware cloth, we then put in some of the ledges back for mama and the kits to use. Don't put them up very high though.

 

[Spooky]

Everyone's cage looks great! I currently have an empty FN 142 sitting around that I hope to fill up with stuff pretty soon in preparation for my chinchilla.

I really like the long custom shelf that people put in the back of the cage. I wanted to order one of those and a couple other shelves from Simply Chintastic, but I read that it can take orders from 4 to 16 weeks to process - Is this true for every order, or only ones with custom lengths that you have to specify? Do they not have premade shelves/hidey houses and such?

Also, I've looked around, and I cannot seem to find out where you guys buy that cool, long bridge. Anyone mind pointing me in the direction?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pleiades]

My FN 142 just arrived- what a giant heavy box! I managed to scoot it into the chin room. Going to go put it together now!! :banana:

I got some great cage accessories from Allison at CamphorChins & Sarah at Chin Store Galore . I can't wait to decorate. Still have to make a bunch of fleece liners and shelves though... so it will be a while until happy pictures.

Edit: Spooky, I did the build-a-bridge at Chin Store Galore . There are two lengths I think, but I got the shorter one. I think it came out pretty well and it was fun to put together! I also got a squiggle bridge from Camphor Chins because I just think they look so awesome.

 

[momenteller]

I really like the long custom shelf that people put in the back of the cage. I wanted to order one of those and a couple other shelves from Simply Chintastic, but I read that it can take orders from 4 to 16 weeks to process - Is this true for every order, or only ones with custom lengths that you have to specify? Do they not have premade shelves/hidey houses and such?

Also, I've looked around, and I cannot seem to find out where you guys buy that cool, long bridge. Anyone mind pointing me in the direction?

Thanks in advance!

Hey Spooky, I think that wait time is true for almost all orders from Simply Chintastic. They are great about responding to email inquiries and can give you an estimate of how long your order should take.

I'm guessing you mean Ashley's suspension bridges?
http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9514&highlight=suspension+bridge

Hope that helps!

 

[Spooky]

Oh yes, those links help! Thanks, yall!

Okay, I think I may emailed Simply Chintastic later on just to see. =)

 

[Strauberry]

I am going to be making some shelves for my chins this weekend and saw some comments about not using nails/screws to attach the pieces of wood together. What is the recommended way of building them?

 

[Chinwawa]

Long Post About Putting FN142 Together Over A Weekend

My girl is in her FN142!

It took me at least 6 hours over two days to put the dang thing together but I was working on it alone.

I ran into one problem: one of the holes in the frame of one of the door panels where you insert the connecting rod was bent and none of the connecting rods would fit into it. I was so worried I would have to send the whole thing back.

Not being able to screw that corner made it very difficult to put the cage together. But I figured if I put all the other corners together correctly that the front corner would be braced and I could add some wire to hold it together when I was all done.

It worked out the way I thought but getting the wire top in was a nightmare partly because I made a dumb mistake but also due to shifting of that corner.

Anyway... to make a long story short. My girl is in her brand new FN142 with pans from Bass. The pans fit perfectly. I positioned the hole in the top pan in the front left corner so I can watch her scurry from one level to another.

Oh and to cut the banging of the metal... I just flipped the plastic pan for the bottom level over and put the metal pan on top of that. It makes no noise. For the top level I used the two plastic shelf covers that come with the FN underneath and those cut all the noise there as well. I did not have to use fleece with clips. I think I would use cardboard if I had to.

The last thing I put in was her Flying Saucer wheel. I want to thank you all because I would not have known to put the c clamps on an angle. The wheel went in fine too.

Now the wheel makes a racket!!! I had to brace it with two wooden clothes pins between the bottom part of the rod and the metal pan. That worked fine. I have a great pic that I will post in the future. The only noise there is now is that the longest wooden shelf rattles a bit when she runs. I will shove some wood somewhere to fix that soon.

Here is the best part: The fun of seeing my girl explore her new digs: I waited to see how long it would take her to discover that she had two levels. I put her in on the bottom level and she began to explore. I figured it would take her a few minutes to climb up. Well it took a few seconds. She loved going up and down and exploring that hole!!!

I got the funniest picture of her standing on the wood shelf I put under the hole half up and half down. Then she began running like a nut on her wheel. She is eye level with me now because I put the wheel on the second level. I am trying very hard to get video to share because she runs facing the wall with her hind end and pink hind feet in full view going a mile a minute.

I did decide to use shavings rather than fleece. I just cannot have more laundry. There are shavings coming out even with the 3 inch deep pans. But not too much for me to take care of during my daily poop sweeping.

My only misconception was that I would be able to lift out the pans and dump all the shavings out when I cleaned. It seems to be a bit awkward especially the pan near the wheel. So I will probably wear gloves and just scoop out the dirty litter. I was doing that anyway with her old cage. With the wide opening doors all cleaning will be much easier even if I do not take the pans out.

I will update with funny pics very soon.

Thank you all for the FN Club thread. Being so new to chins I learned so much from the posts and the pics. I was able to head off mistakes that you all pointed out.

 

[inzeos]

When we clean our FN-142 with the base pans, we just use a dust pan and small plastic brush. You can slide the pan under most of the shavings and just dump them into a small trash can.

 

[Chinwawa]

Thank you. I will probably do that with or without gloves. I saw one of those small dust pans in my local Ace Hardware.

 

[z.feidelberg]

My Ferret Nation

Hey guys what do you think of my Ferret Nation. I know that it needs a bit of work but my Chin loves the extra space.

 

[Azalea]

This forum is just what I needed, thanks a ton everyone!

 

[lin18lou]

wow those cages are so decorated they make mine look kinda plain...i'm headed to get some more decorations right now

 

[lin18lou]

when i put hammoks and tunnels made of fleece in my chins cage she just chews it to pieces...why would she do that?

 

[Stackie]

when i put hammoks and tunnels made of fleece in my chins cage she just chews it to pieces...why would she do that?

Some chins will destroy fleece. In that case you need to keep it out so they do not accidentally ingest it. Who knows why chins do half the things they do...maybe she enjoys destroying it, or she jsut gets bored.

 

[Chinwawa]

New FN142 Set Up/OMGosh There's A Hole Pics

Here is the way our first FN142 is set up. I will be rearranging over the weekend but wanted to share.

My little girl, Lenora, had the best time discovering and exploring the hole that goes from the first level to the second level. She found the hole right away and went up and down over and over.

The last picture is so funny. There she is standing between the levels with her belly out and he feet stretched up and head peeking out.

 

[Chinwawa]

Here is a picture of the way I braced the Flying Saucer with clothes pins so Lenora could run more quietly.

 

[mrweaw]

I LOVE all the fleece stuff, I so need to learn to sew!

 

[QTKirls]

Hello! A lady I ordered a lot of stuff from for my FN told me about this website a week or so ago! I've had so much fun reading this thread! I had to sign up and become a member of the FN club! My boyfriend keeps teasing me about how excited I am to have found this forum! He always tells me I spoil my chins, but I've shown him pics of others on here and now he knows I'm not the only one!

I have 3 male chinchillas. Nash, a Black Velvet, Graham, a White Ebony, and Simon, a Pink White. They are all together in my FN. I had Nash alone for a year and wanted to get a friend for him, he is a totally different chinchilla now! Sooo much happier! So I got a third. It's addicting! Anyway I just wanted to introduce myself here!! So glad to find others like me!

 

[leni]

Do the 8 oz glass Lixit bottles work on the FN since it has vertical bars? Waiting for mine to get shipped and the water bottles I have now won't work. Plus I want to get some dishwasher safe ones.

 

[Pleiades]

I have the 16oz Lixits on mine, which work fine. I think the smaller ones would work too. There are three horizontal bars on each portion of the cage, so the nozzle will have something to rest on, if that makes sense.