Ferret keeping me awake

Question
I have 2 ferrets from the same litter. They are 3 months old. One ferret wakes me up every night for 2 hours bouncing off the walls.  The other ferret sleeps all night even though his brother is trying to get him awake too.
The cage was assembled inside my bedroom & is so large it won't go through the door so I can't move it.
From food to out of the cage time is identical for both. I've thought of putting the bouncie one in a seperate cage @ night but I don't have another litter box the same & he may start eliminating all over not to mention it would be cruel & he may get depressed.  Do you have any suggestions why or how to get the bouncie ferret to sleep at
night? This 2 hours every night is wearing me out mentally & physically.  Thank you

Answer
Hello Diane,

The only thing I can think of is he hasn't quite adapted to your schedule yet? Ferrets are crepsecular which means they adapt to their human's schedules quite easily and often automatically. Maybe he just hasn't gotten to that point yet. That is the only thing I can think of. How much out of cage time do they get a day? Ferrets need at least 2 to 3 hours each day of out of cage time. Maybe, if they aren't getting that time, that is why he is having this extra energy. Maybe it would be helpful to add some toys to the cage as well. You could get a small line of PVC piping or maybe a box filled with lots of shredded paper or those plastic easter eggs. They might enjoy digging around in something like that. I would try giving more out of cage time daily for them and see if that helps. If not, try adding something in the cage for him to do instead of trying to wake you up. Is the behavior that he's displaying an attack on the cage? I mean, is he biting and scratching at his cage bars? If that is the case, then it is most likely cage stress and that means he is definitely not getting enough out of cage time. If cage stress is allowed to continue, it can affect him in many ways, not to mention his teeth and nails from constantly biting and scratching at his cage bars.

I agree that you shouldn't separate them at night. That might make the problem worse because he will start to get scared and possibly depressed if he's separated from a cagemate he has already bonded to for too long.

I hope this helps and if there are any further questions, feel free to ask!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews