Several Small Issues

Question
QUESTION: A little bit of information first.
I have three ferrets.  All three are from Marshall's.  All three came to me at an older age.  They are my first ferrets, and I aquired them over a period of time.  First came Felix, he's deaf and was found wandering free.  Though I reported him to the vets, humane society and police, no one ever claimed for him.  After much thought and research, I decided to find him a friend.  That's when Sadie came along.  She acts very different from Felix.  He is very playful and energetic, whereas she is reserved and submissive.  I know very little about her.  I found her through a post I made on a social network looking for a ferret.  She was free, and they had only had her a week before contacting me.  Before that, I have no idea where she came from.  Finally, due to the differences in Sadie and Felix - she ended up not playing with him but getting upset and attacking him - I got Ozzy.  I have only had him a few days, but he is teaching me a lot about himself.

Now.  Some questions.  I will try to keep the ones that require long answers to a minimum, lol!

Sadie has a nasty habit of not using her litter box.  She was using it quite fine for a long period of time, and then suddenly stopped.  There was no change in routine, food or litter.  There is one platform that she mostly poos on, but nothing I put on it deters her.  She shows no signs of illness, no other behavioural changes.  She pees in the box no problem, and it is cleaned 2x daily.  I scrub the platform with a scented dish soap after she poos.  Is there any cause for this behaviour, and do you have any suggestions to deter it?

Ozzy is VERY scared of me right now.  Neither of my other ferrets have ever shown any fear towards me.  Whenever I put my hand in the cage, Ozzy gets nervous, and if I go near him, he backs up and looks terrified.  When I try to hold him, he struggles, tries to jump from my arms and generally get away.  He is much rougher with me than my other two, and I had to scruff him to check his nails - he wouldn't even sit for ferretone!  This morning, I was feeding them and shouted my cat's name(aka called her loudly), and he backed into the corner, and pooed and peed.  Then ran and hid in the house.  It makes me very sad to see an animal like this.  I personally feel that he was probably treated poorly in a former home.  What do you think this behaviour says about the ferret, and do you have any suggestions on how to get them past this?

I want to put my cats and the ferrets on the same litter.  My cat has severe allergies and I use Swheat Scoop natural clumping litter for their boxes.  It is biodegradeable, and won't cause blockage if eaten.  I know that clumping litter dries out the feet, but I was wondering if that was clay clumping only, or something about all clumping litters.

ANSWER: Sadie - she may have stopped using the litter box because there is a new ferret in the house or simply because she got lazy!  Ferrets can be fickle about litter habits.  Be patient and help her remember where she is supposed to go.  You can leave a little poop in the litter box or place her in it before letting her out to play.

Ozzy - I think he will need time to adjust and trust you.  He may have been abused or his other family didn't touch him or pick him up.  Don't rush him though by trying to hold him, instead hand feed him treats to build his trust.

I tried Sweet scoop with my ferrets, but because they go so often, it became caked onto the litter pans and required a scraper to get it off.  Try a recycled newspaper litter for both.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sadie started the pooping behaviour well before Ozzy arrived.  She also backs directly into a corner to poop, and usually it ends up outside the cage as well as inside.  I have been very patient with her - it has been going on for several months now.  If I see her backing into the corner of the cage when she wakes up, I immediately place her into the litter box.  As well, when I see her using the box on her own perrogative, I offer her treats and love.  I do leave some poopie in the pan, but I believe she knows what the box is for because she absolutely will not pee outside the box.  She will also return to the cage to use the box during play time.  It baffles me, and is somewhat frusterating, because I generally have to wash the cage flooring 3 or 4 times a week.  She also seems to know that I disagree with her pooping on the cage floor, because she has backed into a cage corner, and then looked at me and darted to the box.

With Ozzy, I understand he needs time to get to know me and get used to me.  But neither Felix nor Sadie reacted nearly as harshly to me. I speak softly and use slow movements around them.  Since Ozzy is a Panda/Blaze w/Mitts, I also make sure he can see me, since I am not sure if he is able to hear.  I try to let him sniff me and let me pet him before picking him up, and bribe him with Ferretone, but he seems to just inherently not trust me because I'm people.  

I've also noticed that the wheat seems to form almost a bond with plastic when liquid is applied, but have no real problem removing it when cleaning the cat boxes.  I use a litter scoop and it comes up easily.  I am mostly worried about it getting stuck to bums and drying out their feet.  Did you use it long enough to get an impression on this effect to them?  I am a bit wary of trying, as Ozzy's feet are kind of dry from his former home, and I don't need anything that will discourage Sadie from using the litter box any less than she does.

Thank you again for your time.

Answer
It sounds like Sadie is being a normal ferret - sometimes they don't use a litter box like we wish they would.  Sadly, they are not like cats in that way!  Continue to do what you do and she may start again.  You can use plexi glass (or something similar) to place on the cage sides so it doesn't "leak" over.  Ozzy just needs time.  I have worked with serious biters that were the same way (except they bit you) and one case took 6 months before we were able to handle him without worry.

Like I said, my only issue with the litter you mention was the cement like end product, especially with multiple ferrets peeing often during the day!  I didn't use it that long, but didn't have an issue with either dry feet or it sticking although either could be a problem.  Especially since ferrets spend more actual time in the litter boxes.