My Female Ferret

Question
We currently have two ferrets in a really nice size cage, they get alot of outside of the cage play, and they are very well taken care of. They are also both litter box trained. There is just one problem;our Female Ferret,Missy. She seems to go wherever she wants to in there cage. I know or at least think I know she is litter box trained like our male. I know it is her using the bathroom wherever she wants because I have watched  her do it several times, and my wife and I have to clean up behind her everytime that she dosent go in the litter box. Is there any advice you could give us to help her start reusing the litter box again? It would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
William G. Carr  

Answer
Hi William, thanks for writing. Ferrets have unique personalities and tend to adopt different habits. It sounds like Missy is in need of more litterpan discipline than her friend is. Litterpan problems are one of the most common ferret issues; here is the response I gave to a similar question from a few months ago:

The trick is to get Missy to associate "poop" with "litter."  You do this by picking up the stray poop(s) and putting it in the pan, then gently picking up the ferret and putting her in the pan along with the poop. Always make sure the pan is slightly soiled in the back with a little urine and/or poop. Putting a pan out with all clean litter in it all the time is almost a guarantee that it won't get used, because there's nothing about it that smells like a toilet. Ferrets use their noses the way we use our eyes. A ferret pan with fresh ferret litter LOOKS like a great toilet to humans, but is just something else to play with and sniff at for ferrets.

Make sure you have a large pan - the small triangular shaped pans that say they're for ferrets are well intentioned, but most ferrets find them too small to be comfortable to use, and ferrets won't relieve themselves in a place where they're not comfortable. So use either one of the giant size triangle-shaped pans (if it will fit in the cage) or a plain rectangular cat pan with one of the long sides cut down so that there's a "scoop" cut out of the middle of the side (which is what we do at the ferret shelter), making it easy for her to climb in and out.
Remember: make sure you consistently put the stray poop(s) back into the pan. Also, what kind of litter are you using? It's possible that she doesn't like it. We strongly recommend recycled newspaper pellets like Yesterday's News or Marshall's. Ferrets love to use that litter, it's comfortable for them, highly absorbent, and much safer for their rear ends than cat litter.

At any rate, when she finally goes in the pan, praise her lavishly right away - pick her up, cheer loudly, stroke her head, kiss her all over, then give her a treat (preferably some Ferretone....not something sugary). Make sure you do all this immediately or the ferret won't associate the praise with going in the pan. You want to provide positive reinforcement so that she will associate nice & pleasant things with doing what you want her to do. In this respect, training a ferret is similar to training a dog.

So, be patient and persistent.....put the stray poops in the pan along with your ferret......and positive reinforcement when she does what you want.

For more tips & details about litter pan problems, a great website is this page at ferretcentral.org:  http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/part3.html#litterpan

Also, the books "Ferrets For Dummies" and "The Simple Guide To Ferrets" have good info about this issue as well.

Good luck!
DG