one ferret wrecking crew!

Question
I don't know what to do. My ferret, Sonny, is a very very sweet guy, I love him to death, but he has major cage issues. Firstly I cannot litter train him because he turns the litter pan over or digs all the litter out, making a nasty soiled mess all over his cage, I tried wiring is down and he just digs it out. Whichever Corner I put his litter box in, he goes to another one. Also, he spends ALL night chewing and biting his cage bars, which isn't a pleasant sound since his cage is right by my bed, plus I think it hurts, I sprayed the bars with the bitter apple, but then he just digs at them with his claws. And he is very pushy, whenever he thinks the door of his cage is going to open, he pushes his way out and runs, even if I am only trying to refill his food. I haven't been giving him a whole lot of out of cage time mostly because I can't catch him afterwards, I have to literally ambush him, I bought a ferret harness/lead and he bites me when I try to put it one him, and when it is on, he flips and jumps so much he almost hurt his back once. I feel guilty and confused. I give him at least an hour most days, but I know he gets really bored.

Answer
Biting the cage is not only anoying for you, but will damage Sonny's teeth and you are correct - he is bored.  Ferrets are extremely intelligent and must have lots of play-out of cage-human iteraction time or they will destroy anything they can to make life interesting.  Sonny is biting you because you don't handle him enough.  He is probably dumping his litter due to boredom also.  You need to develop a routine that Sonny gets 2-4 hours of play time out of his cage and interacting with you daily.  You also need to make his in cage time more interesting.  Start by ferret-proofing an area for him to play in with you - maybe a bathroom?  Even a bedroom that is safe for him.  Then you can work on handling him, interacting with him and give him time to run and jump.  This playtime out of his cage will last probably 20 minutes to an hour at a time - ferrets sleep a lot so when he gets sleepy, place him back in the cage and then be ready again when he wakes up.  Ferrets Magazine is a great resource for other ideas also including articles on Enrichment by Bob Church.  Try an online search for ferret enrichment and Bob Church to get some great ideas of ways to play with Sonny AND ways to make his cage more interesting.  

It also takes awhile to leash train a ferret, but work on play time and bonding with you first.