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Picture Diary of Ferret Court construction


Madcowz
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My God... you are building the Ferret Hilton, are you going to stay in there too! :huh:

 

Pretty impressive dude, I thought I had a good set up but this is something else. Get some drainage piping in there too, they love that stuff.

 

Cheers, Gav.

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Been a bit quiet on the restoration front recently as all these final finishing bits and pieces are soo time consuming.

 

During all this torrential rain we have had, I found out that the part of the roof I hadn't replaced was leaking. Good news in a way as if it was the bit I had replaced it meant my skills at roofing were ****. So after my hospital appointment in the morning (a tube down the nose, was quite horrible but I suppose not as bad as one up the bum) the roof came off and was replaced with corrugated bitumen sheets. Looks the business now.

 

After the roof was watertight, I could get back to the inside. Had some dowl left over from some other work so thought I would make some ladders. Using 9mm dowl I cut them into 13cm rungs and drilled some spare wood to accept them, a couple of coats of varnish and as my Dad would say... they look almost professional!.

 

One long ladder to get to the high shelf

 

4t7p575.jpg

 

 

And a smaller one to get to the shelf in the back corner.

 

54n5ves.jpg

 

The new nest box, 2ft by 1ft, painted in the Courts colour scheme (whats left over in the garage) and ready for a ramp to go from the door to one of the shelves. The idea is that to get to their bed, they have to climb one ladder to get to the shelf and then up a ramp to the nest box. That should keep them busy and entertained. I have to do a million things before I can finally get to bed at night so I don't see why the ferts should have it easy.

 

4rawkdt.jpg

 

 

And at last I have built a door to the court. Used 2x2 and some left over mesh. The hinges were meant to be used on the gate to the chicken run, but friends gave us a gate complete with furniture so the hinges were spare. Looks the part now with the door on.

 

6cykhtl.jpg

 

 

Went to see some 5 week old ferts today as I have decided to get a hob as well as the two jills from Flash.

 

Here they are, gorgeous looking things. As tame as could be. My daughter and I spent over an hour playing with them and not one nip.

 

67evdkm.jpg

 

 

/Mad

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they look exactly the same, and around the same age. good one. uve got the other two girls, as i had to give first choice to the owner of the stud hob(he did lend me the hob with out charge). and i originally got trinny and suzannah off him.

but there all in good health and looking forward to leaving home :)

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hi mad,

 

courts looking good, I would suggest to get ya self some off cuts of the wire you have on the door and front, then using a bit of 4" drainage pipe as a former, wrap the wire around, wire the joins together and slide the pipe out, this allows you to create passageway all over the court, to any height without the fear of the fert falling, some of the shelves look quite high, and from watching mine, they do take chance's jumping, mine fall maybe 2ft and are ok, but higher may result in breakages or internal injurys

 

still got that net here for ya, will be heading your neck of the woods in couple months so will drop off, unless ya want it sooner it which case ya welcome over here, ya can see my 14 young uns (4wks old)

 

may want 4 of them old pallets outside your shed if ya still got them

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Quick update.

 

Not much to show over the last week. Been busy with other jobs around the house and garden. Chickens have their new run with gate. House has been painted etc etc.

 

Took Stubby's advice and meshed off the highest shelf. Here it is covered in mesh with the AG pipe going to the other shelf. The pipe is attached to the wall with cable ties I got from work. Large, heavy duty ties I use to strap all the network cables in the server racks.

 

I used two reusable ties joined together to give me the circumfrence of the pipe and then a screw through one to fix it to the wall. This way I can untie them and clean out the pipe when needs be.

 

6874dol.jpg

 

And from the corner shelf, over the nest box to the other shelf.

 

4lj4zkj.jpg

 

To get to the left hand back shelf, they now have to climb up a ladder to the first shelf, then up a ladder again, through the mesh, along the pipe to the 3rd shelf. From here it is a short run in more pipe to the last shelf. That should keep them busy and fit.

 

No easy life to get into the nest box either. There are two ramps to climb before they can go to bed.

 

Now all it is missing is ferrets. Should hopefully have them at the end of the month. All being well.

 

/Mad

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maybe some wire mesh, 2 or 3 squares across x the length of those ramps would also be a good idea ( for grip) unless the wood is SAWN rather than PAR

looking good though

 

Thats a good suggestion, they will need something to grip on.

 

Your set up looks better every time we get an update, the only problem is the ferrets won't want to leave it to go to work. :stupid:

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Thanks for your input guys, I should have said that the ramps weren't finished.

 

I have now cut rungs for the ramps out of offcuts from the 12mm OSB board so each ramp now has plenty of grip for the wee things. And of course they are now painted in the 'Court colour scheme' :stupid:

 

I am though worried about the wooden ladders and am planning on adding a layer of weld mesh tacked on behind the rungs until the wee lambs are big enough to not fall through the rungs.

 

thanks for the ideas guys, always learning.

 

/mad

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Not wishing to sound crawley bum lickey but that ferret palace is just fantastic. you obviously care a gret deal for your little crew and I really enjoyed looking at the pics as your project evolved......can we have some photo's of your crew playing.

 

:good::good: :look:

lol that wont be happening till i deliver the tiny two, to him. hes having a hob and a jill kit off me, they should really enjoy the place, i mean palace.

 

cheers

 

flash

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a long time coming, but tomorrow I pick up the first of my ferrets. :lol:

 

I am off to see Stubby and collect either a silver or polecat jill depending on which takes my fancy. and next week Flash drops off another hob and jill for me.

(There will be another ferret to keep it company until the two others arrive next week, but this one is for someone else, long story!)

 

The court is almost finished, obviously it will be an ongoing evolving project as I learn what ferrets like and dislike. But I hope that what I have done so far is suitable for them.

 

Looking from the outside:

 

64394oz.jpg

 

Toys and things to play with:

 

4tfw5lu.jpg

 

The sleeping quarters and hammocks:

 

53rd6ba.jpg

 

 

/Mad

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks all,

 

appreciate all the comments and esp the suggestions.

 

The ferts are all settled in nicely now and have made a right mess of the Palace.

 

I have had to put litter trays all the way down one side to try and get them used to going in a tray and not everywhere. This is now working nicely. Will slowly remove trays until there are just corners ones later. Much like training dogs.

 

I removed the ramps when the babies arrived as they were all falling off everytime they tried to climb one. These went back in yesterday and for the first time they were able to go up to their nesting box. Much ferret mayhem! Gives them a whole new level to play on.

 

Will get some pictures of them all sson.

 

/Mad

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  • 1 month later...

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