Ferret Nation

Just received our second ferret nation cage. We bought one for our chinchilla a few months ago and it has worked so well we decided to upgrade our second chinchilla's cage as well. Before reviewing I just want to mention that finding companies that 1) have this specific cage in stock and 2) would ship to Hawaii was really frustrating. We ordered this model online from a certain popular pet store three times. Each time the product was listed as in stock but would be back ordered and cancelled a few days or weeks later. I finally gave in and paid the extra $100 shipping fee to order it from Amazon and it arrived in 3 days. Brownie points for Amazon. The good - spacious, sturdy, reasonably priced, very easy to clean, storage rack on the bottom is perfect size for containers to store food and pet supplies, the cage is on wheels and is customizable (lots of fleece covers, ledge attachments, etc specific for ferret nation for sale online.) The bad - Kind of noisy, caused by the plastic trays shifting on the metal when animals move around (we purchased bumpers which eliminated this problem.) - Damage during shipping can make set up difficult. Our first cage arrived with pieces slightly bent which caused problems setting it up and we read that this happened to others as well. However, the second cage arrived in good condition and set up was no problem. - You will need to buy or make extra parts. This is less a fault with the cage and more just a reminder that to provide the best quality of life for your pet you will at LEAST need to order some kind of cover for the trays. Fleece, guards, extra ledges and hides are all suggested for most animals, so while the cage is only a couple hundred dollars, all in all you should expect to spend $500 or more making the cage more comfortable for your pet. Final con, which is specific to chinchillas - Their poop will literally just fall out of the cage all over the floor. There are a few products to mitigate this. Final thoughts - with some extra parts this cage has been perfect for a chinchilla and we highly recommend it if you are looking for a simple cage that offers an adequate amount of space for your pet. I am certain we will not have to replace these cages and furthermore our chinchillas seem genuinely comfortable and happy.

Don't waist your money on another cage! I always wanted a ferret nation cage for as long as I have had ferrets (practicly my entire life) I have had the fiesty ferret cage for about 7 years and although it was a decent sized cage it had alot of flaws. Since getting my first ferret nation cage I will never get another cage again. They are completely customizable to make them bigger with eaither add on units or zip ties. My babies are so happy and actually finally have started using their litter box all the time now where they would go everywhere in their fiesty ferret. My first picture is of a used ferret nation on the left with the additional cage liners you can purchase with the fiesty ferret on the right. To show the diffrence. With the fiesty ferret cage I had to cover up the sides with mesh and plastic to stop my little one from bending bars and getting out. The ferret nation is super strong and durable that none of my 4 ferrets can bend bars or get out. The insain diffrence in the ease of cleaning is one of my feverish features. I can get to every spot in the cage by eaither just opening the doors or taking them off the hinges and having them completely out of the way. In my second and 3rd picture you can see just how customizable this cage really is with the use of zip ties to combine them sideways and not just in height. The hardest part of putting the cage togeather is the base that you screw togeather on putting up the new plastic ramps which are held on with velcro over the older versions having mettal ramps with hooks that are way easier to install. I feel that the ramps are the only real con I have found in this cage since getting my new double 182. All in all this is by far the best cage and I will not go with any other in the future..

Got this cage for my kit, he loves it. Pros: - HUGE in my opinion. I think 3 ferrets could stay in here and still have plenty of room. - Bars are perfect to keep ferrets inside (My kit is small, and he can't even try to squeeze through. His nose can fit, but there's no way he could get stuck). No way they could chew through the bars. - Good Quality - Comes with ramp covers to protect their feet - The ramp connecting the top and bottom portion can be hooked to the bottom of the top portion, making it so the two levels are separated. Could be good if you have two different pets or small pets that don't get along! - Could probably fit squirrels, guinea pigs, chinchillas. Maybe not rats, but I'm no expert. - Things easily attach to the cage, like water bottles, food bowls, etc. - Comes with pretty good quality trays - Things can hang from the top and bottom levels (perfect for hammocks!) - The shelves are pretty big, and not so high up that if they fell or jumped off, they would get hurt (My ferret sometimes forgoes the ramp in favor of throwing himself off the shelves) - Good doors. - Wheels on the bottom, easy to move. - Has a shelf on the bottom. Cons: - My ferret likes to poo in corners, and if your ferret is not very great with litter (like mine) then the poo can go through the bars, and get on the floor. Not fun. - Adding to that, poo is difficult to clean off of the bars. I need to train my ferret better! If your ferret has no problems with litter boxes, you have nothing to worry about! - The doors can be loud. Sometimes I close them and the metal sound scares my ferret. Might just be a problem for my particular ferret. Not loud if you're careful, though! - They can climb the bars. Not a problem for me, my ferret just climbs level to level, but if you have a ferret who chews on things close to their cage, it might be a problem. ASSEMBLY AND SHIPPING: - It says no tools required. I think you need a rubber mallet, and pliers. It comes with a little metal screwdriver. We used a regular sized one, but if you didn't have one I'm sure it would work fine. - YOU NEED AT LEAST 2 PEOPLE TO PUT IT TOGETHER. Unless you're superhuman, you'll need someone to hold a lot of things in place. (if you have been able to build this on your own, you're amazing!) - You have to put some of the sides into place by hammering them in, which is why I think a rubber mallet would be helpful. We couldn't be bothered to find one so we used a tennis shoe. That worked fine. - It is HEAVY! We carried it upstairs, and it's a two person job! They delivery guys had to bring it to our doorstep on a dolly! - Make sure you read all the way through before assembling. There were times we had to backtrack and take sides off to put other sides on. - Doesn't take long to put together. - It is loud to put together, which should be expected. Imagine metal hitting metal. Maybe don't put it together at night. - The box was damaged, but nothing inside was. I expected that because shipping a big object is difficult. - The box had stables in the sides of it to keep it closed. We used pliers to take them out. I don't think there's any other way to take them out! Great cage, seems like it will last a while. I would highly recommend this cage!

Initial review 11/26/20 (Will update) I must say. I am in love with the Ferret Nation cage. I have went with the FN over the CN cage specifically for the bar spacing and angle. If you have a chinchilla and get the Critter Nation cage, wooden ledges have the risk of becoming jumping boards due to the angle of the bars. With the ferret nation, the bars ensure all wooden ledges stay tight and secure. When I first got the package, I was surprised at how heavy it actually was. I am a small guy, so I ended up having to open the box at the bottom of the stairs to my apartment and bring all of the pieces up to my apartment floor. After this, putting together the cage was extremely easy. Let me start off by saying I've only ever built a few things in my lifetime. I've always considered myself hardware challenged and usually need help. However I was surprisingly able to put this together on my own. I will say. you'll need a rubber mallet for some areas of the cage because it's hard to get some of the pieces to fit in together all the way. Other than that, it truly is a no-hardware required assembly. It took me around 3.5 hours to fully put it together on my own. I did have a lot of trouble getting the second floor side and back pieces to fit together, that was the only part that was a bit tricky. I do wish that the cage came with full fleece liners for the entire cage. If you're using it as a chinchilla cage like I am, you'll need to cover up all plastic shelves with fleece liners. But of course, MidWest Homes wanted this to be a separate cash grab, offering them at a convenient price of an additional $70. Get some fleece fabric from Joanne's Fabrics and sew them yourself, there are plenty of YouTube videos covering this as it is such an easy cage. I noticed only one single bar on the cage came bent which isn't a problem, but I didn't have any problems with any bent pieces that fit together like other buyers have had. It seems to be luck of the draw when it comes to this item being shipped. The overall construction of the cage seems nice and hopefully for the price it'll last. This is an overall review of the initial setup and construction of the cage, I will update further down the road with my thoughts once my chin has had adequate time in it.

TL;DR - I bought the Ferret Nation for my single chinchilla Poe and after a month I am very pleased overall. Easy to assemble, easy to clean, very spacious, a bit noisy without preparation. Get liners. 9/10 Assembly was very easy, taking less than an hour. It does come with a screwdriver; it's not the best, so I'd recommend having your own handy if you've got one. I'm a bit on the shorter side (5'6") and I didn't even need a step stool, though I did have to stand on my tiptoes a time or two. Poe took to it very quickly; he love jumping and running around the spacious, multi-level home. The bars are surprisingly sturdy; they're able to support multiple platforms and a wheel (and Poe runs really hard on his wheel, so it's been stress tested in a way haha). I do wish there were a few more horizontal bars for more level options, but what it has is perfectly sufficient. I strongly suggest getting liners if for no other reason than to prevent your friend from trying to eat the plastic trays. Liners also help in cleaning up; I suggest getting two sets so you can swap them out for an efficient deep clean. Cleaning is super easy with the double doors so long as your not simultaneously trying to keep the beast contained within. The cage can be pretty noisy. The way the plastic trays sit on the wire bottoms and shelves make for a noisy time when Poe decides to plop down onto a platform. A little padding helps a great deal, so it's an easy fix. Back to the wheel: if your friend runs as hard on a wheel as mine does, the ENTIRE cage will shake, causing anything that can rattle and make noise to do so. Solutions will vary depending on the accessory, but its taken some trial and error. I've asked Poe to run a little more softly, but he's a terrible listener. My only other complaint is that the hook meant to attach to the ramp to isolate the two compartments doesn't reach all the way to the ramp. I've resorted to using a binder clip or safety pin and it works out; Poe is weak and can't break the seal the confines him. Pets with allies and/or more points in strength might not be contained so easily. The cage came strongly recommended to me and I would extend that recommendation. Poe seems very contended, but didn't have anything to say when asked for comment.

We have a rabbitry. I purchased this last fall (a three story cage) to put in the garage for sick buns or raising orphans or such, where I want to be able to keep a close eye on them all day long. I didn't put it together until recently though when Covid19 struck, the high school closed, and we had to very quickly move all the FFA meat rabbits meant for our county fair to our house. We hurriedly put it together and ended up using it to raise a mixed litter of 12 NZs and Calis. This product was not meant for this, and there have been some challenges, but I still couldn't be more happy with my purchase. The bunnies are active and (relatively) rough, and it has held up very well. (I wouldn't recommend putting this many rabbits in this cage long term though. It really isn't large enough, but desperate times...) My daughter and I put it together in an hour or so. It wasn't hard at all. I'd read the reviews and was prepared for it to be much worse. Each level had at least one panel whose peg was not set straight. A couple of taps with a hammer straightened them and solved the problem. The final product is very sturdy and well made. The knobs on the front don't line up, but they do shut securely. It definitely needs pee guards for rabbits. The first rabbit I put in it was an older buck who potty-trained right away but even he tended to miss occasionally and poop all over the place. The younger rabbits only sort of potty-trained (they much prefer to sleep in their toilet and poop right next to it). I wrapped the cage in plastic to try to help, but I'm going to have to find a way to add pee guards for future use. I cover the pans in fleece or old towels (towels work better, more absorbent). Changing them out is pretty easy. To keep it clean now that the buns are bigger (currently 4.5 lbs), I have to change out the towels daily. It takes about 10 minutes if I move the buns first. The pans all come in and out easily. I started off having the three levels closed to each other (so 4 buns per level) but they pretty quickly figured out how to unhook the ladders so that they could go visiting. There are ways around this (turn the upper pans) but I decided to let them all live together. The holes between levels are small and I doubt they will be able to get through them for more than a few more weeks, but a mini-rex sized rabbit would do just fine. The metal ladders are great and the buns use them. The plastic ladders are crappy. The plastic ladders tie with fabric onto the cage; the buns chewed them loose. Since buns don't actually need the ladders I tossed the plastic ones. One of the reasons I wanted to try this cage was the double opening doors. I really like that. It's much easier to get a buns out than the traditional wire cage hole. The buns can go from the bottom level to the very top in no time at all. In evaluating the buns, my daughter says they've got great back muscling from all the climbing. That's definitely another benefit of this cage. Overall, I'm very pleased with this cage!

—November 2020— ***UPDATE 8 Months Later*** 🥰🥰😍🥰🥰 After purchasing this amazing 2 shelve cage, I upgraded to a 3 story and I absolutely LOVE it even more!! This cage has never failed me in the 8 months I’ve had it. My Ferrets have PLENTY of room!! The bottom is still the “bathroom area” and the top 2 stories are their play/sleep area. I’ve had to move this cage TWICE already and had no issues taking it apart and putting it back together by myself — I did not need any help. I just wanted to Update and say that it’s still a wonderful Cage and I have never been SO happy to have spent this kind of Money on anything before. It is still 5 Stars for me!!! (I also added 2 new Photo’s showing the 3 stories.) 😍 —March 2020— I keep seeing bad reviews about how the doors aren’t even, or how it’s hard to put together. It definately took me and another person to put this together but it was SO easy! The doors are ALREADY installed, they work perfectly so I have no idea why anyone is complaining about the doors. We struggled with one part (the middle section) and we basically had to push really hard to get one of the pegs into the hole. but that was it! Everything else was so simple!!! 🙃 This cage is so STURDY and well Built!! My Ferrets sleep on the top and they poo and pee on the bottom where I have their litter box. I haven’t had it two weeks and they already have a routine down. 😍 When I clean it, I pull up a chair, have a bowl with soap and water, a trash can and easily pull the bottom tray halfway out (while blocking my fur babies upstairs) and wipe everything down, I put a puppy pad down and their litter box on top and tada!! Cleannn. I can’t imagine it getting any easier! 🥰 In a few days I’ll be washing all their blankets ect and putting them back in but honestly their blankets aren’t even dirty cause their litter trained. I put their water and food on the very top half shelf. It’s just a perfect cage! I couldn’t imagine using a different one!!! 😘 !!!5 Stars in my Book!!! 😘

To give some background, I've had a total of 4 ferrets overall and have had 2 cages, one very long multifloored cage I bought on amazon for $70 and one large 1-floor cage. My multifloored cage broke after a couple years and kept the single floor one. I recently bought a new ferret after the last of my initial trio passed away. I upgraded to the ferret nation cage after my new ferret broke through the old one story cage several times. Ive had ferret owners in the past tell me to just skip all other cages and to buy a ferret nation. At that time, years ago, it was almost $400 and far from my budget at the time. This time around I had some extra money and, in dire need of a new cage, I went ahead and ordered the ferret nation after I saw amazon had it for $210, which, although still seemingly expensive, for the quality cage that you get, it's worth every single penny. After reading some comments, I expected my cage to have dents and scratches and what not. Glad to say that the cage had very few bar dents that were manageable. The instructions state no tools required but I highly recommend you use a mallet to secure the cage walls down and a power drill on first clutch, unless you want to be there all day with the Phillips that they provided you and figuring out how to level the walls without damaging said walls. In conclusion, spare yourself from the frusteration of other cages and just shell out the cash for this one. It has the potential to house 4 large ferrets very comfortably or more smaller ones. Plenty of space for your critters and honestly not to bad of a price. I keep the floors bare so that I can wipe them down every day and minimize smell and bought hammocks on amazon for a steal - 2 for $12. With some previous accessories and the new hammocks, the cage is pretty much accesorized and looks great.

Aesthetically it’s nothing to get excited about, its heavy and it’s built to be functional not pretty, there’s a few scuffs on the paintwork, and the doors don’t sit square. Despite all that this is a fantastic cage, it’s solid, it’s sturdy, it’s escape proof unless you leave the door open, and yes, it’s built to be functional, full open access to every level, all the shelves just lift out for cleaning, easy to interact with your pet, the height and size of it is perfect for both me and my ferret, the doors lift off, I used one wrapped in a pillowcase as a temporary ramp for her to get in and explore, she free roams during the day and needs to get in and out freely so will need a more permanent ramp for this. It only goes together one way so it looks exactly as the photo, the only thing changeable is the height of the half shelves. The instructions are simple and easy to understand, the whole thing took me an hour and half to build and set up with all her stuff in it. It’s simple to put together, would be easier with two just for lining things up but it isn’t difficult to do alone, definitely use a rubber mallet just to knock the panels in square, it makes putting this together easy. It’s on wheels too and easy to move so that’s a bonus. All in all this cage is brilliant, if you have the space for it it’s absolutely worth every penny.

Love the product, didn't love all the production mistakes. One of my base panels came with a wire melded into the attachment hole so the pieces can't fit in. Mind you, this metal can't be soldered, so we had to carry the heavy door panel to a workshop and wear away at the base with specialised equipment. My entire cage's slightly unbalanced because of that, as can see in pics. Doors don't close evenly either. In addition to that, packaging was so sturdy we could only rip it to shreds. No hope of making any returns after that. And the product had dust and finishing oil all over when we took it out. Don't know how long it's been sitting in their warehouse, but my hands came off black at one point. The only one I can give kudos to is the polite delivery man. Overall, don't buy if you don't have access to a workshop. Don't know if this is just Amazon's treatment for Asians currently or a unique case, but have a back up plan before you click buy.

Por lo general los usuarios eligen el model Critter Nation para las chinchillas, pero en mi caso, la version para huron tenia mejor precio. Cosas buenas del producto: Extremadamente fuerte y facil de armar, lo unico adicional a lo que viene en la caja es un mazo para ayudar a encajar las uniones. El tamaño es fabuloso para uno a 3 ejemplares (2 modulos). Tiene muchas formas de acomodar los estantes y las escaleras. Las llantas fluyen correctamente y es facil de desplazar, ademas cuenta con seguro de movimiento. Llega en una caja bien protegido. aunque es algo grande y pesada, hay que tener en cuenta eso al momento de recibirla. Cosas a mejorar o tomar en cuenta: El modelo ferret nation tiene muy pocos alambres horizontales de los cuales colgar elementos en la jaula. Los estantes estan sujetos por una base de alambre con muchos soportes para colgar objetos, pero que al mismo tiempo sobresalen de la base y una chinchilla que suele brincar mucho podria lastimarse. Las bisagras de las puertas a veces vienen un poco caidas y la puerta cierra desalineada un poco. Para el caso de chinchillas o ratas (y en general cualquier roedor) los estantes de plastico que vienen con el producto no son la mejor opcion ya que los animales los van a roer, considera tambien adquirir los cubre estantes.

Llegó antes incluso de lo esperado. Para referencia de tamaño, la persona de la foto mide 1,80 m. La jaula se ve fuerte, todo hierro excepto las bandejas bandejas negras. Las ruedas son una maravilla, súper suaves y no hacen ruido ni rallan el suelo. La hemos montado entre dos personas, no creo que una sola sea posible hacerlo (al menos, fácil no va a ser, eso seguro) y hemos tardado como una hora más o menos. Parece fuerte y la hemos comprado con la esperanza de que aguante muchos años, el tiempo irá diciendo… Eso sí, las puertas son enormes, creo que eso nos va a facilitar muchísimo la limpieza. En nuestro caso es para una chinchilla. Aún no la tenemos y no puedo saber si es necesaria la de dos pisos o con uno solo hubiese tenido suficiente, porque es enorme. Actualizaré…

Perfect cage. Worth every penny.