Do you have a Critter Nation?

Motor City Ferrets · Sep 9, 2012

Friends - we need your help! Do you have a Critter Nation cage? If you do, you might feel the same way we do about the low quality pans that come with the cage. Here at Motor City Ferrets (ferret Shelter in Detroit) we are fed up with the pans of our Ferret Nation cages (same everything, the Critter Nation just has different exterior wire for the wee 'uns). The pans break, they warp in warm water, the sides aren't tall enough to contain schmutz...we're fed up! So instead of just complaining we're thinking about commissioning some new pans for the Shelter. But tooling up a custom pan design is expensive, so the only way we can think to make our plan work is to get more Nation owners involved and produce a large number of pans to make us all happier!

Now I know the needs of ferrets and chins are different. I've spoken to a fellow at Bass Pans about the galvanized pans they produce, made at the request of a chin owner. While I like the design I just don't care for galvanized. We don't line the bottom of our cages in fluff so we expect accidents on the galvanized and it's so much harder to clean than plastic. Of course ferrets don't chew things like chins might, but I did want to get some feedback from chin owners about our plastic pan idea. Surely not ALL chins are world class chewers...are they? hahaha

If you use a Nation cage, would you please take our survey AND help us spread the word as far and wide as possible? We seriously need LOTS of help spreading this survey out to the rest of the critter world, so please take a moment to pass it on to anywhere critter folks come to talk about their critters!

Thanks so much for your feedback!

Nanci Frazier
Director, Motor City Ferrets
www.motorcityferrets.org

Survey: http://www.motorcityferrets.net/NationPanSurvey.htm

sheena lee · Sep 9, 2012

I have a CritterNation, and I don't use the pans mainly because they are plastic, and my chin chewed a hole in it. Chins should never have plastic in the cage, they WILL chew it.

Dreamlite · Sep 9, 2012

Plastic just isn't worth the time. That's why everyone pays more for a metal pan. Chins are rodents and as such will chew everything in the cage, and why pay to purchase several pans when you can purchase one time and get a metal one.

Daina91880 · Sep 9, 2012

I line my plastic pans in fleece. The times my chins dug up the fleece, there were chew marks. Now I know to wrap them up tighter and get rid of the one too small liner I have. If I were to get new pans, they wouldn't be plastic just for my own piece of mind.

greychins · Sep 9, 2012

I have four FN's and one CN. I switched to Bass Pans in all of them, cause all the chins we've ever gotten in at the rescue have chewed plastic, so we couldn't risk having plastic in the cage.

I like the Bass Pans, but I wasn't crazy about how quickly they would discolor and eventually rust as a result of having wet shavings on them. So I got all of mine powder-coated. I don't know if that's an option for you, but it works good for us.

Pookinaround · Sep 9, 2012

I have both ferrets and chins and I have a total of 7 Critter & Ferret Nations. I use the original plastic pans for the ferrets and Bass pans for the chins and I never had a problem. I have 3 ferrets in a 3 stack FN. I make sure to keep at least 1 litter pan on each level. As for the chins...anything plastic just isn't a good idea.