Opinions on the Marshall Folding Mansion?

[Brittany]

I will be upgrading Lily and Lady's cages in the next few months and I'm wondering if anyone has ever used the Marshall Folding Mansion? What do you like/dislike about it?

http://www.ferret.com/item/marshall-folding-mansion/650715/

I'm also open to suggestions on other cages to consider. Here are my priorities at this time:

1. easily assembled/disassembled/transported (I'm moving out of state for grad school and will be driving home for extended winter and summer breaks for the next two years)

2. slide out pan

3. no wire bottom (we have these now and I'm sick of cleaning them)

 

[Ash]

If you want easily collapsible, I'd go with a Quality Cage of some size. The doors on the folding mansion suck, imo. They have a sliding bar the comes down to keep them closed and if a chin really wanted to, they could open the door. If I recall, you can get QC's made with larger doors, also. With that cage, you would also still need the bass pan modifications and such, otherwise you're going to have bedding everywhere, unless you plan on using liners.

Not to mention, Marshall's is the largest "puppy breeder" of ferrets there is, so it's just baseline practice to NOT support them.

 

[menagerie]

I don't support Marshall's either because of the ferret mill issue.

The Critter Nation by Midwest is easy to assemble and disassemble. It has smaller bar spacing than the Ferret Nation. It's a good sturdy cage that will last years and years.

 

[trg005]

I have 2 Quality Cage Mansions and I think they are great. They come with cage guards so it keeps bedding and droppings inside the cage. Sliding pan and double doors work perfectly. Easy to assemble too. The only down side is the shelves are a bit narrow but I've solved that. Sarah Ralston from Quality Mutation Chinchillas is making me wider shelves! Also, I have 1 townhouse that was great for the 1 chin (meatball) but now I have 4 chins and 2 each are housed in the 2 seperate mansions. Here is a picture of the mansion:
http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=129_142_153&products_id=2250
HTH!

 

[Brittany]

I don't support Marshall's either because of the ferret mill issue.

Hmm... I hadn't heard about a ferret mill issue. Too bad they looked like nice cages.

Question about the Quality Cage Mansion. How is that one assembled? My boyfriend has a Martin's cage of similar size that we had to use all these little metal clamps to put together. Is this one different?

Question about the critter nation and/or ferret nation. Would each half of the cage fit a 15in. chinspin along with other accessories? These cages are a little more then what I was hoping to spend. If I went this route each of the girls would end up in 1/2 of the cage until I could afford a second.

 

[Ash]

Quality cages come already assembled, but two of the sides are two 'half' pieces, and the top/bottom are only attached on one side so they fold down. They have the metal clips, but are able to fold.

 

[HamNCheese]

Quality cages are foldable, and they fold flat. You can use simple zip-ties to tie the sides to the bottom for more rigidity, then when you need to move it just cut those, take the shelves and tray out, fold it up and move it again. It's bulky of course- it is a cage after all- but easy to transport considering. You don't need anything else to put the cage together (tools, clamps, etc.) so I'd recommend it for transporting around a lot. That's what I used mine for!

 

[menagerie]

Question about the critter nation and/or ferret nation. Would each half of the cage fit a 15in. chinspin along with other accessories? These cages are a little more then what I was hoping to spend. If I went this route each of the girls would end up in 1/2 of the cage until I could afford a second.

Yes a Chin Spin will fit in one level with lots of room to spare. The FN is put together with screws, the CN is made up of interlocking panels and no tools are required.

 

[Essentia]

Yup. I have a flying saucer in one of the halves of a FN and a chin spin in both of the others. There is still a ton of room left over.

 

[Classic Chinchillas]

You might want to consider this flight cage
I bought one like it off craigslist but even new they are more inexpensive than the ferret or critter nation. I am very happy with mine and love it more than my previous ferret nation. You can find similar ones with metal pans also or some come with one larger door instead of the two smaller ones. Avian intelligence makes several similar models. Mine connects together with 8 screws, it doesn't take long to disassemble or put together so you can travel with it flat.

When the folding mansion came out and I saw a larger marshall cage, I was very interested, specifically because I liked the metal shelves and they have great spacing but today I actually saw the mini folding mansion and am not really interested anymore, mostly because 1. The pan is plastic and I did not see a wire floor and 2. There is a bar that goes down the sides that sticks into the cage causing a considerable gap between the walls and shelves (I don't know if a foot could get caught seeing as it was pretty big but it still worried me)

 

[addictedtochins]

You might check with area ferret rescues for a good cage at a good price. I was a ferret mama before the chins. I have a Quality "something" cage, it's similar to the one you pictured but larger. It certainly does fold well. The doors stink unless the animal is awake and charging out the door. We had it in our large master bathroom and daily we picked up the wire part off of the cage and set it on the floor so we could clean the floor of the cage. Ours was free along with 2 loveable sweet ferrets.