I'm actually a little concerned with the unbridled praise that Ferret Nation cages get, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this exclusive fashionable 'club' status that their ownership seems to produce.
I got a Ferret Nation cage this afternoon as my two chinchillas had outgrown their current one.
Right,
opcorn:
Firstly, the shelves are appalling. I followed the assembly instructions to the letter and they are infuriatingly crooked. One side is over an inch higher than the other, with the pan perched precariously on top, making it look cheap, flimsy and poorly built -(I built it properly!).
Secondly, the pans are plastic. No animal can consume plastic safely, yet all of them, even human babies are apt to try. Any animal owner can attest to the fact that if plastic is present, said animal will at some point nibble. Nibbling soon turns to gnawing, and gnawing eventually becomes consumption. So why on earth do these cages come with 'durable' plastic shelves?
Oh, and shock horror, Midwest sell special (separate) fleece linings for the shelving so your adored animal wont chew the plastic. What a convenient way of squeezing out even more cash from the customer. Plus, it's almost impossible to get customized metal pans in the UK without having to spend a king's ransom on P&P. I would gladly spend a little extra to have safe metal pans so that the cage could be used 'fresh out of the box' so to speak, without this added expense.
The instructions did allude to the possibility of a mallet being required to nudge some of the joints together, which is not wholly unexpected. However, after mindlessly hammering away at a warped piece of cold rolled steel like a demented chimpanzee, trying to get it into the correct shape, I started to wonder if the blasted cage was really worth the bother.
There a lot of rough edges to the cage floor metal mesh, underneath the pans, and jutting out metal. Lots of it is extremely sharp as one of my fingers would tell you if it could talk. My own blood, I am fine with, and obviously, my chinchillas are not going to be in the cage as I clean it out, but I do wonder how many times I'm going to scrape my poor hands along the exposed metal when pulling out the pans.
Alarmingly, I noticed that Midwest are trying to get a patent for their cages. I'm not sure what that would cover, but potentially that could mean that every cage will be flying under the Midwest overpriced banner, and don't forget, if they are the only suppliers of an easy clean cage, they'll be free to change as much as they like, since we, the consumer, will have nothing other than their cages to buy. Once again, alarming.
Don't misunderstand me, I genuinely like this cage and think that the outer shell at least is (mostly) fantastic, sturdy and solid. It fitted together well eventually, and looks high quality and very capable of lasting. But there are cut corners and little irritations that make me feel like the designers got bored half way through and let a thrifty temp finish the job. I worry that people will be lured by the heard instinct (as I was) and miss cheaper alternatives that would do the job just as well. I am also extremely tight with money, so most likely I would overlook these issues if I hadn't spent over the equivalent of $300 on this dratted metal pest, but there you have it. Opinion expressed, discussed and effectively rescinded. Feel free to ignore me, just passing though. :facepalm:
