Ferret Court: How high can I build shelves/ramps

[Ossie 11]

it's all to do with terminal velocity

you're gonna love this example Ditch...

 

cats can survive falls of more than 7 stories, and less than 7 stories.

below 7 stories, the cats body is capable of withstanding the fall.

above 7 stories, the cat will reach it's terminal velocity before hitting the ground. terminal velocity is the fastest speed an object can fall at. once a cat reaches it's terminal velocity, it's body relaxes, and it hits the ground with minimal injuries. having a lot less mass than a human, a cat reaches terminal velocity at a much lower altitude.

from 7 stories? the cat hasn't reached terminal velocity, and it's body cannot withstand the impact. dead cat.

 

so, if you're going to throw a cat out of a window, and you really mean it, find the nearest towerblock

 

a rat, being an awful lot lighter than a cat, could quite feasibly survive a fall from that height.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_righting_reflex

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

it's all to do with terminal velocity

you're gonna love this example Ditch...

 

Once a cat reaches it's terminal velocity, it's body relaxes, and it hits the ground with minimal injuries. having a lot less mass than a human, a cat reaches terminal velocity at a much lower altitude.

 

 

Ok. I'm just about to swallow my last JD ration for the night. Then I'm turning it in. But first, one question ~ the answer to which I'll no doubt come across tomorrow:

 

If it's all to do with terminal velocity and cats body masses, etc. How come, if I were thrown from a high altitude jet - even in a body warming suit, to counteract the freezing tempratures up there - I'd stand to reach my own terminal velocity (I seem to rememember that's around the 112 MPH mark, for a human?) long before I buried myself in soft ground. Or else became a red mess on any less yielding surface.

 

What exactly is a cats terminal velocity? And how come meeting concrete at it doesn't push its clever, smarmy legs through its back on impact?

 

Oh, f*ck all this. I'll consult my own favourite manual of such matters .....

 

 

THE Book!

 

Testing Feline Terminal Velocity

 

 

That should flush our Dawn B out of the wood work!

[Ossie 11]

go read the link in my last post, that explains it all

 

oh, and the litter tray?

 

high-backed, to stop them shitting over the edges!

[jultaylor1972 2]

Here's the one mine use.

[Kay 3,709]

I have never been able to get a ferret to shit in a litter tray ever, not sure if it was because of having a large number in a court ,but they were having none of of it

[stubby 175]

me neither, I went out and bought one, thinking it would save me on cleaning duties, easy to clean etc, even tried the special "ferret" litter to stick in it, tried putting it in their favorite corner complete with a couple of "fresh ones" only for them to nose dive into it and play

ok I think's they need a couple of days to get used to it

 

famous last words

 

they now shit anywhere and everywhere, on the edge of it, down the side of it (they cant move it as I screwed it to wall)

in fact I'd say if you have an area where you dont want your ferts to $hite, stick one of them there

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Oh. I can see the potential problem with those litter trays straight away; Front lips. Ferrets like to back up, not climb into their shit corners.

 

Bit like we like to sit on a loo seat. We wouldn't like to wade into the stuff to add to it though!

 

See? Biscuit tin

[borderboy 80]

I tried a litter tray similar to those, but found that they were flipped and unhooked far too easily - which makes more mess than it saves... I have a small plastic dog bed which is the width of the run and is held in place with two bits of batoning which it tucks under, and even it gets tipped out...

[gnipper 6,535]

I gave the ex's dad a silver hob the other year and he trained it to shit in one of them plastic saucer things you put plant pots in, even if it was in the middle of the cage

[Madcowz 0]

Thought I would include the picture diary here for all you shed lovers (me included!).

 

I could quite easily have just bought a new shed but where is the fun in that!

 

The shed in question is very large, and was used about 10-15 years ago to house poultry. Since then it has fallen into disrepair.

It consists of four different sections, the last one being where I plan to have the ferrets, that way we can keep our wood store and tool storage areas.

 

Anyway, here are some 'now' pictures.

 

Starting from the left, the 1st section I have just finished slatting with wood from old pallets. I was trying to save money & recycle. It took weeks and was hard work, never again! Just needs to be felted and it is done. This is where we are going to store our gardening tools. Also in picture is one of four raised veg beds and to the left of that you can just about make out an old Bedford Plough I found when clearing the ground.

 

2nd section (bit with the corrugated roof) This is our wood storage area as it is the only dry bit.

 

3rd section (bit without a roof) This is going to be the ferts tools, food and net hanging area

 

4th section (hidden by holly) is going to be where the ferts live (also has no roof).

 

 

 

This next picture shows the inside looking from the entrance. I reroofed this with recycled wood from pallets. Never bl**dy again. Far too much work when you can buy the corrugated sheets from Wickes for pennies.

 

 

Ok, now we are looking from the 3rd section into what will become the court.

 

 

Now we are looking into the court area, though the door. As you can see, it is need of some ‘modernisation’ to use Estate Agent speak. I have just bought 7 sheets of OSB2 board to use as shuttering, so the inside will be completely fert proof. The floor is going to be dug out and concrete laid (borrowing a mates mixer for this). Will quickly knock up a door, replace the broken window, and use welded mesh on any other areas.

 

As with the 3rd section, this also has no roof on. I have bought some corrugated plastic roofing and plan to make a start on this over the bank holiday w/end. The court will be under trees so won’t get too much sun.

 

 

 

And finally, looking towards the 4th section from outside, where the holly tree is, is where the outdoor part of the court will be. This is phase 2 of the build as I want to concentrate on the indoor part first. The trellis panels on the left of the photo are the same as those in the 1st photo. As you can (just about) see, the shed continues for quite some distance here.

 

 

 

Well, that is it for now. I am hoping to get this completed in time for the ferts. But I have a backup plan if my project slips. I have just been given a 4 storey rabbit hutch by someone on Freecycle. This stands higher than me, is in excellent condition and just needs the 4 hutches connected via ramps/tunnels and it is all ready for the wee things.

 

 

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Ok,

 

have started work on the sheds now. Cleared out the inside and started on reroofing. Had to clear a large holly tree first before I could even get to the shed. Then rip off old roof which had a lining of asbestos (yuck). Just 2 panels up when I took this picture, although I have done 4 now.

 

The welded mesh front is going to come off and be replaced with decent mesh, all looks a bit tatty just now.

 

 

 

 

As i said earlier, if all this restoration timescale slips, and we all know things like this never run on time, I have been given a multi-storey rabbit run which I am going to use as a temporary hutch for the ferts. As you can see from the greenhouse next to it, it is very tall.

 

 

 

 

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Ok,

 

roof is done, so now working on the inside. Ripped out the front so I could get the soil out & concrete in easily. Was pretty rotten so no loss there. Need to buy some 2 by2 and 3 by 3 to rebuild the front frame later.

 

 

 

 

Here we are looking inside through the front. Have dug down 9 inches and will lay some sub base first and then bung concrete over the top. Can see the beginning of the formers at the back & left. Going to lay some DMP first behind them and then screw these to the existing frame.

 

Luckily our neighbour dropped off a half bucket of sand/stone mix with his teleporter so that will save a bit of cash on aggregates.

 

 

 

The project is at that stage that all builds go through where it looks worse than when it was started. But I am hoping that by the end of the w/end I will have the DPM in, formers in and sub base laid. Then just a case of pouring the concrete and I can move on to shuttering up the inside and making it look pretty.

 

/Mad

 

 

 

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All went a bit 'Pete Tong' last week. Firstly the shed slipped down a good 6 inches due to very little support in one corner so had to jack it up and put new struts in. Got it back on an even keel though. Phew

 

Then had to take a break as some tree surgeons felled two huge oak trees in our close and we asked them for the wood. Took me 4 evenings to carry the huge rings round to the back garden. Once I get the old chainsaw fired up later we will have enough wood for about 3 years.

 

Anyway, back to the shed...

 

Finally we can see a bit of progress

 

 

 

Farmer is going to drop off a buckets worth of road scrapings for me to use as hardcore & to mix in with the bucket of sand he brought round earlier.

 

and just in case there was any confusion of the type of bucket... :-) (that's our chicken grain being delivered)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This w/end I started putting up the lining on the inside. If you look closely, you can see that above the formers for the concrete, I have included a 15cm high section of lining. This is so I can remove this around the whole shed and level off the concrete then screw it back in. It was either that or wait until the concrete was in first before adding the lining and I just wanted to see some form of progress on this thing

 

 

 

 

And from a different angle:

 

 

 

 

Will remove the glass and wire mesh from the window, cover it in weld mesh and then shutter up all around it to make it flush and look nice. That window is North facing so will get the brunt of the weather, so I may put some louves up on it.

 

 

I would have got more done this w/end but had to move this lot from the other end of the close (those rings are about 2 feet in diameter and bl**dy heavy.

 

 

 

 

Then on top of this, had to re floor the chicken coop to stop the damn rats nicking the eggs and put in a new ceiling to stop the mites from having a great place to live.

 

And thankfully, that is another w/end over and I can go back to work and relax!

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Wanking material

[Guest MOLLY]

I have never been able to get a ferret to shit in a litter tray ever, not sure if it was because of having a large number in a court ,but they were having none of of it

Same here...i'd put it in the place they go, they would change places, now they go in 3 different places

My run is about 5ft tall, with a concrete floor, then shin up and down the mesh no problems...love it. The odd time they have fallen they have come to no harm...something to do with Ossies (the woman is a walking encyclopedia ) terminal velocity (Summat like that anyway) They have a wooden hutch inside the run so never cold.

 

Mad.....I think any ferrets living in your new palace will be very lucky indeed

MOLL.

[jultaylor1972 2]

Oh. I can see the potential problem with those litter trays straight away; Front lips. Ferrets like to back up, not climb into their shit corners.

 

Bit like we like to sit on a loo seat. We wouldn't like to wade into the stuff to add to it though!

 

See? Biscuit tin

I must be very lucky then as mine use the litter tray all the time. Mind you, I have the wood shavings about 2 inches thick and thats about the height of the front of the litter tray. I dont bother with litter though, I just put wood shavings in it and clean it out twice daily, once weekly I wash it all out and put the wood shavings off the floor in the litter tray and put fresh shavings on the floor - kind of recycling I suppose. So far so good, lets hope it stays that way

[Simoman 110]

Oh. I can see the potential problem with those litter trays straight away; Front lips. Ferrets like to back up, not climb into their shit corners.

 

Excellent point ditch, mine wouldn't use it until I cut the front lip off.

[Ossie 11]

Oh. I can see the potential problem with those litter trays straight away; Front lips. Ferrets like to back up, not climb into their shit corners.

mine never bothered too much about the lip on th front of the tray, but they've been using them since they were 12 weeks old, so i guess they've not really known any different?