Ferret litter training ideas?

I have 2 young ferrets, between 3 and 4 months old, that I'm having some serious litter training problems with.
I had successfully litter trained both of them when I brought them home. After about a month of no accidents I gave them the run of an entire room, with several litterboxes. Less than a week later, they started to completely ignore the litterboxes and go whereever they please, I even found some in a drawer! So I put them back into their cage when they could be supervised. But they still will not use the litterboxes.
I keep their boxes with nothing more than one piece in it to keep it marked. So cleanliness isn't the problem. I use Yesterdays News litter.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, if they do not stop doing this I will have to put them up for adoption, I live in an apartment so it isn't my house for them to tear up.

 

the only advise i can give is when i used to work at petco we had the same problems when baby ferrets would come in and the only thing i can say is dont give up... when they go potty outside the box use a scoop and put it in the litter box and clean the spot outside the litter box where they went so they cant smell it anymore. then put the ferret in the litter box as well.. hopefully they will get the hint

 

Are you keeping them in the cage at all times or are you letting them run around all the time? It may not be that they have forgotten about the litterbox but that it is too far away for them to be able to get to it. The ferret digestive system is very small and does not take long for it to need to use the litter box. If you are letting them out to play place them back in cage every 20 minutes. Leave them there for five to ten minutes. Make the area they are playing in smaller (i.e. in the bathroom or kitchen) then you can put a litter box in that area and they may be able to get there in time. Ferrets will most likely not return to their cage to go to the bathroom. Particularly young ones. I have a playpen for my four. Its much much easier. We live in an apartment also. Everything you're doing about putting the waste in the litter box to leave a mark is great! When you clean the area they had an accident in make sure you use an enzyematic cleaner like nature's miracle or petzyme that will definately get rid of the smell. If you don't have those products you can use white vinegar. Good luck. Ferrets are a blessing. A high maintence blessing.

 

I have a total of 3 boxes in the room, 2 in seperate corners and one in the cage. I love the little guys, but they aren't getting it. Thanks for the white vinegar trick, though. That one worked very well.