Chinchillas peeing in their food???

[hughesSMFD]

My girlfriends Chins have been peeing in their food a lot lately. She says that she finds the female sitting on the food bowl often and shortly there after she finds a food dish with urine soaked food. :vomit:

No it's not the water dripping into the bowl, the bottle is on another wall. And no it is not old food, sometimes she finds the urine soaked food the same day she gives it to them. But it is a new kind of food. We used to feed out critters the typical Chinchilla food, like Kaytee & Fiesta, you get at PetSmart. But thanks to the good advice from people on C&H and NWI Chinchillas we have all our Chins eating Mazuri pellets.

Is this a way of saying "we don't like this food"?

My girlfriend has moved the food dish to another spot in the cage. But I don't see how the location of the dish would make a difference; because it has been in the same spot in the cage for several years. (and they've only recently been peeing in the bowl)

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. :thumbsup:

 

[tunes]

Lots of chins pee in dishes, and it's nothing to do with the type of food. Can you hang a J-feeder on the side of the cage instead? I use those on all my cages now and have no more bowl peeing.

 

[Sugarmama]

Nope, it has nothing to do with the food. Sometimes they just sit there munching on their pellets, and pee away....

Like tunes said, J-feeders will help, coop cups can help too. I think Quality cage has them, Tractor Supply stores, possibly feed stores. I know Carise (forchinatechins) has inexpensive coop cups, too.

 

[Sandi]

Both my boys have pee'd and pooped in their bowls, ugh! I was getting sick and tired of them wasting their food. I had the bowls that mounted on the side of the cage, but they used it as a ledge as well :hair: I ordered a ledge with a food bowl in it and they still did it in their food bowl, so I got an idea to mount a hanging toy on top of their food bowl so they couldn't sit on it but still have access to the bowl. So far so good, no more pee & poo in the bowl!

In the first pic the food bowl (blue/green) is just under the hanging wood toy & in the second pic, my chin CJ is blocking the bowl.

 

[hughesSMFD]

Thank you all so much for your advice! :thumbsup:

I think a new J-Feeder will be coming soon!