I don't understand why she hates her bowl...

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
L

Lovette's Kara

Guest
I have one female chinchilla who always goes nuts on her bowl. No matter what type of material (ceramic or metal) she is always trying to fling it around! I have toys galore in the cage (mostly kabobs and such) but she always goes for the bowl. If it's on the top shelf especially, she has to knock it to the bottom of the cage. I have a metal one with a metal holder right now and she is going NUTS trying to get it off since I wired to the cage...

Is there some way to get her to stop? It is a waste of food every time...
 
Doubtful. One of my chins does the same thing. Only thing I do now is put maybe a tablespoon of food in his bowl and just constantly check to make sure its not empty. That way if he does flip it, its less food wasted.
 
Some chins just do that. One chin here loooooved to throw her food bowl around... so I bought a 5 lb food bowl way back when from a pet store (no kidding - full of food, she cannot knock the thing over). Now... she digs. *yanks hair out* Just can't leave it alone. I've never in my life put anything (like supplement) on top of the food, or in the food, or what, so I have no idea what she's looking for.... and she's got a crapload of toys and a wheel and stuff in her cage, so she can't possibly be bored.
 
I have chins that figured out how to pop the food dish out of that ring on the coop cup. I use ceramic 'parrot' hooded bowls that attached to the cage. Even then some of my chins dig the food out. I then use a 'bowl within a bowl set up' so the food isn't wasted as much. I just take the food out of the second bowl and put it back into the first bowl after they do their digging
 
Like Claire said, you can fix the problem with the chins getting the bowl out of the ring. I have switched over to those bowls for all of my chins.
 
I had one who could get the metal cup out of the coop ring, so I switched to ceramic bowls in coop cups, problem solved!
 
I use a heavy ceramic bowl and I have to set it on the fleece or they will slide it off wherever I set it to flip it over...
 
All of my chins except Zim have coop cups, because they have all tipped over their bowls. Jemma used to pop out hers from the metal holder, but like Claire said, if you fiddle with it eventually you can get it to where they can't get it out no matter how much they try. Or you can do as Dawn suggested and try ceramic bowls in the metal holder.
 
Some of mine would take the bowl out of the coup cups too and dump their food all over. I tried ceramic crock style dishes and Chill would turn his upside down and sit on it. :banghead: I finally switched to stainless steel no-tip dog or cat bowls. Ruby and Greta continued to flip that over so they got a ceramic no-tip bowl and I've not had any issues since.

I remove the rubber ring at the bottom of the bowl.
800443011720replacec.jpg
 
I have a Snap'y Fit coop cup made by Midwest (maker of Ferret Nation cages) for two of my girls. I can't even get the cup out of the holder so I doubt the chins could! I have to remove it from the cage to clean it but its worth the extra time since we are no longer wasting food!
 
The only other suggestiong I can think of is a J feeder that attaches outside of the cafe, but you have to cut a whole in the cage...
 
Heya,

You might want to check if she might have a tooth problem... one of my girls started digging & tossing her food and attacking the food bowl, knocking it all over her cage. It turned out she had hyperplasia of her gums so it was painful for her to eat, which is what triggered the behavior. Not to scare you - it sounds like there are lots of chins that exhibit that behavior without any underlying medical issues. Just something to keep in mind!
 
I have a spunky girl who constantly goes crazy on her bowl! I have it hooked to the cage, so she uses both her front feet to hit it up and down as fast as she can until all the food is on my floor! I started putting less food in it and checking it regularly to make sure she isn't on empty.
 
One of my girls does the same. So, I started putting the bowl under a ledge in the corner. This way they couldn't stand on it which did the trick since they haven't figure out how to pull the bowl yet :)
 
I have J feeders on a few cages, and my violet girl constantly empties hers. I Just keep an eye on it and try to feed only what she needs for the day. Otherwise is just piles up on the floor of her cage.
 
Back
Top