Tossing food?

[laura_leigh]

I just got my chins yesterday, but I was in there today straightening thier cage and adding more food, and it appears that they are throwing out a bunch of food.... is this normal?

 

[DaphnesandFreddysmom]

Do you have any supplements or treats hidden in there? If I put supplements or something they REALLY love they will dig the stuff out to get the good stuff out. If you are mixing food they may also be digging out the food they don't really like to get the food out that they do like.

All of ours dig around in their food to some point or another so yes it is normal.

 

[laura_leigh]

ok,good deal! Thanks!

 

[Cuddlebug]

Some chins will take out a pellet, bite off half, and then throw the rest down. You can try to recycle the unused half, but most chins will not eat it.

 

[Chuppie]

The food I give my chin is all pellets. Once the top doesn't like good anymore to her, she will take the whole bowl, and dump it over.

 

[Rickman]

Food dumping is very common, as is "poo hockey" - they try to get it as far away from the cage as possible! Try putting a shoe about 4 feet away - I guarantee they're will be poo all around it, and, after a couple of weeks, it'll be "in there - goooaaal!"

 

[feistychins]

Some chins do this and others never do. It is one of those things that drive chin parents crazy. I have never put anything other than pellets in our chins bowls and some chins still dig through it. I put in smaller amounts of food each time so at least there will be less waste.

 

[starleomach]

I have a couple food dish diggers..one I found if I put a bowl in instead of using the feeder on the outside she doesn't dig out the food. They are just funny little critters

 

[Sugarmama]

Yep--sometimes they will take a bite of the pellet, and toss the rest. Most of the time, they never go back and eat the other bit of it, they just want a fresh bowl of food.

I started putting less in the dish at a time, because there was usually poo in the dish in the morning, and now I'm only throwing out a little bit of food that they don't want.

 

[Essentia]

My two pet chins are tossers. Take one bite, throw the rest out of the cage. Little stinkers.

I also started putting less food in the dish and they really were wasting most of it anyway. Now I throw away less int he long run.

 

[laura_leigh]

I think I have it figured out, I know it was Banzee that was digging (caught him in the act, lol) but he was digging for the oats that were mixed in the food (custom mix from the breeder and only about 5 oats in a full bowl).... I've started pulling out the oats and putting them in a seperate bowl, plus I'm only giving them half a bowl of food instead of a full bowl. They were only eating about half anyways... Hopefully that will fix the problem. Once I get them converted over to the food I have now, I will have a seperate bowl for their supplement

 

[Cuddlebug]

I have a terrible food digger. He will empty a feeder in one night. I have resorted to placing a dish under the feeder. That way, I can catch the feed before it hits the cage floor. I just empty the dish into the feeder every morning. By the way, he has no reason to be a digger. I bred him and he has never had anything mixed in with his feed. :banghead: