Food bowls.

Gemma_xo · 02-04-2016, 07:09 AM

I'm currently at war with Tinkerbell and her food bowl.
Basically I have both hamsters using a red & white polka dot bowl. Pixie is absolutely fine with it (now!). Tinkerbell is a little on the chubby side. This is because she was caged with the P@H hamster bully so barely got any food. For a while after she came to me, she would eat loads when I wasn't around so I didn't see her gain weight, as she's out more and socialising with me via taming & such, I've seen her properly, she's like a fluffy ball when she crunches up!. But, we're working on her slimming down some. (Pixie was the same when I got her, she lived with 4 others so barely got enough food, she gained lots in the beginning but as she got settled in and comfortable, she used her wheel loads and the weight just fell off). So I'm not worried about Tinkerbell so much because she is starting to slim down.

My main worry is, Tinkerbell is getting into the bowl, thus shoving half the food out of her bowl and won't eat from the substrate. I had a spare cat bowl on hand (long story!) which I'm now using but it's taking up loads of space.
I've hunted around my flat, I have nothing to hand that I can think of that'll stop Tinkerbell chucking food everywhere whilst she digs for the good stuff.
Was wondering what you use.

Tinkerbell is in an IKEA billy cage, so space is somewhat limited, and the bowl (pictured below) is a little big. Was just hoping for some ideas of things that I could use until I can use her normal bowl again.

Thank you

***DISCLAIMER***
They both get daily play pen time, unlimited if they wanted it. I don't have 'times' for in & out, Pixie stands in a certain place in her cage when she wants out & Tinkerbell sits and paws at the glass to come out. I don't work and I am an insomniac, so I am able to cater to needs of the girls due the the slightly smaller cages. Please don't think they're limited on space as they have unlimited play pen time should they want it.

xbuttons94 · 02-04-2016, 07:19 AM

I think we use the same bowls. I have the polka dot ones. I have 4 spare bowls of different shapes and sizes (I don't know how I managed to collect them all!)

Is the problem that she is kicking her food out? I know most pet shops have a large variety of bowls so you should be able to find one that is higher so she doesn't kick her food out.

cypher · 02-04-2016, 07:35 AM

She's just doing what comes naturally really, foraging in a limited space! No bowl will really keep the food in if they really want to dig around for the best bits, my Mickle is terrible for doing that & half the food in her bowl seems to end up on my sofa!
If she's really hungry she will eat food off the substrate too, she waiting for more to be served up on a plate!
One thing you can try is an egg box, mine all love theirs & get quite a bit of food hidden in there (I do bury it in some fitch but you can skip that bit if she's too fussy!) just cut a couple of holes at the ends & maybe cut off one of the bits that goes down into the box, once in a while they manage to open the box but mostly the food stays put & doesn't go flying anywhere no matter how much they dig around!
Any bowl that isn't too high for them to climb into comfortably is low enough for food to come flying out really.

flowerfairy · 02-04-2016, 08:48 AM

You could put her bowl onto a large plate to catch the stray fppd or just get her a big low sided dish.

My roborovski, flower has a little water dish on a saucer to help with spills it works well.

She has her dishes on a shelf now and loads od substrate.

mawhiskers · 02-04-2016, 08:50 AM

I saw someone put a little platform under the food dish so they couldn't get bedding in the bowl, I would imagine it would help if stuff fell out but it wouldn't quite be in the bedding. Maybe that would help? It would still leave floor space.

CMB · 02-04-2016, 09:03 AM

A rabbit bowls is slightly higher sided.

Gemma_xo · 02-04-2016, 12:42 PM

I think (and hope!) I've sorted it out. I had a Wilkos food bowl (only slightly bigger then the polka dot ones) with much higher sides. I've put that in for now, Pixie used it first but she seems to have grown out of full on climbing into the bowl so lets hope Tinkerbell follows suit, else I'll be going back to Wilkos for a replacement for Pixie.. The cages have to match, so. Yeah. OCD Gemma is out again!

Thanks for the ideas all, I'm going to look into some of those in the near future, the idea of a saucer looks awesome, plus a higher level sounds good to stop substrates being shoved in too!