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Food Bowl = Toilet ... WHY!?!

All4Cavies

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Dec 30, 2004
Messages
139
I have two 2 month old babies. Both seem to think their food dish is a bathroom. Admittedly, it was cute for about a week. However, since they've grown, it's become rather annoying. I suppose it's a good thing that they naturally are trying to potty train themselves, but I just dont understand what motivates them to go in the dish? Is anyone in a similar boat? What can I do?
 
Yes my three week olds are doing the same thing, mind you they use the litter box too. I don't really know what to do about it, other than waste a bunch of food thats in there, cause I don't want them to eat food that hey have peed on, or pooped. I just try to put enough food in their dish for them to eat at that time, and then I will put more in later. That's all I could really think of.
 
Yeah me too. I love them to death, but after awhile, it gets irritating. I pray that they grow out of it or we're going to have some serious problems. FULL GROWN pigs in the food dish! hehe
 
Isn't that just something the majority of piggies do?
Mine do it a little bit and I just get something to scoop the poop out.
The hubby has a mini gardening spade (small) that I usually use, (Shhh don't tell him)
 
I think mine puts her poop in there. =P She hasn't peed in her foodbowl (it's set a little higher so it'd be harder for her to pee in it). But you know how guinea pigs eat their own poop sometimes? I think she actually puts her poop in the foodbowl by mouth.

Hey I just signed up on photobucket - is her picture showing up right? What do you think?
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Baotze/b3159b11.jpg
 
The picture works and it's absolutely cute!!
 
Aww.... she is so adorable.
 
She is identical to my Penny.........gorgous
 
Mine did that and so I just got a smaller foodbowl. There still is the occasional poopsie but it's better than it was!
 
o0Ms Jenny0o said:
Mine did that and so I just got a smaller foodbowl. There still is the occasional poopsie but it's better than it was!
I did the same thing - got smaller foodbowl and added another small one. Same amount of food, less room to crawl in.

Gizzy would crawl in his bowl and poop at first, but he grew out of it (and got too big to sit in the bowl).

Fawn
 
alritey, I will DEFINITELY be doing that!!!!!!!!
 
They feel it is their job to poop in the food bowl. They will now out grow it. It is a fact of life. I swear mine pick it up and place it in the bowl.
 
lol, it's not the poopy I mind... it's the pee that's the big problem, lol. I swear, the guinea pigs think they're cats and the cat thinks it's a guinea pig. The piggies are marking their territory now or something and the cat is eating carrots and lettuce. *I am very serious..lol* Maybe I should make her her very own C&C cage too..lol.
 
My cat eats the romaine, so I know what you mean.

I had made a big salad of red lettuce (yes, the people get piggy leftovers around here) and put it on the table for dinner. I came back 5 minutes later and my cat is on the table chowing down on the salad! We plant pots of orchard grass for her too.

I haven't been finding poops in the food anymore since changing bowls. I do find shavings a lot though - especially since I changed their food. They don't like it as much and I think that's their way of letting me know it.

Fawn
 
Probably, lol. I have a piggie that looks just like my cat. I'll post it for you to see. I laid them together for comparison. It's kind of neat.

(broken link removed)

(broken link removed)
 
Awwww.... that is so cute.l
 
Yes, this is the same cat that when my pet mouse got loose, brought it back to me and sat it down in front of me, not a tooth mark and completely unharmed... she loves to come in and watch the piggies, hamsters, gerbils and mice. She thinks of them as her friends. I never let her in unattended, but when she comes in it's adorable. She gets so excited as if she's going to visit her friends, she'll lay there and meow at them and stick her declawed little paws in and pet them through the grids. The piggies will come up and stand on their hindlegs w/ their front paws on the grid and talk back to her. It's the cutest thing! She is probably the cat that is most unlike a cat. She has this pet seal *it's stuffed* we named it Andy... and she carries it around and sticks it in the water bowl for drinks and the food bowl for food and then even sometimes Andy can be found in the litterbox for a doo doo break, and if Andy is bad, the cat will yell at him. She cracks me up. She actually took 3 of the 4 screws out of our kitchen table one time. She never ceases to amaze me. lol.
 
Your cat sounds really amazing, and very adorable!!! I love it that animals have their own personalities
 
As for the piggies and the poop, I think they'll outgrow it. But you can place the food bowl on a second floor so it's away from the bedding. If the pigs are too small to jump up, you can make a ramp. I made one for my pigs but they sportively ignored it and quickly learned how to jump up to the second floor. They don't poop or pee up there, and so the food bowl stays free of nasty stuff and bedding.
 
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