# what is an alternative to using bowls to put food in?



## andy20146 (Aug 20, 2011)

I want to design or buy something that will stop the use of bowls and them fouling in it all the time. any ideas? I was thinking about making a small cone and covering it in wire mess and the mice can just pick at it when they feel like it stopping them climbing all over it...any ideas people?


----------



## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

Personally I just sprinkle food over the bedding...I don't use any sort of dish...


----------



## Anne (Mar 21, 2011)

I have labcages where I place foodblocks (altromin, food made for labmice and rats) in top of the cage in an area made for that. But I also give them different grains, catfood, full grain pasta etc and that I just sprinkle on the bedding like Stina. It is also a nice way to offer them a little activation, when they have to go around and find the food.


----------



## WoodWitch (Oct 18, 2009)

Stina said:


> Personally I just sprinkle food over the bedding


Same here. No need for any fancy business


----------



## thekylie (Mar 6, 2010)

I've seen people make a mesh column that is attached to the floor and goes to the top of the tank, but I think that would only really work with blocks.


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

The bowls always end up full of bedding and waste, so I just sprinkle it about, except for the bread and milk, which I put in the lids off gallon milk bottles. That always gets finished right away, and then they move the cap around, play with it, chew on it, bury it, try to make it part of their nest....it's fun :lol: ny to see a mousie running with one of those caps held up in their mouth. HEEHEE!


----------



## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I use thin metal ladles from thrift stores, with the handle bent to hang over the lip of the tank. Since I use all glass tanks, and adopted some else's velcro'd-on water bottle idea, it means I can keep the food and water off the floor of the cage.


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

That's a really neat idea! Thanks!


----------



## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

Thanks! They like the ladles both as a place for food and as a bowl they can sit in and be high-but-contained.


----------



## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

Mine get theirs on the floor


----------



## hyshqa (Feb 12, 2011)

My mice also get scatter fed. Unless I were to go out and buy rabbit bowls there wouldn't be enough room for all the food in some of the boxes, and when I used little bowls for my pet mice they would always stand on the edge with their butts in the bowl so the poop:food ratio would turn pretty quickly.

Scatter feeding also simulates natural forraging so it's a nice form of enrichment for them as they get to dig around in it and move piles around etc.


----------

