# pooping in the food bowl



## ratsoff2ya (Aug 19, 2013)

the thread title says it all. i have one large food bowl that my four rats eat out of and they've started pooping in it EVERY DAY! it is gross and obviously unsanitary, but i can't figure out how to break the habit. any suggestions?

note: my rats aren't litter trained. i got them a cheap plastic litterbox when i adopted them but they would just kick all the litter out. for a while some of them would poop in the litter box (after kicking the litter out) but i admittedly wasn't very good about keeping up with their litter training. now the dumb zip tie that kept the litter box in the corner of the cage has been chewed through so they just move the litter box around whenever they feel like redecorating and don't poop in it. -_-


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

Pooping in and around the food bowl is how they mark it as safe to eat. All of my rats do it, and others on this forum. I'm not sure of any way to fix it successfully, but it's normal.


----------



## Grawrisher (Sep 10, 2013)

I believe this is known as "toast syndrome" it's when your rats poop wherever they like...it's not cure able but it's also not fatal 

And there are cute rat cartoons of toast talking about pooping


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Daniel (Jun 24, 2013)

Mine have never done this, but I keep their food on a different level where they never poop. Mine are also about 90% litter trained.

When I had a different set up, they would (rarely) poop AROUND it, but never in it, yet then I also did not have a litter box yet.


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

Mine are litter trained and they still have a heck of a good time crapping in and around the food bowl, which is kept on a different level as well! I rarely see accidents outside of the box on the floor it's kept on, but they just adore doing their business in the food. However, I have noticed it seems to be happening more ever since I brought my newest "teenage" girl home, since she doesn't seem to be the cleanest of rats. She farts all the time when she walks past me (I swear it's on purpose) and she is the first one to poop outside of the cage when she's out of it, which my other two have NEVER done. I can only deem it as an act of rebellion against the evil litterbox. Rats sometimes, I swear.


----------



## Daniel (Jun 24, 2013)

Maybe a boy-girl thing? Girls like to destroy and make a mess more, but I know the boys can get lazy (that's how most of the outside of the box pooping happens - when they are sleeping on a level and have to go but don't feel like walking all the way down). 

I've never had girls for very long so I don't know what they are like on this.


----------



## Minky (Apr 4, 2013)

Maybe try feeding them as much as they can eat at one time, then remove the bowl when they're done. They will probably hide a lot of the food and munch on it throughout the day. But the bowl won't be around for them to poop in. Something to try. 

I just litter trained my rats and it was pretty easy. There are a lot of tips and trick across the internet. But you have to give it a little effort on your end, otherwise yeah, they just think it's another place to nest.


----------



## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

My girls have never crapped in their food bowl. But they do place pieces of Yesterday's News in the bowl which I then have to pick out. ;P


----------



## toke (Aug 28, 2012)

My guys were really bad about this as well. I started with getting smaller bowls that they could not climb into, and then I put the bowls in an awkward location that they would not be able to run all over the top of it and poo inside. Not a perfect solution, but it worked for me. If it is a big problem, you can get a bowl that attaches to the side and elevate it so they have to stand up to get at the food- that may work pretty well in keeping little rat butts out.


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

Daniel said:


> Maybe a boy-girl thing? Girls like to destroy and make a mess more, but I know the boys can get lazy (that's how most of the outside of the box pooping happens - when they are sleeping on a level and have to go but don't feel like walking all the way down).
> 
> I've never had girls for very long so I don't know what they are like on this.


Sounds very possible to me. She is a very interesting rat. She jumps around like mad and does a whole host of other interesting things -- for example, she actually prefers to sleep outside of the cage because she figured out how to open my closet's drawer of socks with her paws and likes to sleep there. Just had to show that one off, I was amazed. I have to take a video.

She is for sure the most energetic rat I own and could win a Nascar race, so it could have something to do with it, since I suspect she's the one pooping 90% of the time!

Also, a suggestion for relocating the food bowl getting one that can attach to the side like toke suggested, and maybe adding some perches that they have to climb on to get there. I've seen this, and it looks like a good way to get exercise too!


----------



## JBird (May 23, 2013)

Don't worry, it's totally normal. All of my rats do it (boys and girls, messy and neat). I honestly saw no reason to fight it, so I just started putting their food bowl in their litter box. It's saved me a ton of grief about them spilling it and peeing/pooping around it! 
I switched from the scatterless corner pans to a regular 6qt sterilite bin, so they quite enjoy digging in the box & stashing their food in it. The walls on the bin are high enough that they don't kick litter out, either! They love having their food bowl in there, they can toss it about, poop on it, I honestly don't really care what they do with their food, as long as they are happy and healthy. It's a normal rat behavior and is really not as unsanitary as one might think!


----------



## ratsoff2ya (Aug 19, 2013)

so what i've learned here today is that all rats are gross! hahaha. i do keep their food bowl on the bottom level where they eliminate most, so maybe i'll try moving it upstairs to their napping area. unfortunately i don't really have time in the mornings to wait for them to finish eating so i can't remove the bowl during the day.

i'm going to work on litter training again when i get my new cage this week. hopefully that will help.


----------



## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

I always thought it was an ingrained, natural behaviour of rodents to try to deter other animals from eating from their food stash, like, 'hey, if we cover this food in poop, nobody will want to take it from us!' All my rats do it, I don't mind as it doesn't make them ill or anything, it's just a bit of a pain if they decide to pee in there too (my two youngest boys do that and it's annoying, as I don't like to leave pee-saturated food in their cage.) Perhaps they do that to get a nice fresh supply from me, haha. 
I also always wondered if there's the possibility that the poop they put in their food bowl is the fibre-rich poops that they do which they need to eat, as the nutritions aren't absorbed properly the first time through their system.


----------



## JBird (May 23, 2013)

It should be mentioned as well that, when given the opportunity, a rat will tend to stash his/her food in their litter area. Very normal behavior to congregate food in a "safe" area, covered in the rats' own scent. There have been several times where I've handed my rats treats and they'll take as many as they can put in their mouth, carry it over to the litter box, drop it in, and then come back for another mouthful. Over and over and over again. If your rats are prone to this sort of behavior, moving the food bowl elsewhere in the cage may just encourage elimination in that area. I'd recommend leaving the two close by and letting the rat be nasty. 
No matter what I was told before getting rats... they're gross. I do NOT understand the continuous implications about how clean rats are, because I've never met a really clean one. Sure, they groom themselves, sometimes... but they also poop where they sleep, eat, and urinate on everything they touch. It's unfortunately normal!


----------

