# Rat hoarding food...



## CateLW92 (Jan 7, 2016)

Hi all,
about 2 weeks ago one of my female rats, Luna, started hoarding her rat nuggets into the nest (cardboard box with fleece etc). She's also started taking treats and chews in there, and it's got to the point where neither she or her buddy (Teddy) can fit in there to sleep, so they have to stay in the hammock.
Now and again she guards the nest from Teddy and won't let her in etc, so I'm concerned that Teddy may not be getting enough food (although she hasn't dropped any weight).
This is a pain because I have no gauge of how much they're eating or when they need more food without taking the cage apart and emptying the nest. When I try to move the food back to the bowl Luna comes straight in and takes it (nugget by nugget) up to the nest again. As they've been squabbling I had been trying to put 2 bowls of food in there, but obviously, it's all in the nest now which has totally defeated the object!
Is this normal behaviour? 
Is there anything I can do to change it?


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## InuLing (Dec 26, 2015)

I would like some insight on this kind of behavior as well. My Mocha does the same thing, except she uses 2-3 different hiding spots and she doesn't guard the food, which is lucky for me because she has babies who are starting to eat solid food. I filled the bowls last night and she spent 1.5 hours just carting the food to different places until both bowls were empty. Makes it so hard to keep track of when she needs food.

She has been hiding food since I got her but until recently it was only half the food and not all of it.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Hoarding food is a normal rat behavior. As long as your other rat is having enough food and is not losing weight, both rats are fine. If you are worried, you could weigh your rat with a kitchen scale. Place your rat in a plastic basket when weighting her


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## CateLW92 (Jan 7, 2016)

Aha! Thank you Gribouilli, great idea!


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

I am quite blessed that not a single one of my rats hoards food. I'm not 100% sure why. Though I have a few ideas.

What brand of food do you feed? 
You could try making a food hopper, like a basket where they can't get the whole pieces of food out. I'd suggest two if you do that to help prevent them fighting over food.


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## Sal (Mar 21, 2016)

Jimbo stores it and then Ned eats it all... It's as if Jimbo is Neds personal assistant or something


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## Verucasdad (Aug 31, 2015)

My girls hide food and treats and then steal each others. By the time I give more treats, the stuff is gone. Endora likes to hide cheerios in my bed. It's a natural instinct.


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## CateLW92 (Jan 7, 2016)

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! 
I've been weighing Teddy (220g yesterday) who doesn't seem to be losing weight, but I think I need to give it more time to be sure. I think that weight is okay for a 6 month old rat!
@moonkissed I feed pets at home own brand rat nuggets (I live in a small SMALL town in West Wales, so this is the most dependable brand and they seem to like it!) but maybe a hopper isn't such a bad idea. I'll have a Google for some DIY ideas


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## mis.kay (May 29, 2015)

Two of my three boys hoard. I just cleaned the cage last night and found an entire bowls worth of food in Renegade's little basket. My chubby boy can't reach it so every time I pass the cage I now have to search to make sure they all have access to them. Just make sure they can all access the food and it could be a little foraging game for them when one hides and the other finds. =)


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