# Food Bowl



## 750XL (Oct 3, 2011)

Hello all,

I'm a first time rat owner so I've got no idea if it's normal behaviour or not but...

My two female rats (about 11 months old) seem obsessed with putting stuff into their food bowl, whether it be shredded paper, old socks, bits of toilet roll etc. Any idea why they do this?

Thanks


----------



## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

boredom, most likely... if they're so eager to put things in bowls, maybe you can stimulate them a bit by training them to play basketball? give them some plastic cat balls they can hold with their teeth, and reward them when they interact with them, encouraging them to put them in the dish. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6F0bRTurPk


----------



## 750XL (Oct 3, 2011)

Just wondering if anyone elses rats do this? Watching mine at the moment running around gathering bits of shredded paper and putting it in their bowl, along with toilet roll tubes


----------



## binkyhoo (Sep 28, 2008)

To me this sounds like normal playing, My rats love to sort their stuff. I give hazel nuts to give them something to chew. One day I woke up and in the middle of the pen were a pile of old shells. I remember reading here, of a rat that used to find all the stached food from cage mates and put it back into the bowl. My Ba Ba lou likes to take the toilet paper rolls and pull them up on their hut to make a door. As long as they have stuff to move about that should be fine. IMO


----------



## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

Oh yes lol, rats do this. I have 1 rat who will take rat food blocks from my hand and go stash them in the food dish LOL


----------



## GhostMouse (Sep 6, 2011)

My Buster loves to arrange his cage. I give him old socks to nest with and I've found those covering the food dish multiple times. Toiled paper tubes go in the litter box, or sometimes on the ramp (he's got one wedged there now).

I suspect some of it is boredom as he currently lives alone. (We're in the middle of introductions.) I wonder if the food-covering isn't a way of making sure the food is hidden?

One of the pair I'm introducing him to likes to stuff his plastic cat ball into toilet paper tubes. I always find it stuffed into one when I clean the cage, but I've never seen which one does it.


----------



## leesha (Feb 15, 2010)

My girls always drag their bowl from the top shelf to their litter box, they're just being silly.


----------



## binkyhoo (Sep 28, 2008)

Kiko said:


> Oh yes lol, rats do this. I have 1 rat who will take rat food blocks from my hand and go stash them in the food dish LOL


Now that is one organized rat. Everything in its place and a place for everything!


----------

