# Hoarding Food



## LadyVictorian (Jan 4, 2011)

So every time I fill up the food dish it seems like my rats eat all their food quickly because within the hour the dish is empty so I fill it up again. Well I just realized they have five days worth of food hidden in their house. Should i stop filling up the food dish and just check the house and then when the food is gone throw more food inside the house and toss the food dish?


----------



## RatMama13 (Aug 20, 2011)

My rats do the same thing! I just put the food in the dish anyway..they seem to have so much fun hiding it(each one has it's own hoard). either a. only feed one day's worth or b. just check the house and give them more when it's empty. That's what I do. They eat their treats quickly, but more things get hoarded so I just check their stashes and when they are gone i give them more


----------



## Kinsey (Jun 14, 2009)

Just make sure there's food in the stash. If it runs out, fill the food dish. I try to keep food in the dish as much as possible. My boys are much less apt to hoard than Rosebud was, so that is nice.


----------



## jinsfch (Jan 8, 2012)

I had one girl that hoarded like a compulsion. She would spend so much time packing it away. She didn't just take the food and dump it in a corner. She would find an empty box (every 2 weeks we changed the cage around we changed out the boxes) and she would place food in it then pack clean newspaper around it then do another layer and so on. It was cute. At that time we fed them pellets and would go through a bag of food in a week and a half all do to her hoarding. She was never greedy with the hoarding as any of the others could have free access to it but she would have to pack away any and all food in the dish.
When we cleaned the cage we would put all the pellets back into the bag and let her start over again. We figured it gave her a job to keep her busy. She also loved to build nest. She would keep us up all night tearing paper and building. What a wonderful little pain she was


----------



## giggles_mcbug (Sep 10, 2011)

One of my girls hoards food in the litterbox...gross. 

I wouldn't worry too much about food in the bowl, as long as they have plenty of food stashed away in their home. The only kind of food you might want to keep track of is fresh fruits and veggies, cooked food(chicken, eggs), or other sort of food stuffs that you really don't want sitting in the cage too long.


----------



## ratjes (Mar 26, 2011)

In my previous group I had a food hoarder so I put her to work during free ranging. I scattered the food for that night over the floor and she brought it back to her cage, trying to stuff as much in her mouth as possible (I am sure she would have envied hamsters). The others knew about her "secret" stash though and raided hers as soon as he left to get more.
It was hilarious. 
My current rats won't stash in their cage but in the couch so food is no longer being offered during free ranging. I miss my little hoarder.


----------



## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

My girls take their food back into their bed often. But if they don't eat it or decide they didn't like it they will push it back out sometimes even push it outside the bars! lol It is like they help clean their cage for me!

I was trying to get them out the other day and they picked up a piece of dried fruit and gave it to me like here take this we don't want it. lol So adorable. or they are dismissing me like the maid idk lol The only thing they will keep is seeds and cranberries. I am always finding cranberries everywhere!


----------



## LynziMarie (Jan 9, 2012)

My girls do the same thing! It's so funny! I put their food in the little dish and left the room for a bit. When I came back, like, three minutes later the dish was empty and the girls were hidden away in their little house stuffing it in the corners. So cute.


----------



## ratjes (Mar 26, 2011)

This is what I love so much about them; that greedy attitude. If I give them something good, they check my hands with their mouths full, to make sure I don't have more, before they stash their treasures. 
Rats make my every day.


----------



## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

Giggles, is it okay to give them meat?


----------



## ratjes (Mar 26, 2011)

shedevil7953 said:


> Giggles, is it okay to give them meat?


I do give them meat once in a while. Cooked chicken bones or pieces of ground beef in spaghetti sauce; quite the menu the girls have.


----------

