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Post by jennybenny on Jan 12, 2024 14:31:23 GMT -8
Lily and Oreo immediately knock the bowl of food over so I stopped using it and just sprinkle it throughout the aquarium. I read they like foraging anyhow. Is there a reason this should not be done? Do other people use bowls or let them forage?
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Post by Markpd on Jan 13, 2024 9:54:01 GMT -8
Yes!..... oh, that's not helpful? Some people do actually do both, although not usually at the same time. Many people will let them forage, unless they're ill or need to monitor exactly what and/or how much they're eating, in which case they'll switch to a bowl. That's the snags with spreading the food through their bedding, you can't tell how much they're eating, or what parts of the food they're eating. Also the food can just be 'lost' within the bedding, that's what I found with my boys. So I do a 1/2 way house, which more or less allows me to see what they're eating (it is spread in shallow bedding, so a bit hard to see, but not impossible). So in my boys cage they have a couple of platforms and some glass ledges. The platforms have some bedding on there, so I spread about 3/4 of the food there (allows them to forage in shallow bedding), the rest I spread in patches on the glass ledges.
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Bowl
Jan 13, 2024 11:31:09 GMT -8
via mobile
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Post by jennybenny on Jan 13, 2024 11:31:09 GMT -8
I see. That is very helpful, thank you!
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Bowl
Jan 14, 2024 20:01:07 GMT -8
Post by TJ's Rodent Ranch on Jan 14, 2024 20:01:07 GMT -8
I actually do scatter feeding myself as I find that they always bury their foodbowl for 'food storage' then forget where they buried it, and then come begging for more. The only problem with scatter feeding is that you go through food much faster as it gets dispersed into the bedding. I know you were talking about adding platforms or a topper in another thread, which if you do you can scatter food on one of the platforms. This I have done and it seems to work pretty well.
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Bowl
Jan 15, 2024 6:39:16 GMT -8
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Post by betty on Jan 15, 2024 6:39:16 GMT -8
Same here - I mainly scatter feed (knowing how much is a portion and how often I have fed it) - but I also put the food in an obvious place if one presents itself - so on a platform, top ledge, empty dish/toy/tray. I do use bowls only for special food (for poorly gerbils - or for moist, powdery or dosed food) or when I am doing food experiments.
There is a decent amount of waste if you don't know your portions or you get a bit too generous, but I often miss a day here and there - knowing that there will be some spare food somewhere they can find (for enrichment) and on those days I always offer a decent piece of 'dry' veg or a pinch of something special like a few pumpkin seeds, live food or whatever instead.
I have many enclosures so I use a lot of food (and I mix a decent amount of it myself) - so I have run a few short term food experiments to see which bits are most likely left over throughout the week. I found out that a few things I was adding on purpose were almost never eaten and a few other things were gone in a flash that same day - so it helped me to better balance my foods. I could switch out the wasted bits which could reduce the overall amount I need to feed (for example: say I was feeding 10 units and they were not hungry enough to eat 2 of them - then I only need to feed 8 units anyway) and if they were over-eating the tasty bits (usually the more calorie-dense ones) - they weren't getting a well-rounded nutrition from the rest - so instead of 2 parts 'tasty' in each 10 unit portion - I would put just 1.
Having only 1 or 2 enclosures means you are more likely to have them on the same food for longer each time - as each commercially-made 500/700/900g bag lasts you for ever - so as long as they are eating most of it (and the enclosure with its hidden food isn't cleaned out too often) - the nutrition is near on balanced. But because I can plough through the equivalent of a bag a day sometimes, I have to be a bit more picky and think a bit more long term with what I put in it.
The things we do for them, eh?
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