Got ceramic bowls...and he's still driving me crazy

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RayniasPiggies

My bigger boy, Axel, loves to flip the food dishes. He flipped the plastic ones over entirely, so I bought some ceramic cat dishes. They are slightly rounded on the bottom. I would have bought the better kind with the squared off bottom, but I couldn't find them at the store.

Well, with the new dishes, he hasn't successfully tipped them upside down. But he sure does fling them around to the point where food spills out. And he bangs together the two ceramic dishes. I'm so afraid they will break if he keeps it up. Plus it's so noisy, I can hear then clanging all the way downstairs (they are on the upper level, and this is with the door shut). I considered trying the kind of dishes that attach to the sides of the cage, but I don't think they can reach them if I did that. Plus Axel seems to be so strong, I worry that he may find a way to pull those down as well.

Is there a way I can anchor down the dishes? Or perhaps add weight to the bottom of them? I thought about using velcro. I even considered tape, but I wouldn't want him to ingest that. I love him, but he's driving me crazy, lol. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
If all else fails, I've known someone to use a house brick as a bowl - with the food in the trough bit. Try and tip that!

I've never had one that tips bowls but 2 boys that came in last week do it every single meal time. They don't even finish the food first.... :{

Sophie
x
 
I have 6" oblong "oven bowls" mine can't tip them over but 2 of them use their front legs as oars & paddle their food out - can't win :)) :))
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I also tried planting them down further into the bedding so that less of the bowl lip sticks out. So far so good, but I probably jinxed it now by saying that. :x
 
RayniasPiggies said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I also tried planting them down further into the bedding so that less of the bowl lip sticks out. So far so good, but I probably jinxed it now by saying that. :x
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haha, I use woodshavings in my cage at the moment (soon to upgrade to fleece or vetbed) and I tried this. all it acheived with my 2 is getting filled with a layer of sawdust on top of the food when they had a popcorning session mallethead :))
 
Niki said:
I have 6" oblong "oven bowls" mine can't tip them over but 2 of them use their front legs as oars & paddle their food out - can't win :)) :))
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I second the oven dishes! The ones I have are about 7 inches long and 3 inches wide. Piggies can't tip them at all, way too big and heavy for them. However, they can sit in them...
 
We use the small metal domed dog bowls with the rubber bottom. This has been very successful. I have also seen plastic dog bowls with such a wide rim that they have to stand on to get near the food. Cant tip if you stood on it.

hope this helps
 
I recently bought a couple of bowls out Ikea - it's a larger pink one with a smaller blue one. They were only about £1.49 for the 2 and they have been great - girls have still to tip them.
 
Thanks, these are all great suggestions. I like the idea of the metal dog bowl. I need something that Axel can't grip onto with his teeth (as this is his strategy for flinging them around) and I think that would do the trick.
 
Me too!

I'm totally having this problem and it is absolutely driving me insane! I had one of the automatic feeders for pellets AND for hay that attached to side of the cage. Well he likes to burrow under those then he would jump and keep jumping until he had butted his head up against it so many times they just broke. So I thought, hey, I'll get some heavy ceramic food dishes. Nope, bad idea as well! I've literally watched him carefully reach to other end of bowl and tip it over with his teeth and then chase it around the cage! He obviously prefers his food on the floor! I tried to reteach him but it's a pointless waste of time! I know this may sound funny to some readers but to me it's making me irate. I know he's a helpless animal blah blah but he's contaminating all his food and all but breaking ceramic dishes!
 
I have seen pictures of someone using those soap dishes. They are really wide and flat so easier for pigs to get to the food and harder to flip over
 
my pigs flip their bowls daily ... I dont mind that

when they flip my porcelain plates ... I do mind that! ha only did it once ... they fipped my plate in the yard on concrete .. luckily didnt do any damage
 
Buy a big ceramic dog bowl. You can use it for every thing and it will be so big, more than one pig can sit in it at once! Or you can buy a ferret crock that you hang to the side of the cage. But then the piggies wouldn't have the fun of sitting in their bowls. But what ever works.
 
What about getting rid of the bowls completely? My 2 boars fight over the bowls whenever they had them even though I had 2 bowls at either end of the cage. Now I just scatter feed everything, their hay, pellets and fresh veg. No bowl tipping and no arguments for my 2 :)
 
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