Need Help With a Hoarder

[ZoeHale]

So I've gotten my girls all intro'd and in the same cage (thank god, I was sick of cleaning the old cage). They're getting along pretty well, aside from my poor little Bug getting scratched alot. She's so submissive, and when there's scuffles she gets scratches.

There's a bigger problem though. Beauty has the "only child" syndrome. She hoards all the food and throws little hissy fits whenever Lady or Bug take some from her stash to go eat. That's the main reason for the scuffles.

How can I help this?

 

[Rachael]

I've not found a way to stop them collecting their foods really.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Do you free feed? You can also make a habit of going around the cage at least once a day and moving and stashed blocks back to the food dish so the other girls don't have to "steal" them.

 

[SQ]

Also have food available at different levels in the cage, including food difficult to carry away such as mushy lab blocks.
Several times a day you can hand blocks to each girl as well..

 

[jorats]

Oh, you mean help with a stasher!
What I usually do and I have one now... Little Molly is the queen of stashing blocks so a few times a day I find the stash and unstash it.

 

[ZoeHale]

Kind of a funny update.. I did a cage scrub last night, and I found Beauty's new stashing spot.. She refuses to sleep in standard hammies, I don't know why, but apparently it's good for stashing food!

 

[jorats]

lol... they sure are. Molly one of my Noobs is a master stasher. All the food must go in the cube, in ifs ands or buts about it. I go several times a day and remove them, place back in the bowl then I sit and watch Molly go to work. It's good exercise for her.

 

[SQ]

Cindy used to stash the food in one particular litter box. She would even grab food from other ratties while they were eating it, run with the rattie she had just grabbed the food from on her heels and stash it in her litter box. She didn't mind if the others ate the food ... as long as it stayed in her litter box ... Beware any rattie that removed food from the litter box ... but it was fine with her if they sat in the litter box and ate the food .... guess the litter box was her version of the kitchen table :wink:

Rhubarb is my current stasher, removing all food and dragging it off to his favorite litter box. Fortunately, once it is there he isn't concerned about where it goes or who eats it. I guess he thinks it is his job to "put the groceries away".

 

[AmyMeowCat]

My Sakura was a stasher when I first got her and her daughter Yuki. I started by giving them blocks, and that's what she would take, she loved to hide them under the spout for the water, then wouldn't eat them once they were mushy. I eventually changed foods to a "rat mix" with seeds and stuff in it, that ended the stashing. Also got them a bigger dish helped. I figured maybe she saw the small dish and thought they would run out. Just a thought and my 2 cents.

 

[xxchelle]

Just so you know, seed mixes aren't good for ratties at all. Good lab blocks are much better

Here are some good threads: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8675
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12402

 

My uneutered boys never stash. Sometimes my neutered boys will stash in thier house (they will never fight over it though) and my girls ALWAYS stash the food, as soon as the food goes in the cage, it's being carried away. Same goes for treats. So if I give them veggies, I have to give them veggies outside the cage, if not they will stash them away.

 

[Chevalrose]

Onyx is a stasher, but has become less adamant about it now that he realizes I take his stash away. One day I saw him start to stash and every time he put a block in his spot, I'd take it and put it back in the bowl as he was on his way back to take another. He ended up taking the same block over and over for a good 2-3 minutes until he finally gave up.

 

[AmyMeowCat]

Just so you know, seed mixes aren't good for ratties at all. Good lab blocks are much better

Here are some good threads: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8675
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12402

Ah, thank you. I was not aware of all that. Good to know I love this site, it is full of such wonderful information and people

 

[lj]

Hee hee. We all have a stasher in our mixes don't we?