# Food & Water Dish Woes...



## SalaamDementia

The past week I've been waging war with my little hedgie boy. Destroying and re-arranging their cage at night seems to be a pretty common hobby of most hedgehogs. Sonic is a true pro at this, but my worry is that he is dragging around his food and water dishes, flipping them over and even somehow managing to stack them on top of each other... :roll: 

I don't really mind him making messes, I clean it up for him each morning. What worries me is he is blocking himself from either food or water. He does have a water bottle that his previous owners were using with him, which I'm trying to wean him off - but I worry about taking it out of his cage until he stops deciding to dump his water dish every night. 

So - my question, what do you suggest for a sturdy food and water dish? I've tried 3 different kinds - 

- Small, heavy ceramic bowls - which he just flipped upside down and pushed around the cage.
- Wide based cat dishes - he stacked them on top of each other...
- Small, deep cereal bowl (what he came to me with) - he decided this was an awesome house and slept in it.

I was thinking of getting a bowl I could clip to the cage, but don't know if that would be too awkward for him to try and eat or drink from.


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## alyssinreality

Is he on fleece liners? If so maybe he is burrowing under them and that is what is allowing him to dump the bowls, that's what my guy does. So now I just don't put the bowls on top of the liner. I flip back a corner and set them just on the coroplast. Now he has no problem and he even enjoys the little flipped back corner to sleep under.


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## SalaamDementia

He is on fleece, I have his bowls in a corner that the liner doesn't go under. I've watched him do it a few times - he shoves his nose under the bowl itself or climbs into it (even the tiny bowls I would think he wouldn't want to try and squeeze into).


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## Nebular

I'm not sure about tip-proof food bowls, but you could try a reptile waterer for your water needs. It's basically a bowl that fills from a bottle. It has a nice flat, wide base with no lip so they can't get their snouts under it to flip it over. About they only thing they could do is try to knock it over by ramming the bottle, but it's relatively heavy when it's filled and has a high centre of gravity, so they *shouldn't* be able to knock it over... but leave it a hedgie to come up with some cunning way of doing it. :roll:


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## SalaamDementia

Ooh, I like that idea. Thank you! I'll have to make a trip to the pet store and see if that will work for my little guy. 

My boyfriend has attempted an interesting method of putting a hole through a food dish and then zip tying it to his cage. We'll see how that works tonight...


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## LindseyPronk

Ok i just finishing going thru the same thing.. Emmett cut his foot, i'm guessing on his wheel so re took it out for a few days, that's when the craziness started.. He started to "rearrange" his cage 2-3 times a day Water and food dish always the first things flipped.. after 3 different water dishes we finally found one that works. I'm not sure where you like, but stores like pet cetra or Mr. Pets sell them.. There ceramic dishes, so there a bit heavier, but one side is lower than the other.. We have fleece liners to and don't find it an issue.


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## LindseyPronk

Ok me again.. pretty sure this is the one i have.. 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/1/1/16641-living-world-ergonomic-dish-small-pets.html


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## SalaamDementia

Ah, those seem like they would be perfect! Even looks like I can order online, sweet! Thank you, I believe you've solved my problem.


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## Nicole753

I can't help much with the water dish, but with the food dish I had the same problem. I ended up getting this wide, shallow ceramic dish from Pet Valu that y Dexter will still try to flip sometimes but can't because it is so wide and heavy. Here's is the one I use - it's pretty cute too. It's maybe about 5 inches wide or so?

http://www.petvalu.com/in-our-store...ccessories/bowls-and-feeders/teeny-bones-bowl


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## LindseyPronk

Have you been able to solve the food and water dish problems since?


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