How do you feed your business?

[Skiff]

I didn't want to put this in the Natural diet sections as its not actually about diet, just couldn't think of another way to phrase it lol. What I mean by "How do you feed your business?" is, when it comes to dinner time, do you give them each separate portions in separate bowls or do you just stick it all in one bowl?
I'm asking because I was looking to get some new food bowls for them and they can move the smaller ones about, they keep throwing them down the ramp to the bottom floor which could break them but also makes a lot of noise in the middle of the night. If I get a bigger, heavier bowl, and just put enough food for 3 in it, will they be ok sharing? I guess if one is greedy now and finishes there is nothing stopping them from taking food from another's bowl anyway, so would a single large bowl work?

[Deleted]

Would it be possible to try feeding them in separate areas? Multiple heavy dishes throughout the cage? I feel like you would have to monitor them closely while feeding to make sure everyone gets their fair share. I only have Enzo right now, but I would be afraid to feed him with another ferret, because he is so guarding of his food!

[Sherry]

I just toss the meat on the floor of the upper level of the cage. If you however are feeding kibble get a crock lock, which attaches to the side of the cage.

[raynebc]

I used to use a ceramic plate, but my big goof Rusty got into the habit of flipping every meal over and making a mess so I switched to using a standard metal pet bowl (wide base that slopes inward toward the top). He can't flip it over and it's big enough for my four ferrets to huddle around.

[Skiff]

I currently do feed them separately but if one finishes quickly there is nothing stopping them trying to muscle in on someone else's dinner, and maybe they do, but all 3 are healthy so I don't think feeding them separately is a massive issue, its just whether or not they would fight over a meal from 1 large bowl or just get on with it that I'm curious about.
My guys are outdoors ferrets, so they are in a hutch, there's no way I could really place a crock lock (I assume this is a bowl attached to the bars), they are all on a raw diet anyway, not kibble. I assume you put the meat together and the fuzzies take what they want?
I'm currently using a ceramic bowl for each of them but might try the metal sloped bowl, although as that's lighter do they not still push it about and try to flip it?

[raynebc]

He pushes it around a bit, or sometimes covers it up with something, but he can't flip it over. All 4 of them have the same frankenprey diet so I just portion enough so that there's typically enough food to not run out too quickly and let them each eat however much they want. Mine don't fight over the food but sometimes the ladies will grab a piece and take it to a box or a tunnel to eat in private.

[RedSky]

Normally I just use the one bowl, but it depends what it is. With whole prey, I just toss it in, or if it's just one lump (like a chicken wing) I just throw it in, it won't stay in the bowl long anyway. I normally feed one piece if I can, but sometimes they get a few bits, like with heart and organ meals (I feed heart and organs together) so I chop it up into bits in the hopes that they will get more of equal amounts of each. But if I just feed a meal of heart I will drop in a chunk of lamb heart for them to share. And since that sort of meat is more 'bloody' I put it in a bowl, I don't want it making a mess of their blankets before they even get to it. Plus Korra likes to lick up all the liquid out of the bowl.

But mine generally do share, very little if any aggression over food. Maybe if they were hissing and arguing over it I would do if differently, with a piece each they can run off with... But they don't.

I think the best thing to do is trial and error. Try one big heavy bowl, you can hand them a lump of food each if it doesn't work.

[crazylady]

Hi I just use one large heavy bowl for a group(6) but if feeding kits (I have two sets of three and one set of two ) the three girls are quite happy to eat from one bowl and they are all around the same weight so no one is missing out the second set 1 poley hob and two albino jills I have to give two bowls as the poley hob even though still a kit is a pig lol he steals from the girls if I don't give two bowls so he is heavier than them well for now lol the two poley hob kits both have a separate bowl each as they are like there brother total pigs when it comes to food each bowl is placed well apart from the other and they seem fine with this system before I did this I noticed one was slightly heavier than the other but now they are both around the same weight lol good luck take care bye for now
Bev