Turning lab block to dust...

[Mitch21]

I have my colony in a large tub with a 1/4in food hopper. They seem to turn at least half of their lab block into dust with a few days. Anyone have any advice on how to stop your rodents from turning their food into dust?

[Jeff Krupa]

Mine are actually in a bowl and they take out a block at a time and finish like half of it. They come back later and eat the other half. I only put 2 or 3 each in there every day. I havent had any problems with uneaten blocks.... Maybe they have access to too much thats why they waste it ????

[littleindiangirl]

They're bored or stressed. What do they have to chew on and wear down their teeth with? Do you give them anything to keep them busy?

[Mitch21]

They've got a wheel and wood blocks for chewing... And theyre off in the corner of my room, so I can't imagine they would be stressed much.

[Darkice]

What temps do you have them at? They could be stressed because of cold. Or maybe over crowded?

[greghall]

Just don't give them a ton of block,limit what you give them.even if they had a mini circus to keep them occupied they would chew block because i think they like it:p

[mechnut450]

i only giv the asf about 4 little rodent blocks and some seeds but i also have cardboard tubes for them to chew on and wooden blocks and they don't chew though th waterbottles now lol.. Ialso gave then 2 ol bowl with a hole to use as hides and they love them lol. I watch them run for the bowls to hide in when I walk in the room.

[RandyRemington]

Do they use their wheel (i.e. it’s not stuck or some how doesn’t work for them)? The last time I heard of dust makers the guy said wheels fixed the problem for him. I've been lucky and mine haven't started doing that. I have them in the big Home Depot concrete mixing tubs and have yet to find a low enough profile wheel but they have wood blocks to chew (and they use them) and lots of room and they climb on the bottom of the hardware mesh. Actually they have to jump up a bit to get to the top where the food is so maybe that helps keep down idle food wasting.

I wonder if it helps at all that I also give a little bird seed daily. The guy I got them from reported that the babies grow faster with some seed and they seem to like it even though they always have the Mazuri 6F available. Maybe there is some extra thing they crave from the seeds? I just brought back a bucket of soybeans from my dad’s farm so will be interesting to see how they like that as a treat.

[Beardedragon]

I have one tub that always does it, one option is to get smaller screens to chew through, if you cant do that then just do not replace the food until the next cleaning. Im not sure but I would think that they hate eating their now chewed up pee swelled food and do not do it was much anymore.

[Somed00d]

i have one tub of asf's like that. i just give them a little each day about the same amount my other tubs usually eat in a day.