rats wasting food??

So i just clean my rat rack today, and i found out that there were so many food in the tub!. They just chew through the hardware cloth to grab the food and just left it in the tub! This pisses me off! lol! Those food are expensive! It seems like there is only one tub of rats do that. Is there anything i can do about it? This never happened before.

I had one tub of rats, not sure WHY they did it or which one(s) did it but they always caused a leak with their water bottle. I would have to clean the wet, soggy cage daily. At first I was dumbfounded, every water bottle I put in there would be empty later and the tub soaked. One or more was stuffing bedding into the nozzle.

I finally got fed up and decided to co2 them off. I felt bad but that couldn't go on anymore.

So, my advice is, give them some wood chews, maybe it'll help? Give them less food in the hopper so less is wasted.

And if they aren't your pets and continue to waste the food, u could always co2 them. I hope they stop for ya so you don't have to co2 healthy rats like I did

What gauge of cloth are you using? I know it is not the easiest thing to do but any rodents that consistently cause problems are put down. I've found in the past, rodents that are chew, for example, will influence others to do the same, IMO it is a smart idea to put them down, from a breeding point of view.

Agree with the others, these guys would go as feeders if any of mine did this. Are you using mesh thats larger than 1/2"x1/2"? I f you may need to redo the area where the food sits. I tried 1/2"x1" on my first rack because I had it on hand already. The rats were able to get the pellets through and do their typical hording thing, which was one of the problems I was trying to get away from. Switched to the smaller mesh and haven't had a problem since.

ok thanks guys

i will keep an eye on them

I used 1/2"X1/2" for all of them, and never had any problems until lately.