Congrats! Such a special moment, isn't it?

I agree with the others: Feed larger. I made this same mistake for the first few months. I simply did not believe that my BP could eat something as big around as her widest point. But they can. And should. This is a common new owner mistake.

So mine went from this as a baby:



To this as an adult:




As for the bedding, you could switch to newspaper or paper towel. Something others do is put down paper towel right where they will be eating. Something still others do (and can start an argument!), including myself, is feed in a separate enclosure.