I had the exact same set up except I had 1/2 inch wire for the hopper. The babies could get through so obviously I had to change things around a bit. So they can still eat around the 1/4 wire? Also, I used to drop my bottles into my hopper, but after a while they figured out how to chew holes in the water bottle even with it in the hopper...so I moved mine to the outside. I put a washer on the inside and so far haven't had any problems (but its only been a couple of weeks). Looks great! Thanks for sharing!