My Ernie also would knock at the bowl of water.  I put their food and
water in one of those combo dishes.  Ernie would nudge at the water side
so that water would slosh into his food as well as the bottom of the cage
or carpet (depending on where the dish was).  I asked on the FML quite a
while ago if he was purposefully doing this to get his food wet to make it
soft (I thought he might be having teeth problems) and someone said I was
perhaps reading too much into what he was doing - that ferrets liked to
play with their water.  After I moved into my new place (room in someone's
house) I didn't want him ruining the carpet with the water so I hung a
water dish and filled both sides of the dish with food.  He doesn't knock
at the dish anymore but _loves_ it when I put water in one of the dishes
to make the food soggy.  Soooo . . .
 
On another ferret psychology note.  I have not been spending much time at
home these past few weeks and have noticed that Ernie is not using the
litter box any more.  He will go right up to the box but poop outside of it.
He has always done this but it's more pronounced now that I can't shower
him with affection.  Guess he's trying to tell me something.  Yes, I feel
bad.
 
Pamela K. Barber and Ernie "Hey Mom, can I get more water in here?", Grover,
and Elmo "Eeewwh, what's this gross soggy stuff in here?!"
Flagstaff, AZ
[Posted in FML issue 1357]