Hi there Lisa!
 
My youngest, Buster, does the same thing with food. Luckily, for the most part
the food stays in the cage and the boys 'vacuum' it up themselves. However,
when I got my first carpet shark, Gushi, he liked to play with the kitty
litter, which usually sent him into sneezing fits and got pretty messy/gross!!
Myself and my roommate at the time, finally got the idea of using newspapers in
 the bottom of the litterbox with a bit of kitty litter to help absorb the
pee and smell and then cut a piece of fairly heavy plastic grating and placed
that on top. We made sure there were no rough edges - no one can play with the
litter or the papers and I just wash the whole litterbox once a week with HOT
water, a bit of bleach and a bit of lysol to kill those nasty germs. I rinse it
 thoroughly, dry it off with paper towels and start anew!
 
Hope this helps at least with the poopie box!
 
George and the gang!
[Posted in FML issue 0995]