>We've had a rice box for around 9months and the kids LOVE it. >Interestingly enough, I hit on a better solution this weekend. Bear >decided to use the rice box as a litter box (of course, he has absolutely >no interest in using the real litter box [...] we hit upon popcorn. We also took on this project this weekend- the kids dig on the carpets and we wanted to give them an alternative so we went to Kmart and bought one of those big plastic storage bins- short enough so they can jump in and out but tall enough so things wouldn't spill out. After brainstorming for several days on best material to put in it we decided on.... dried pinto beans! Cheap at the grocery store and lovely to dig in. I also think they like the "massage" feeling on their feet because they seem to have gone wild digging in their bean box. The only thing was the beans were a little dusty so we ended up with 3 ferrets who looked like they crawled through the chimney- we then cleaned the beans off and now it's fine. The only thing is that I don't think they're having much luck tunneling underneath the beans- they may be a bit too heavy. So maybe popcorn is a good alternative- but the beans that get out (only a few) of the container don't roll around like popcorn would. So we'll keep them for now. Jaime :-) ===== Jaime [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 3144]