We used to have one of those J style bin feeders, then came the girls... Mitsy just could not eat unless every last piece of food was on the cage floor. At that time the food was on the same level as the litter box. As if having the food everywhere was not bad enough, when she had dug all she could from the feeder, she would then do her best to throw all the litter out of the box too, and I don't think I need to tell any of you how much ferret food costs.... Last summer I bought one of those large ceramic dog food dishes from the dollar store to put water in for Mitsy to play with(she is our one and only water weasel. When the temps started to finally come down last summer, I went to remove the dish, and realized how deep and wide it was. Now, if I put a fair amount of food in the bottom(absolutely no more than half full), she can dig to her little hearts content, and not make a mess! I also moved the food dish to a higher level of the cage to keep litter from getting mixed in. Problem solved! Now, if I could only stop her from trying to pull up the carpet runners from all around the house to try to dig at her favorite spots on the rugs...... Lisa Stinky, Pepper, Mitsy(who me?) and Pristine [Posted in FML issue 3861]