Possessive Over Food

[Jherek]

So my girls have been together a while now and in general they all get along well. However, Chloe, my first girl, is intent on being the dominant one and has become possessive over her food. She gets into little fights with all of them (even Lucy now, who she was living with before with no problems) and will repeatedly steal their food from their hands and take it back to the food dish. >.> It's resulted in a few nicks for the other girls, nothing serious, but it's driving me nuts. Any suggestions?

 

[SQ]

You could try to always make sure there is lots of food available in all food dishes and provide 2 or 3 food dishes on different levels of the cage.

 

[Jherek]

Ah, I'll try it. It's only when the food first goes in - she runs around and yanks it from everyone's hands and puts it back in the food dish. I free feed, so there's always plenty of food for them. I will try putting it in multiple dishes, but her issue is not not being able to get at the food herself.

 

[LA]

I had this problem with my Hazel, although she would make piles of it and horde the food elsewhere. We constantly broke up the piles and put it back in the bowl and finally she got the point not to horde and let others eat. But her putting it back in the bowl, not sure, maybe put it elsewhere instead of the bowl as well. I don't know.

 

[jorats]

I had one of those. My sweet Simon became a monster when food was around. The blocks, not a problem but when the veggies were put down watch out. So I had to take Simon put him in another corner of the cage with his own little dish of veggies.
What you could try, when setting down their food, take out the dominant one so she can see that the others eat first, then she can eat after. See if she puts two and two together. Grabby with food, means removal.

 

[Jherek]

Will do that, thank you for the suggestions! :]