Serial Bucket Dumper

[centrarchid]

I have a rooster kept near house that has learned how to knock feed buckets over. He seems to have learned how to do it by accident by trying to get into almost empty buckets. Now he can tip buckets nearly 1/3 full and then calls hens and young over to cherry-pick / loot the contents. His mother has already displayed the ability to knock meal worm containers from my hands so she does not have to drop meal worms down to her chicks one at a time.

 

[microchick]

We have a cat that does the same thing with the big water bowl that we have for our 5 dogs and 5 cats. When the pan gets down to an inch or less of water, he stands on the edge and pushes down to tip the contents out. It's his way of saying "FRESH water, if you please!" He has flooded the kitchen more than once for us as he is a big boy about 16 pounds and likes to see if he can tip the bowl with more than an inch of water in it..

For your 'tipster' maybe you could try using a new metal garbage can complete with lid to solve your problem. The first time they do something like that it's cute. After the 5th or 6th time, the trick stops being cute and starts being annoying.

My mother used to say that animals are like children. Don't let them start any bad habit that you will have to break them of later. You will save yourself a lot of trouble that way.