It s not unusual for cats to hide their food but if it becomes an obsession for him or if he s taken to dragging your delicate sofa doilies to his food bowl cat behavior associates has a few tips.
Why does my cat scratch the floor by her food bowl.
Give him smaller portions so he doesn t have leftovers pick up the food bowl when he s finished eating distract him with play when he starts scratching at the floor or place his food in.
Only feed him enough for one meal at a time.
Therefore avoid this to help her out.
Sometimes i would go through 3 or 4 cans of cat food being scratched at before the cat would eat someth.
If i saw him actually eating food he s tossing on the floor i d feel better about scooping it up 3x a day and putting it back in the bowl so his sister can eat but he s just tossing it and then has nothing left in the bowl to eat and meows at me to put the food in the bowl.
If there was a paper towel or other easy to move object near the food dish she would probably cover her food with it moving it by scratching and pulling at it with her claws.
Scratching around the food bowl is a common behaviour in cats which is completely normal.
She scratched at the first one and ate the second so i now interprete the scratching as her saying this smells like my poo since she will eat other foods she deemed worthy.
If you free feed leaving a food bowl full of kibble out all the time this will only encourage the behavior.
Why do cats dig and scratch around their food bowl.
As was mentioned below they usually scratch around their food bowl either after eating or before if they don t like what you are feeding them.
Another theory is that as cats in the wild tend to eat where they sleep they don t want a rotting carcass lying around.
I experimented with 2 snacks one she liked and one she didn t.
When she was a kitten i had to keep the water and food bowls separated because if the.
The most effective way to stop the behavior is to take his food bowl away from him when he s done eating.
It took me years to understand why my cat gracie does that.
If the bowl is gone he won t have anything he needs to cover up.
She makes a mess.
What is floor pawing in cats.
Your cat is scratching around her water bowl because she is trying to gauge the difference from the surface to the ground.
My lani does this with food she doesn t like.
So now you know why your cat may scratch around her water bowl.
The pawing and digging is an example of instinctive behavior meaning your cat probably didn t learn it from its mother.
Many cats will scratch paw or knead the ground around their food bowl before or after eating.
Ditty s motivation for scratching the floor and wall around her food after she eats differs from why she s scratching the wall after using her litterbox.
Gracie has always scratched and clawed on and around the bowl before she drinks.