[silly]

Silly "buries" his food. He paws at the ground in front of it as if he's covering it up. I'm just wondering what this is about, and if there's some way I could make him feel more secure. Also, sometimes he makes a mess when he does it, with dry food flying everywhere. Does anyone else have this issue with their cat?

 

[snowy]

Umm...my cat does that too, whenever I gave too much that he cant finish at one go, whenever he isn't hungry and whenever he doesn't like the food. So, I feed very little now, about 2tbs of wet food or 1tbs of kibbles, so he stopped. My kitty has a habit of getting me add 1/4tbs of kibbles into his wet food, if he doesn't get it, he will bury. I just need to add that kibbles into his food, he will go back to eat. So, knowing his habits helps and he hardly bury now.

 

[silly]

Oh, that's interesting. Thanks for your input.

 

[3furbabies]

My youngest does this. But she only does this after eating wet food when she is full. She will scratch at the floor beside her food dish as if she wants to bury the un eaten food. Not sure why she does this though. Only started it recently.

 

[OctoberinMaine]

Murphy does the mock-burying next to his food, but he also covers his dry food with all of his little mouse toys. If I take the mouse toys away and spread them around the house, they're back in his bowl the next day. Crazy kitties.

 

[OSCARSMOM]

Oscar pretty much likes anything and will eat it at one go. Felix was much more picky. He would almost always eat everything, but once in awhile, if I gave him something that he didn't like, he would bury it and then turn and give me "the look". In this circumstance "the look" meant, "Why are you trying to feed me something that should be buried in the litterbox with the other "waste"?"

 

[snowy]

Seriously, I think cats are kinda funny, different cats have different style, different pattern, lol..

 

[3furbabies]

Well in my cats case it's definitely because she is full. I gave her a new wet food that she loved. Ate tons of it and she did the bury thing again and walked away but came back later for more.

 

[hal1]

A cat behaviorist explained they do it to save their leftovers and to not let any other prey animals know a predator is in the area. That does not seem like a "new food" behavior to me.

Yes, they're covering up the smell (or they were 3,000 years ago) so as to not let attract or let other animals know they're there.

Also, cleaning after eating is not necessarily to clean themselves, but to get their food smell off them.

 

[jusjim]

Missy does the food cover bit when she's off her food or it's something she doesn't like. Sometimes if the can has been open a couple of days even though it's been in the fridge ever since being opened. Today she did it with some tuna -- but it was lousy tuna that I was hoping to get her to eat up. She did it (also with tuna) a couple of weeks ago. Then she was angry and banged her foot down on the plate before doing the cover bit and stalking off. I use the tuna to get her to take her Metamucil. However, she's getting old and does have digestive problems.

If it's dry food try another brand. A number of years ago I was feeding a stray with cheap dry. I decided to upgrade and put out two rows, one of each kind. The better row was eaten, the other left.