He's probably covering it because he doesn't care for it. Picky appetite is a hallmark symptom of CRF. Just keep doing what you're doing and givie him whatever he's willing to eat. It may not be the ideal CRF diet, but it's always more important that a CRF cat eats something rather than that he eats the right thing.

Lots of things can cause inappetance in CRF cats: dehydration, constipation, electrolyte imbalances, anemia, excess stomach acid, etc. It's important to try to identify the potential cause(s) and address them appropriately.

Laurie

 

I don't know much about covering food. But you could always try force feeding for the times that he doesn't want to eat on his own. I did a little bit of research on it awhile back when one of my cats was sick, and there's a lot of good information and some really helpful personal stories online about force feeding. It's an irritating and messy solution to your problem but if your biggest concern is just getting food into him, force feeding might help him a lot.

 

For whatever it's worth, Murphy covers his dry food with his little toys all the time. If you take the toys out, you'll find them right back in the food the next time you go to the kitchen. Since he's so intent on doing it, I figured it must be something about covering his food out of instinct so that other predators don't take it from him. He never does it to his wet food, though!

 

Similar to the above post - Sassy covers her dry food (unfortunately normally with my dirty washing as it's nearby), then uncovers it and eats it later.

However, I must say I've never seen any of my 3 do that with wet food.....

EDIT - And I think I read in a borrowed cat book it's natural for them to cover food, protect it from predators. Similar reason why big cats hide food in trees.

 

This is a typical scene in the morning -- even the pole toys get in the action.