Pawing at the floor?

delilah_blue

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I feed my kitties their wet food in the evening, and I've noticed 3 of the 4 four of them pawing at the laminate floor in my kitchen after they've finished eating. They don't do it every day, but between the three of them I notice it fairly regularly. Why do they do this? They don't seem to be scratching the floor, they're just making a digging motion.
 

jean44

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Originally Posted by beandip

It's instinct. They are "burying" it so nothing else will "steal" it. That's my take on it, anyway.
Mine do that too.
That's my understanding of it. Tiggy has started doing that since I introduced wet food to their diet. I've never seen him do it with dry food. I guess he never felt a need to hide the dry food to prevent theft.
 

mooficat

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Miss Moofs & Pepsi does that, its the burying thing, the only reason they do it, is because Mr Hoover Face Features Dino cant stand to leave any food what-so-ever and they want to hide their food from him
 

walthamstowuk

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Ahh my cats do this too, I thought it was because they didn't like the food and were trying to bury it?! (Although they generally do eat it all)

But either way, its the instinct thing.
 

cercia

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Some cats investigate surfaces by pawing them gently. But Ive only seen them do it to very soft surfaces, like duvets. Maybe they need to go to the loo?
 

alleygirl

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My cat used to paw at the water dish. No idea why, but she would paw at it several times before, and during, having a drink from it. I had to get a super heavy duty ceramic dish so she wouldn't keep tipping it over. never did figure out why she did it.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by PaulaS

My cat used to paw at the water dish. No idea why, but she would paw at it several times before, and during, having a drink from it. I had to get a super heavy duty ceramic dish so she wouldn't keep tipping it over. never did figure out why she did it.
I have a few that paw at the water, and they each have different ways of doing it. Leopold paws at the surface. I figure he's checking the depth
. Pumpkin and Pixel paw at the sides, or at the air around the dish, while they drink. It's funny to watch. They were both weaned abruptly at 4 wks...the pawing while drinking seems like a comfort thing with them.
 

alleygirl

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I think my cat that pawed at the water was weaned too early also. I don't know the exact age but she was a very tiny thing when I got her, with her eyes still blue. The people really wanted to get rid of them and didn't want to keep them around a few more weeks, so that may be part of the reason for her pawing too.
 

luxum

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Rajah does that after eating, she's definitely trying to bury the leftover food. I'm feeding her on carpet at the moment and she has to have one of those mats under the food bowl or she'll tear up the carpet near the bowl and cover the food with carpet fuzz.
 

ldg

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It's usually the instinct to bury the food they're not going to eat.


You can put down a handkerchief under the bowl as well. If they flip this up over the food, it (often) makes them feel like they did the job.


Laurie
 

heddafish

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My sister's cat covers (paws) his food after he uses the litter box. It makes no sense since the litter box is in an entirely different room. He also drinks from his paw and not out of the bowl (he laps the water up in his paw and drinks it out). But all in all he is a weird cat so we just attribute it to his eccentric nature.
 

katachtig

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Originally Posted by WalthamstowUK

Ahh my cats do this too, I thought it was because they didn't like the food and were trying to bury it?! (Although they generally do eat it all)

But either way, its the instinct thing.
Lucy will do that when she just doesn't like it. Much does it after she's done and there is a little left.
 
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