Cat eating with her paws and other stuff....

My cat who I adopted early Dec. has some peculiar habits. Sometimes while eating she sticks her front paw in the wet food and then eats from the paw like it was a fork She gets the food all over the floor while walking on it.

Another habit she has is, she loves to knead and lick or suck the blanket she is sitting on while on my lap, the blanket gets all wet. When she kneads she kind of goes into a trance, purring and licking on the blanket. Has anyone heard of this, I know lots of cats knead but the licking too??

She is also afraid of me going towards her but she will come to me on her own and is fine with that. I adopted Autumn from a shelter and she is about two years old. What makes her do these things, anyone have any ideas

Well, I don't know why some kitties scoop wet food out of the dishes to eat it with their paws, but there are definitely a number of kitties on TCS that do this! Our Ming Loy won't eat her dry food out of the dish, but takes a mouthful of it, drops it on the floor, and then eats it. Don't know what's up with that either! Silly kitties!

Our Ming Loy also kneads and sucks - and she goes into a trance too. She just seems very, very, very content. The theory is that they were weaned too soon from mum. In Ming Loy's case, we know this is true - but if that's why they do it, I don't think anyone knows for sure.

Autumn is a beautiful kitty! As to the being afraid of going toward her - this is something that will probably change with time. Given that she's two years old, there's no way to really know what happened in her past. Could be a bad experience. I do know that when kitties that are indoors only escape outside, one of the tricks that works to recapture them is not approach them directly, but to sit down sideways to them and call them softly and let them come to you. Cats don't have such great vision - they can see movement really well though. Maybe it's just that she sees a big object moving toward her, not so much that it's you, you know?

Our Spooky was abused. Obviously they used to throw stuff over her, because for the first few years, whenever we got out our winter coats or changed the blankets on the bed, she would FLEE in fear, poor baby. She's seven now. Several times she's been on the bed when I was making it recently, and I accidentally threw a blanket over her - and it didn't phase her a bit.

Laurie

Thank you so much Laurie for your comments. At least now I know Autumn is not a crazy kitty From what the shelter told me, Autumn had been brought to the shelter 4 months before I adopted her, she had had a family but when the woman became pregnant she gave up the cat. Other than that I don't know any more of her past, whether she was abused or not, I have no idea. She is a sweet little thing but just has bad habits, I'm sure I will get used to them tho. She does come to bed at night but sleeps on top of the comforter and at the end of the bed using my legs as a pillow, she has not slept under the covers yet. Again thanks for you comments.

My Dharma also scoops her food out of the bowl and eats off the floor - I've tried flat plates and still she scoops. Sometimes she'll also scoop water from the fountain for herself.

I adopted Dharma when she was about four - she was picked up as a stray and spent maybe 4 months at the shelter/Petsmart. The Petsmart manager reminded me that kitties have good memories for many things, and it takes them a while to realize a situation has changed for good.

And, they're all different - my Dante is a snuggler and will sleep on top of me, but Dharma hates being picked up and has not once wanted to sit on my lap. But right now she's sleeping on the couch next to me. Go figure.

Autumn may never want to sleep under the covers. I've got a picture of Billy sleeping under the covers - but that was a one time thing. He likes to sleep on the pillow over my head - or kind of right on my head. Ming Loy only sleeps at the foot of the bed. Flowerbelle will sleep on us, or in the crook of a knee or something. Spooky loves to lie on the bed right next to us and be petted when we're awake, but won't sleep on the bed during the night, though if Ming Loy's not there, she'll sleep at the foot of the bed. Tuxedo LOVES sleeping on the bed - during the day, when we're not in it. Lazlo and Shel both sleep on the bed - Shelly snuggled up to me near my head - but Lazlo only sleeps on the bed if Billy's not on it. Otherwise he sleeps on the cat bed I have right next to the bed at bed height (had to provide the space because there's just too many cats!) Cats, right?

There have definitely been other kitties that love to stick their paws in water and lick the water off their paws. There's also (at least) one that's obsessed with dropping stuff in his water dish!

When it comes to wet food, Ming Loy will stick her paw in a dish - but only if it's someone else's dish, and what she's doing is pulling it away from the other cat so she can it eat. The funniest thing? They let her do it! Go figure!

Cats are definitely VERY entertaining and SO diverse in their personalities!

Laurie

LOL, Laurie your post made me chuckle. Cats will sleep anywhere they please I guess. Ya gotta love 'em.

Lucy also eats wet and dry food with her feet and cleans up after herself too!

The bed is Moose's domain; he sleeps under the covers with me every night. I know Lucy is dying to come up with me, but she knows better than to instigate a fight with Moose.

Beau also likes to scoop food AND water with his paws and eat it. Usually he'll paw the food out of the dish onto the floor and then eat it. He also sticks his paws in water and licks his paws. But I don't know if that's a eating habit of his, or if he just likes to play with water (I just got him a new fountain and he looooves to play in the water).