Kitty Acting Strangely Around New Food Dish

I bought Boo a new food and water dish - mostly because I'm adopting a new kitten in one week and want to keep things separate. However, Boo is acting oddly. When I put her food in front of her, she started scratching all around the food and water bowl and would not eat for hours. Every time she goes to the bowls, she starts scratching all around it (the floor, the mat, the wall). Why is she doing this?

If you didn't wash the bowl, it might still smell like the store. If it is plastic, even though you washed it the bowl may still have strange smells on it. Try running it through the dishwasher to make sure it is extra clean.

Also...one of my cats refuses to eat out of anything other than her ugly orange plastic dish. Everyone else eats from ceramic bowls, but she refuses!

i don't feed out of plastic. My cats prefer glass or ceramic. Plastic has an odd smell and if it cracks it can harbor bacteria for the longest time. Before I got the pet fountain, my best water bowl was this huge ceramic dip and chip bowl. The cats loved it.

The bowls are ceramic and I washed them very well. She does the same thing whenever I spray catnip on something.