Scratching at food like it's litter

Hi everyone.

My kitten Max (4 months old) has this habit that perplexes me. Whenever he eats, once he's done, he scratches around the food mat like he's trying to cover something up (as he would do in a litter box.) I've seen my other cats do this *occasionally* but only when we tried a new food with them that they didn't like. They often wouldn't eat the food at all, and since Max eats all of his, I don't think that's it.

Does anyone have a clue? Is he trying to clean up or does he hate his food? I've hesitated with switching foods because he appears to enjoy the food otherwise.

He is trying to cover it up to save it for later. They do this in the wild so other animals won't find there food and they can cover there trail He doen't hate his food. My cats are all ferals and they alllllllllll do it. We call it "paw pawing"

Our Charm does the exact same thing. She goes a bit further sometimes and scoops some of her food into the waterdish side of the dishes. Silly girl. I was trying to break her of this habit, but she's almost 7 months old now and is still doing it. Glad to hear she's not alone with the attempts to cover her food, though.

Well I just learned something today! My Scarlett does this all the time and we could never figure out if she didn't like the food or was just trying to be fastidious! She is also the one that tells us when the litter box needs cleaning by going in there and burying everyone else's poops. Thanks for the info!

This is very interesting, thanks for the reply. It's so cute when he does it but I was worried he was unhappy with my food selection. Glad to see that's not the case!

Thank you all for replying to the scratching around the food issue. My adorable grey tabby of 6 months does this almost every time he eats....and I thought it was stress-related, but he's a very happy kitty. Anyone else who can drop me a quick note to share more on this subject would be appreciated, as I need to hear more. I have another, really critical question on FIV, so if you have the time please look for my post on that subject, because he is positive and I've read some conflicting data. Thanks much, Elizabeth