Why does my cat drop puff balls in her water bowl?

cassiecalypso

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Nov 21, 2013
Messages
19
Purraise
10
For whatever reason, my cat enjoys carrying a puff ball toy to her food area, dropping it into the water bowl, and then picking it back up and dropping it in her food bowl where it stays until she feels like putting it her water again.  If you take it out and clean it and throw it in the other room, it still ends up there again.  SHe doesn't do it all the time, but every now and then she does it constantly for a few days until I guess she forgets about the toy and moves on to something else.  It's just kind of bizarre.  Why do they do that?
 

poppy0109

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
214
Purraise
1
Location
Michigan
My Teddy does that with his chirpy little bird toy.  I find it in his food bowl all the time.  I imagine that he says this to himself, "I'm having so much fun playing with this toy....OH, I'm hungry, but I don't want to drop my toy, but I want to eat right now, but my toy, no my food, no my toy....."  LOL
 

poppy0109

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
214
Purraise
1
Location
Michigan
I got a litter one, but clean. 
  Teddy has a separate smaller litter for him to roll around in that is clean.  I've found toys in that.
 

jadeleaf

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Oct 12, 2014
Messages
57
Purraise
7
I've read somewhere that when cats put things in their water, it's to make the water move so that it doesn't go stagnant.  That's why some cats apparently paw at their water bowl before drinking.   It could be that, or it could be just the cat is a bit quirky and thinks it's funny.
 

BonitaBaby

Emotional Support Cat "Owner"
Alpha Cat
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
654
Purraise
351
Location
California
 
Better than the litter box which is what my kitty sometimes does.  Eww
 
I got a litter one, but clean. 
  Teddy has a separate smaller litter for him to roll around in that is clean.  I've found toys in that.
Oh, so the ping pong ball I found in the clean-ish litter box is nothing then. I was wondering what that meant...then thought she wanted "baby" to go potty...I think the balls are just toys to her though since I haven't found any in the water or food bowls. I was kinda hoping to see a ping pong ball "baby" in the water bowl, especially since my baby was a mommy before I got her. =P
 

panslivechewtoy

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 22, 2013
Messages
27
Purraise
23
Pan has this habit as well, although with the exception of the very rare toy mouse, his toy of choice is crumbled up paper balls, which handle the food bowl drops well enough, not so much in the water bowl :)

The food bowl drops have gone on for a while now although I think the water bowl drops are more recent, maybe a handful of months.  I think I find the balls in the food bowl a couple times a week minimum, and maybe one a week ends up in the water  bowl give or take.

I suspect the water bowl MAY be tied to his new trick of sometimes wanting to unravel the paper balls.  He will pick one, then between holding it in his mouth and shaking it over and over, along with pawing at it... slowly he will open up some of the crumbled balls.  He is a damn cute weirdo!

Something else I have noticed over time (maybe noticed it first a year ago or so) is that he has "favorite" paper balls: yellow paper over white paper.  I read somewhat recently that the two colors cats see vividly are yellow and blue, so I suspect that is the answer to that. His favorite (super above and beyond) toy mouse happened to be yellow too.  Go figure.

No have to try and find a new yellow mouse as he has managed to crack the old one open and we aren't comfortable with him playing with it anymore and yellow mice are apparently NOT easy to find (never mind adding on going with non-catnip toy mice).
 
Top