Cat pretends to bury food

Not to go to much into my cats medical history but she was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. She was always a dry kibble kitty until she got sick and we were able to switch her to mostly wet food but I left dry food out for her to eat during the day. Recently she has started only wanting dry food and at this point I will give her anything she wants. She refused to eat any wet food when I tried to give it to her but tonight she actually ate a lot of the wet food and then pretended to bury it. She has been throwing up a lot and it seems to be because she eats her dry food too fast, which I know is common with dry kibble so I tried wet food again out of desperation tonight. She has only done this one other time and it was when i let her have some sardines with the water . This just started since she has been sick.

Is she trying to keep the food for later? Her food is in an old crate to keep our dogs from eating her food so she has never had to worry about food being eaten by anyone else or taken away.

Often times they are burying it for later. Our older cat buries everything. If we drop human food on the floor, he'll sniff it and (if he doesn't eat it) he'll try to bury it for us. We may know that their food is safe and won't be taken away, but something ingrained in their minds tells them this is what they need to do if they want to be able to save it and cover their tracks.

She did go back and eat more just minutes after burying her food. I find it interesting that she started doing this since she has been sick.

Hiro tries to bury his wet food too. He doesn't bother with the dry food, that's always there to keep them happy if they need a snack between meals. But if there is any wet food left he'll paw at the floor all around it to cover it up and save it for later.

I think it's kind of sweet.

Maybe she feels that since she's not too well and can't eat it all at once, she starts burying it in case she can't finish it all in one go?

I find Mo buries, and then approaches the saucer from another angle and keeps eating as if he's buried one corner and feels "safe" moving to another corner.

pinkdagger said:

 
Maybe she feels that since she's not too well and can't eat it all at once, she starts burying it in case she can't finish it all in one go?

I find Mo buries, and then approaches the saucer from another angle and keeps eating as if he's buried one corner and feels "safe" moving to another corner.

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I was thinking sort of the same thing.  Maybe since she isn't the proud and strong hunter, at least in her mind that she once was she covers the food so she know she doesn't have to hunt later.

Hey, the big cats do the same thing.  I have two that do the scat thing and three that don't.  And it's always the wet cat food.

She didn't do this before when she was on wet food but she was also weaker. She is a little stronger and stable now.  It is just another cute thing for me to remember about her.