I'm NOT Eating This!

Have any of your cats done this?  Ginger would sniff some food, turn her nose up then make covering up motions on the floor beside, over and around the food dish exactly as she does after pooping in the kitty litter.  Her comment was clearly the title.  She is the only cat I've had do that.  What about your cats, ever comment like that?  

Cats in the wild cover their food to return to it later. 

Cats do sometimes make pawing motion around their unfinished food instinctively so another animal won't find it and steal it, but they also sometimes do it to food that is left out so competitors, predators, or dangerous animals won't smell it and come find their den and put them in danger. That's also why cats cover their waste, so the smell of it won't lead other animals to them.

Mine have done that with food they absolutely refuse to eat. It seems like if they eat some and then paw the ground they're saving it for later but if they paw the ground first they don't want it at all.

It is normal for cats to paw the ground when they don't want the food I have a fussy eater who will refuse food. I keep it down there for a few minutes (I live in a warm climate) and will put it back in the refrigerator for later or if she hasn't eaten for let it go and get her something else.

Once when she was very sick I spent many hours researching (thank goodness for this site) and combing supermarkets and cat food shops in the early hours of the morning trying to find something that she would eat. Cats who do not eat for an extended amount of time can develop hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver) which can be fatal. 

This was always only with food she refused to eat.  I never thought of the covering up of food to save it business but I think her meainging was my title.     Ginger was an inside/outside cat, maybe she did that with things outside and I never saw it.  

My cat does this to my coffee cup.

If other people don't drink coffee you make maybe you should worry.  Kidding.