Sophie's habit!

Now and again, right after she's had something to eat, Sophie scrapes at the floor with one paw 3-4 times as if she was in her litter box?.

When she first did this i thought she was wanting her litter tray and would put her on it straight away but she did'nt need it?.

She's not constipated, but i'd love to know why she does it and why it's after she's eaten?!.

I think it's possibly because they have an instinct to bury their food..... Dori does this if she has treats. I asked the vet and that's how he explained it.

It looks funny when they scratch at the ground around the food bowl and then settle down to eating!

My girl has been doing it with her breakfast tuna, she apparently thinks it smells funny and it needs burying and after a good scratch she eats it all up.

Isn't that strange?.

Thanks for that.

You have me thinking about how many times I called the vet with questions when I first got Dori, every weird thing she did I thought something could be wrong If it's carpet she's scratching, and if your worried about it, I would put a throw rug or something underneath her bowl or the area where she scratches. I have a little bare spot on my carpet from where Dori used to scratch. It's not very noticeable though.

Ferals will bury their food, their kills and come back to it later. It's instinct. If she gets obsessive about it, you can put a hankerchief or scarf under the bowl so she can cover her bowl and uncover it when she wants more.

Originally Posted by squirtle

You have me thinking about how many times I called the vet with questions when I first got Dori, every weird thing she did I thought something could be wrong

If it's carpet she's scratching, and if your worried about it, I would put a throw rug or something underneath her bowl or the area where she scratches. I have a little bare spot on my carpet from where Dori used to scratch. It's not very noticeable though.

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Its a hardwood floor that i have so i'm ok.

You learn something new every day with them

I never saw Rosie do this, but then again she's totally different to Rosie, she's affectionate like her, but more up front and not afraid of anything

I learned many months ago in another thread that cats paw around food as though they think they're covering it. It's instinctual so that other predators don't steal it. Charlotte also attempts to do it with my food at times. One day after I baked cookies and let them cool on the table, she jumped up and tried to cover them by pawing over them!!! Silly girl. I also have a bad habit of eating in the livingroom. She will jump onto the foldable table after I've finished eating and try to cover up my plate!!! It's almost like my mom saying "put away your dirty dishes!"

Shelly is too hysterical! He's "buried" his food from the very beginning. He's such a spaz - he doesn't actually paw at the floor - maybe a little bit - but he'll paw the air! It is so funny! And a couple of months ago, he took to not only "burying" his food - but "unburying" it before he eats it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Even though it's not covered in any way!) He must have a very active imagination, LOL!

We do have to be careful when we feed them their wet food (once a day). None of them really like wet food much (we've tried ALL the brands, believe me). We've settled on their favorites (California Natural, Eagle Pack, Solid Gold, and Evolve). We split one can into five, and add warm water and stir it up to make "gravy." We have to watch Shelly very carefully, because if he doesn't finish it all, we get gravy all over the floor when he "buries" his wet food when he's done with it.

Kahu does the exact same thing, we always laugh when he does it!

Originally Posted by LDG

Shelly is too hysterical! He's "buried" his food from the very beginning. He's such a spaz - he doesn't actually paw at the floor - maybe a little bit - but he'll paw the air! It is so funny! And a couple of months ago, he took to not only "burying" his food - but "unburying" it before he eats it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Even though it's not covered in any way!) He must have a very active imagination, LOL!

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OMG that is so funny!

Originally Posted by LDG

We do have to be careful when we feed them their wet food (once a day). None of them really like wet food much (we've tried ALL the brands, believe me).

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We had the same kind of problem, we tried all of them and in a matter of weeks they would lose interest. And then we struck upon the idea of cooking fish for them for dinner. Oh boy did this go over well and it keeps going over well. In fact my baby boy loved his fish so much that if for whatever reason I only opened up a tin of food he would follow me all night hoping to get his fish. He had a really good stare, and his eyes would follow me around all night...

Originally Posted by JakkieS

We had the same kind of problem, we tried all of them and in a matter of weeks they would lose interest. And then we struck upon the idea of cooking fish for them for dinner. Oh boy did this go over well and it keeps going over well.

In fact my baby boy loved his fish so much that if for whatever reason I only opened up a tin of food he would follow me all night hoping to get his fish. He had a really good stare, and his eyes would follow me around all night...

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Out of all our kitties, only Shelly likes chicken, isn't that weird? But they ALL love fish, especially shrimp. We rarely feed it to them, because two of them have sensitive tummies, but when we're having shrimp, we do give them a little nibble. However, the only canned food they like are the fish-ones (Eagle Pack Salmon & Shrimp, Oceanfish, etc.)