Bizarre Eating Behavior

I've got a kitty that in my opinion has a very odd eating behavior. I have had cats and have seen cats who will use their paws as eating utensils and scoop a kibble or two at a time out of the dry food bowl and either eat it off the floor or use a paw as a fork and actually lift it to their mouth. Grayson does something much different. He is our "weird" cat, if he could speak he would say "I see dead people" or something like that anyway, this is what he does... He goes over to the dry food bowl, and takes a HUGE mouthful of kibble, then walks 5 or 6 feet away, spits it all out, and proceeds to eat it off the floor. He looks like a little chipmunk when he does this his cheeks are so full of food, it's hysterical. Anyone else's cat's demonstrate this odd behaviour? He also does some other relatively odd stuff, but I'll save that for another thread

Sarah, as weird as it seems, this is a fairly normal eating behaviour. Grayson 'hoards' his food and then goes off to eat it slowly in peace. He may believe that he gets more doing it that way or maybe he feels crowded around the food bowl. It reminds me very much of what squirrels do.

that is so funny i just posted about the same thing today! my serj does this everyday. i don't know what it is but he does the same exact thing. he'll bring his food in the living room or the laundy room, but sometimes he don't eat it. most of the time though he does. i think he's a wierdo too lol

HAHA! Yeah I think Grayson is definately a weirdo, he's a very quirky little guy. He does very odd things like this all the time. And what's funny is it's not like he has to compete for food, we leave the food bowl down 24/7 with food in it. If anything when he picks it up and drags it away he spits it up *closer* to the other cats...

I've got three that do that. I just think it comes from instinct that they need to get the food now and move it or there won't be another chance later. Ripley may she RIP used to take her dry kibble and drop it in the water bowl and watch with amazement as it slowly disintegrated! LOL

Haha! Yeah. That's out other thing. We got a Petmate fountain (4 of them in fact) because GRAYSON has a water fetish. He loves knocking over glasses, cups, bottles, bowls, anything filled with water. He puts his paws in it then shakes them all over either us, or something really important. Like he didn't know it was wet. And he will do it over and over until I clean up the spill. I have to drink bottled water and keep the lid screwed on when I'm not actively drinking it. He also likes to bury the water and the cat food. He is not alone in this though, the other ones do it too. I love finding a piece of unread-unopened mail floating in the cat fountain ~ He will also drag things inside the litter boxes. Usually socks and underwear

Prissy - curious how the Petmate fountain helped with Grayson's water fetish? Frodo a) also hoards his food and spits it out somewhere else to eat it and; 2) Has a severe water fetish.

I literaly had to go through the pet store with the water dishes on the floor trying to see which was harder to knock over. It drives me nuts! We got a big one with a reservoir and he knocks it over. He also likes to hde behind it and then when another cat comes for a drink he either pokes his paw into the water and splashes the cat in the face or he pushes the reservoir over on the cat. I'd really love to find some water bowl that would keep his water play to a minimum...and my mopping to a minimum He, too, knocks over water glasses and such. Drives me absolutely batty!!!

My cat Myth also has something with water. She puts her paws in it and scratches at it. She will also dump her water out all over the floor. I've tried lots of dishes to prevent spilling. I used one of those cat dish holders. It holds the dishes elevated off the floor, and they were ceramic. Myth destroyed that too, she is a hefty girl. She used to stand on the board between the two dishes, and dig the water out. It got the board wet, and with her weight, it got bent. Now the dishes sit at an angle. She's back on a large dog water dish again, but still digs at it, and makes a mess. I always just thought that she wanted fresher water or something.

It's kinda nice to find others that have cats with not so normal behavior. My Myth also has what I've deemed an eating disorder. She will freak out and throw a huge fit if her dish is near empty. And if if is EVER empty of food, she startes vomiting. If it's empty for any length of time, she will over stuff herself to the point of vomiting when there is food in it. I tried the measuring out so much food, so many times a day. Myth was so stressed and always vomiting, so I stopped. I've had less problems with her eating disorder with multiple food/water dishes in different rooms. As long as one of them has food in it. And as long as the one with food has more than a few bits in the corners.

My Myth is a wonderful loving cat though. Despite her eccentric attitude.

The petmate waterers are fantastic! We have two of the large size ones and two of the standard size ones. They are too heavy and have too wide a base for Grayson to tip over, which is perfect. He also enjoys drinking out of the top of the fountain where the water flows down into the bowl. I think they like the fountains because the water is constantly moving and there is a carbon filter (which we change weekly) so the water stays very fresh. I also take the whole thing apart and srcub them with soap and water once a week, and they are dishwasher safe. This solved my problem with him knocking the water over, now I just have to watch what he puts *in* it so it doesn't leech water all over the floor.

Now, Carmel, she has a coin fetish. She loves coins. Although we stopped letting her play with them after she swallowed a dime and a penny and fortunately they got them out with an endoscope because they were stuck in her stomach. We try very hard to put all our spare change in the change bank now, but occasionally she will get one. And she puts in in the food bowl. Peter says it's her donation to the cat food fund!