What's my cat doing? (1 Viewer)

[BrettB]

Ocassionally, our cat (Ashley) will paw at the floor around her water/food bowls. It looks as if she's trying to push imaginary dirt up against her bowls.
PS My cat is cuter than yours

 

[Rain]

Cats are funny about things. Sometimes they just do stuff and you'll never know why. You just have to accept it.

Occasionally, one of my feline friends, Velcro, will use his paw to dip into the food dish and knock one little nugget of cat food out of the bowl. He will then eat that one nugget and proceed to knock another one out of the bowl and eat that one. He's been known to do this many times in a row. Why? Who knows.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Fluffy Pumpkin is the fairest cat of all!

 

[Michael Warner]

My cat does the same thing. I assume that she's trying to bury her food so that no other critters can come along and steal it.

 

[Pamela]

I beg to differ, but I do believe that Chloe Kitty Cat is the most fetching Kitty Cat of them all.
I believe your cat is instinctually trying to cover her food. Perhaps to hide it from predators? My cat does that on the carpet, on the spots where I've cleaned up her furballs ( a horrid consequence of her beautiful long fur). She's trying cover it up.

 

[Chad R]

If the phone rings in my cat's vicinity he'll jump and knock the handset off the hook. We constantly come home to find it on the floor. Luckily for us you have to press talk to answer the phone.

 

[CRyan]

Pawing is thought to be an instinctive trait from kittenhood. Kittens paw their mothers belly to help stimulate milk production and to help release milk from mammary galnds.

C. Ryan

 

[Sarah S]

Owen will paw out one nugget of kibble and then pounce on it like it's a mouse escaped from its holding pen. I find this amusing.
I don't know what you guys are talking about, BABs is the Queenof lovlieness.

 

[Rob_J]

I always thought cats pawed while drinking because it was instinctive for them to clear the surface of the water. I mean, you don't want bugs and whatnot in the water you're drinking, right?

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Hair of ebony, something, something, something, my Stormy is the fairest of them all.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Wow, our cats do both of those things, along with several other routines unique to each of them (we have 3).

Joey, our oldest, has always preferred to eat kibble off the floor or table and will paw it out of the dish just like Rain's cat.

He goes farther though or at least he used to, he's kinda stopped this lately, but he would bring a bunch in his mouth from his dish to the living room, dump it on a surface like my Playstation lid, and proceed to eat. IMO it was because he didn't like to eat alone (a pack instinct I suppose). Seems valid now that he backed off this once the other cats arrived.

Lucy gets bullied by the other 2 who are real pigs. We give them a can of moist food split between the 3 of them. Lucy rarely eats all of hers at that time and Joey or Ernie will jump to her bowl and finish it. I guess she figured this out finally and has begun that same digging-like motion around the outside of her bowl. My assumption was that she was indeed trying to "save it for later" from the other 2 pigs.

Ernie is the real weird one. He has a thing for us coming out of the shower. When either my girlfriend or I take a shower he comes to the bathroom and stalks us. As soon as you get out he is all over you, very clingy. After you dry off and get dressed he goes back to not caring at all. Something about either being wet or the smell of the soap makes him crazy for affection. I mean he just wants to climb all over you. It's terribly annoying to be honest.

It's funny how cats have several different behaviors they might follow but when you talk to other cat owners you find out that other cats do the same identical stuff, even though the other cats you might own or be around do not act that way.

Oh, and Ernie is also the TV watcher of the group. The other 2 could give a shit but Ernie will watch any set in the house even the big front projector screen, which he will paw at and get it to swinging. He does the same with the rear projector but luckily I have the protective face on it still. He's also the one who loves the mirror. Just more visual than the other 2 for some reason.

 

[TonyD]

when drinking our cat will reach out with his right paw to the left side of the bowl crossing under his chin to his left side and appear to be reaching for something. he will do this only while drinking.

 

[Jeff]

Me and my family once had a cat that would crouch down on the floor and seemingly stared at the refrigerator. The bottom part was chrome and reflective so we thought she was admiring herself.
After she passed away, I was standing in front of the fridge in my sock feet and noticed there was warm air coming from underneath it. No wonder she liked it there, it was nice and toasty.
Jeff

 

[TheoGB]

It does the same thing in the litter tray so we've always taken it to mean "This is sh-! Get some decent cat food."

 

[Patrick Sun]

My oldest cat prefers to eat his Friskies off the floor, so he'll paw a lot of Friskies out of the bowl (and this causes me to have to clean up after him on a regular basis), while my younger cat eat right out of the bowl.

I indulge my older cat because I find the behavior funny and cute.

 

[Frederick]

I have 2 cats that I inherited once I broke up with a girl I was living with some years ago. The male has a thing about drinking water. He'll only drink it out of a coffee cup sitting on my computer desk. He won't drink from anything but that cup, and it HAS to be sitting on the desk. Oh, and he also sits in the bathroom sink when I get up in the morning and take my shower. And another thing he likes to do is play fetch. Very annoying at 3 in the morning, but seeing as though he's handsome enough to be on the cover of Kitty GQ, I indulge him ...
Freddy C.

 

[Bill Catherall]

My cat plays fetch with her little toy mouse (she loves the little toy mice). She likes to lick the water from the bottom of the shower after we get out. She doesn't like to eat alone either. When she's hungry she'll come meowing to me (and only me, she doesn't do this with anyone else) as if she's out of food. When I go in to check on her food dish (which is full) she proceeds to eat, checking over her shoulder to see if I'm still there. If I walk away she chases me down and starts meowing at me again.

And when she wants attention you had better give her attention or she'll rub your legs so much you'll have another layer of hair.

She's a people cat. She loves strangers. She'll attach herself to anyone she's never "met" before and climb up in their laps, smell their face, lay on their chest (she stands on laps and leans against you)...

I find all this annoying. I'm not a cat person, but cats love me.

 

[BrettB]

I believe your cat is instinctually trying to cover her food.

That's what I was thinking, a survival behavior used for thousands of years, now unnecessary, yet there it is.

 

[Scott Strang]

This reminds me of one time when I tried eating one of those Mexican frozen TV dinners. Since I didn't want it all I put it on the floor for Gizmo to eat. She started trying to cover it up as if it were litter box contents.

I guess she knew something I didn't know about that mystery meat Mexican dinner.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Attila the Cat is a philosopher and leader, and the founder of Feline Awareness Now Group (FANG), a non-profit advocacy and lobbying group seeking to restore, in Attila's words, "catkind's Egyptian glory."

He is not be trifled with--Attila is a colorpoint shorthair with liquid, deep blue eyes and a chocolate-point tail.

And he, too, will attempt to cover up his food bowl. If Attila's tired of what's in it, he'll make as if it is a litter pan that must be made more acceptable.

"Life has become but a ball of twine for American cats."

--Attila the Cat, director and chaircat of FANG