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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Cat keeps trying to bury her food

27 replies

theredhen · 02/03/2013 08:39

I have two cats. The youngest (she's 2) is constanly scraping round her food bowl, which I think means she's trying to bury it to save for later. Grin she likes to dip in and out if the food bowl and eat little and often.

My other cat is a bit of a pig and wolfs down as much as possible in one go.

Invariably he eats the other cats food because she's left it for "later".

Hence I suspect, why she is trying to bury it from him.

I've tried feeding them seperately but as she leaves her food for several hours, should I keep them apart for this long?

OP posts:
tabulahrasa · 02/03/2013 08:48

One of mine does that, she did it when she was an only cat too.

BelleDameSansMerci · 02/03/2013 08:49

I thought cats did this because they don't like the food? Think of what else they bury... I always take it as a comment on the quality. Smile

cozietoesie · 02/03/2013 09:54

Cat's don't bury food to save for later in my experience. Some commercial cat foods, though, have strong flavourings which come through in the poo - so it may be that she's commenting - or at any rate, the odour of the food is reminding her of other functions once the edge of hunger is off.

I'd maybe try changing the food and see if behaviour changes also?

As to the Greedy Guts, finishing off everything - you'll need to watch his weight. Maybe take up her bowl when she's finished her first round ? She should learn fairly quickly.

I wouldn't keep them apart but I would supervise eating for a week or two and see how things go.

Original poster
theredhen · 02/03/2013 10:39

Ok, I'll try changing the food. She's on felix pouches but actually prefers dry food, but a vet once told me never to feed a cat exclusively on dry food as it causes bladder problems.

The greedy guts isn't overweight (lord knows he should be because he doesn't appear to get much exercise either).

If I take the food away from him he will probably get fed up waiting and just take himself off to bed for another ten hours!

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 02/03/2013 12:01

Maybe just change some of the brand of pouch then. Best to do any change gradually rather than wholesale overnight - so that their stomachs don't rebel. Aldi, coop and sainsbury's all do pretty decent own brand pouches which won't cost you an arm and a leg.

And if GG is not overweight - that's good. He may have a fast metabolism. (I;m assuming they're both wormed regularly.)

thecatneuterer · 02/03/2013 17:51

Cheap dry food (Whiskas, Go Cat etc) does tend to cause bladder problems but the more expensive stuff (Iams, James Wellbeloved etc) doesn't.

lljkk · 02/03/2013 17:53

Stupid cat tries to bury food, too.
Too bad he can't master burying his poo. Hmm

NorbertDentressangle · 02/03/2013 17:55

Like Belle i always thought it was the cat trying to tell you the food wasn't up to their high standards. Fussy buggers.

Original poster
theredhen · 03/03/2013 07:06

Maybe I'll try the co op pouches. They're both wormed and de flead regularly.

The vet told me that he had never seen a cat with bladder problems that hadn't been fed on either iams or go cat.

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 03/03/2013 08:48

Seniorboy thinks the co op own brand pouches are just fine and he's a fussy blighter - who is indulged because he has to have meds mixed in with his food so I need to get him to eat it. (He won't touch Felix.) Luckily, they're also one of the cheaper own brands on the market so they offset the more expensive stuff that he also likes. (I mix and match to give him variety.)

Best of luck anyway.

tabulahrasa · 03/03/2013 08:51

Mine buries it no matter what brand it is btw, if it's one she doesn't like she just doesn't eat it.

cozietoesie · 03/03/2013 08:59

I just wish I could hold the line on food if he didn't like it. (He'd soon learn.) Sadly, I can't because of the meds.

cozietoesie · 03/03/2013 09:00

Still - look on the bright side. The CPL box at the local big supermarket gets donations.

tabulahrasa · 03/03/2013 09:14

I have to pander to mine for the same reason, except every couple of months she decides the foods she's happily been accepting are no longer edible and I have to try new ones again Hmm

cozietoesie · 03/03/2013 09:25

Likewise - hence the donations. I find one he likes and happily buy a box or two (or three.) I really should have learned by now!

cozietoesie · 03/03/2013 09:27

Co op and sainsbury's seem to be the only ones which are consistently acceptable albeit not necessarily every day.

tabulahrasa · 03/03/2013 09:56

I haven't tried sainsbury's yet as they're not as handy as other shops.

She won't eat ones in jelly, or fish ones - never has. I'm currently having to buy single serve packets as all the boxes contain at least one flavour that she won't eat - if she wasn't ill, I swear I could kill her myself, lol.

I got very excited recently because she ate Lidl ones and they're dead cheap (when she first got ill I was trying to feed her on high quality foods, but she objected to them all eventually and if I'm having to buy junk food for cats I'd at least like it to be cheap) but they only lasted about a week before she decided they weren't suitable.

She still buries them all though, lol, she also buries her empty bowl if she eats it all...

cozietoesie · 03/03/2013 10:11

It would drive me crazy if he tried to bury his bowls. Prolonged scratching at his tray is bad enough in the early hours of the morning. ('I'm still cleaning it up Mom and you haven't done anything yet!')

What he does do is 'dip' and eat/massacre his little toy teddies when he gets close to finishing. That's fine because they can be collected up every day or two and bunged in the washing machine.

My family (those that aren't besotted by Siamese) think I'm quite mad. They're of the 'If he's still hungry, he can go and catch a mouse' school. I've tried to point out that at his human-equivalent age, he'd likely be being hand-fed but they're having none of it.

tabulahrasa · 03/03/2013 10:22

She leaves teddies in her food bowl, lol - I've always found it really amusing, like they were really prey she'd caught, lol

I think we established in the jumper thread that people just accept that I'm the mad cat lady Grin to be fair, everyone I know thinks she's lovely so they don't say anything about me spoiling her...it's just me that's going Hmm about it.

OohShiny · 03/03/2013 10:27

I think sometimes cats just do this? My boy scrapped round the plate he'd just licked melted butter off from my crumpets. I like to think o f it that's he's cleaning up after he's finished!

TimrousBeastie · 05/03/2013 19:37

little cat does this with all food- even if the bowl is empty. she likes to put socks in her bowl aswell and this morning i found a plastic dinosaur in her bowl!

cozietoesie · 05/03/2013 19:40

That latter is 'killing her prey' - what tabulah's girl and my boy both do. Is your little cat a Siamese?

TimrousBeastie · 05/03/2013 19:45

nope just a wee grey menace:)

cozietoesie · 05/03/2013 19:53
Grin
FreshLeticia · 08/03/2013 09:38

Mine tries to bury cups of coffee left on the table! I think he thinks it's poo. Not that he's even allowed on the table, but he takes no notice of that.

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