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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.

Digging/covering stuff up - anxiety?

5 replies

Hidingtonothing · 01/01/2018 18:29

Girl kitten (I say kitten, she's almost 2!) has always done this but it's becoming more frequent and I'm a bit worried it might be an anxiety thing or something. She attempts to cover her food by 'digging' at the wall above her bowl, she gets in the (empty) bath and digs at the side like she's trying to tunnel out, she digs at the window while she's watching the birds and also various other places.

She's otherwise fine, eating well, toileting fine, coming for fuss as normal and seems happy and relaxed most of the time. We did have one weird incident last night, I was sitting on the bed stroking her and she attacked me out of the blue. It started as a fairly normal 'had enough fuss' bite but she really hung onto my hand and then once I'd extricated it started jumping at my shoulder and then my face/head. She was almost stalking me, kept staring with her pupils dilating and then lunging at me. It didn't look like play (I was actually a bit scared for a minute Blush) and DH said she looked freaked out but she just seemed fixated and aggressive rather than defensive to me. I was sitting still, not attempting to touch her or anything so not posing a threat but she wouldn't stop til I got up and left the room.

She's been fine with me since, let me fuss her later on last night, came for her usual morning cuddle, all totally normal. No signs of pain or illness, no hiding, ears are cool etc and I'm normally pretty good at picking up when they're off colour, she seems fine otherwise. It's just the increased digging and the out of character attack, any thoughts?

OP posts:
Weedsnseeds1 · 05/01/2018 22:08

I think it's a pleasure reaction. Mine only does it when he's had Lik-e-liks. He absolutely loves the stuff to the point where he will sit on command to get one!

Weedsnseeds1 · 05/01/2018 22:10

The scratching after food thing. Though the other behaviour sounds a bit like over excitement too.

Fluffycloudland77 · 06/01/2018 11:50

They do that to food they don’t like, it’s a way of saving it for leaner times in the wild.

Ours did it Thursday night to a pouch he took against, I found a tea towel over the plate Friday morning.

ToadOfSadness · 08/01/2018 18:11

My boy did both of these things. We got him as an adult. The burying thing is so that a predator won't know he has been there, however he used to bury things he didn't like as well. He would often put his vetbed over his food and cover it in gravy.

He also would bite me gently and get off my lap after our daily lunchtime rest. Without fail he would attack my ankles from behind the table or on our walk up the garden.If I did something he didn't like or walked away he would walk up and bite me, back off and then come back and do it again.

He would also leap at my face from the ground or a surface if I looked at him for no reason. He never outgrew it and I could never stop it.

Try to get it sorted out now before it gets to be a habit.

BulletFox · 08/01/2018 18:22

She's quite young still, probably she's over-stimulated.

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