Why Does My Cat Scratch The Floor Around His Food

Other than just digging his paws around his food dish he may also try and hide things there.

Why does my cat scratch the floor around his food.

What is floor pawing in cats. The pawing and digging is an example of instinctive behavior meaning your cat probably didn t learn it from its mother. Since this would be place where he ate his meals his food dish becomes his lair in the home. These are large translucent storage containers that the cat can easily turn around in and when filled with about 3 inches of litter dig in to her heart s content.

Although this behavior is obsolete in captivity it still happens which confuses cat owners. Many cat owners assume this is a clear sign that the cat isn t interested in the food. Many cats will scratch paw or knead the ground around their food bowl before or after eating. Now that you know at a high level why this happens.

So when my cat eats some of her food first then begins to paw around the dish she s following an instinct that doesn t make much sense for her circumstances she is after all a house cat. Whether it s a favored tree or a little cave it s somewhere that belongs only to him. In the wild a cat has some sort of lair. Why do cats dig and scratch around their food bowl.

Another theory is that as cats in the wild tend to eat where they sleep they don t want a rotting carcass lying around. This assumption is inaccurate. This is an instinctual behavior to hide the scent that leftover food leaves behind. Wild cats as well as feral cats have all been observed burying any uneaten food to avoid attracting predators or scavengers.

Domestic cat this is part of the burying behavior discussed above. Ditty s motivation for scratching the floor and wall around her food after she eats differs from why she s scratching the wall after using her litterbox. Why does my cat scratch around his food. A common mistake cat owners make is that when their cat swipes their paw on the floor around their food dish they think that they are covering up the food like they would their poop in a litter box.

Scratching around the food bowl is a common behaviour in cats which is completely normal.