We normally provide our cats with a bowl of kibble, a bowl of canned food, and a bowl of water. We always have to make sure that the water bowl is in the middle, because if the two food bowls are next to each other, the youngest cat insists on reaching into the kibble bowl with his paw and
scooping out as much as he can. He seems to be attempting
to cover the wet food with the kibble, because he never does
it unless the two food bowls are adjacent.
Maybe it tastes better that way? Cats get odd little notions into their noggins for no apparent reason: one of my cats has now decided she doesn’t like her water bowl anymore and insists on my turning on the kitchen faucet so she can drink out of that.
Inscrutable, that’s what they are. Inscrutable, and nuts.
I agree with Eve. It is just a silly thing your cat does.
My cat also knocks her food (dry kibble) out of the bowl. She likes to eat it off the floor. When she gets to the last layer of food in the bowl that she can’t get out, she doesn’t eat. She will act like she is starving but she won’t eat that last layer of food.
Our cat Rocco (not the kibble shifting expert, but another one) will not eat kibble if he can see bottom of the bowl.
There can be plenty of kibble around the “hole”, as we call it, but to him the bowl is getting too dangerously near empty as not to require instant action.
I’ve found out that cats prefer to have their water pretty far away from their food.
Of course, some cats are, indeed, inscrutable. Pippin insists on drinking out of the tub. So I have to leave the water dripping for him–he won’t take it straight from the stream, though; he’ll only drink off the wall of the tub. So his head is always wet. Makes petting him an adventure.
I don’t have an answer to Java’s predicament. It seems to be one of the many strange things cats do. But I have a similar Q. As a lifetime cat owner, I don’t understand dogs. For peculiar reasons, I now have one. He won’t eat his kibble in the bowl. He prefers to take a mouthful out to the carpeted livingroom and drop it on the floor, eating them a few at a time. Then he’ll go back for another mouthful.
Is this normal? My cats have never done this. Does he just prefer the warm carpet to cold linoleum? He doesn’t mind standing in cold snow to pee, so that can’t be it.
Gotta agree with this statement!
One of my cats will scoop up the water with her paw and lick it out of her paw.
Neither of them will eat the cat food that falls on the floor. It MUST be in the bowl or it is inedible, apparently.
Ditto and ditto to what Zumba and Javaman said. If my cat can see even a little part of the bottom of her food bowl she thinks she’s gonna starve to death and I have to re-fill the bowl. She doesn’t knock the food on the floor, but she loves drinking water with her paw. What is gross is that she sticks her paws into the dogs’ water bowl too! Luckily the dogs don’t seem to care…
My cat does that too! I haven’t figured why she does that. There are no floaties in the water but she’ll suck the water from her paw instead of lapping it from the bowl.
Has anyone figured out why cats become possessed a couple of times a day? My cat will run around the house for no apparent reason and with no regard to safety or large objects. She’ll bounce off the couch or whatever she runs into and just zip around the room.
You mean no one told you about the Crazy Kitty Relay Races? We have several heats a day, winner gets to nap on top of the recliner in the sun. I think the exact course changes each time, but does include Over-the-back-of-the-sofa, Across-the-dining-room-table, and you get extra points for knocking over lamps and knickknacks.
We call this “the rips.” My 3 Siamese cats get them fairly often, a couple or three times a week anyway, and rush about the house like their tails are on fire. Absolutely no regard for their own safety, for obstacles, whatever.
My dog does it too, and sometimes it’ll be all four of them rushing about, dog in the lead with three shadows close behind.
Do your cats see ghosts? Mine will be napping peacfully on the sofa when they’ll simultaneously wake up and stare bug-eyed with horror out the window, as if the entire Manson family is creeping in, knives at the ready.
They do it solely to freak me out, I’m convinced, like the old grade-school “everyone drop their pencils at 9:43” trick.
Mr. Del just did some online research on this. He never even liked cats before me met me, now he fancies himself some sort of catologist. But I digress …
His “findings” said that cats do this “spaz out and bolt” thing to burn off the energy that would normally be spent hunting. I’m not really clear on why the time Gryffin spends “hunting” my earrings, loose change, and the house keys doesn’t serve to use up this excess energy. I will admit that my earrings don’t run very fast, but they do pick up a bit of speed when Gryffin knocks them off the dresser and then they bounce along the floor with him in pursuit.
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*Originally posted by blessedwolf *
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My cats much prefer to drink out of the bowl I keep in the bathtub rather than the one near their food. If the bowl in the tub is empty (and the tub is dry too), they frequently just won’t drink.
Also, my babies have their own dishes in their particular positions. My boy, especially, doesn’t like to eat out of the girls’ bowls. He’ll just sit there until I place everyone in the proper location.
Cats just have their own weird ideas. Don’t bother trying to understand them.
Boscibo writes:
They’re probably just thrilled to get cat-flavored water. 
My cat has decided that she would rather drink out of a glass like everyone else in the house. The trick was to find one that she couldn’t get her head stuck in! Now she drinks in the living room from a glass on the end table like a proper lady. Frankly, I think pets do nutty stuff to keep us talking about them.
First, the cats. Everyone who’s cats drink running water, might I suggest the Drinkwell water fountain? I’m not sure where to find one now. I bought mine at the now defunct pets.com. I have one cat that liked to drink from either the bathroom faucet or the tub faucet. When I moved into a house and had to pay my own water bill, I decided I didn’t want to leave a faucet running all the time.
Dogs. My parents have a large breed Pomeranian that likes to grab a mouthful of food and bring it into the living room to eat. He also learned from their two cats to wash his face with his paws after he eats.
Here’s an image of one model of the Drinkwell water fountain. http://www.ragdoll-cats.com/Drnk.htm
I have a cat who will eat dry food with her paw. She only gets it one in 10 times, but she’ll actually pick up food WITH ONE PAW!!! and carefully bring it to her mouth.
I have a cat who likes to drink out of glasses, too. Especially if there is iced tea in the glass.
Not really. I’m a lifetime dog owner who now owns a cat (landlords don’t allow dogs). I’ve never had any of my dogs do this. Ever. Not that there’s something wrong with your dog, but it certainly is odd.
Jman