One of my cats, the goofy one, has always put both front paws on the food dish when he eats. At 15 lbs, he is certainly big enough to reach down where the food is without doing this.
Is this some atavistic behavior, such as I’ve seen big cats do when eating prey, holding it down when they rip pieces off? Hardly necessary with kibble.
Or is it just goofyness manifesting itself again?
Hard to say. Cats are idiosyncratic. One of mine pats the water bowl with his paw to agitate the water. Another prefers to sit with her butt higher than her shoulders. Why? I have no idea.
Anything a cat can do to make humans go “huh?” earns them extra points in some strange game they have going. I swear I have caught a glimpse of mine high-fiving each other behind my back. Or in Yogi’s case, high-seven.
One of my cats “digs” while he’s drinking water.
My pseudokitten is pretty weird. She isn’t supposed to be in one room, which has small animals, and she knows it. If the door is open, rather than heading straight for the gecko cage, she will hide under the bed until someone closes the door on her, and THEN head to the cage, and her favorite sunlamp. She also plays (literally) with a squirrel, and the sentiments are mutual.
Neither of our cats puts its paws in the food bowl, but one of them drinks water by dipping a forepaw completely (above the ankle) into the water bowl, then licking the water off the paw. (The other cat thinks this is absolutely disgusting. 
) She also takes turns with her paws–She’ll dip the right paw in, lick it clean and dry, then dip the left paw in, and lick it clean and dry.
The other cat, though, lounges when he drinks water. In fact, he likes to sleep on the bath towel next to the water bowl (which is placed there to absorb whatever cat #1 doesn’t lick off completely), and when he gets thirsty, he just moves his head until it’s positioned to allow him to drink from the bowl. He rarely crouches when he drinks, like most other felines I know. If the water bowl is not positioned correctly, he just reaches out with one paw and pulls it toward him, rather than get up and go to the bowl.
My cat does the submerging the paw for water thing too, but he will also stand over his water dish with his belly getting wet to eat his food every now and again. I have never understood that, but it doesnt seem to bother him at all. Whatever makes him happy makes me happy (unless it is clawing up my bed…then I am less than happy).
My mom’s cat refuses to eat directly from her bowl; instead she puts her paw in and flicks the pieces of kibble out of the bowl and eats them off the ground. Just cats being weird.
Mine, too. but only some of the time … :dubious:
One of my cats tried the paw-in-the-water thing – though only to the extent that the tip of the paw was in just enough for her to lick a few droplets off. She also has a tendancy to scratch a few times around the water dish as she’s about to start drinking. At one time though, this same cat wouldn’t eat kibble unless some kind of challenge was involved. To that end she’d bat a few pieces out on to the floor in order to “trap” them and eat them. One of my other cats – a huge male – found this an entertaining idea and did it a few times himself. Needless to say we were sweeping kibble crumbs up off the floor rather frequently. She still loves being thrown kitty treats though – she won’t eat them unless she has to chase them. As soon as you reach for the bag/bottle of treats she’ll go long.
She may have trouble seeing them if they don’t move horizontally. Cats’ eyes are much better at detecting horizontal motion than vertical motion. My Luna has a much easier time finding a treat if I skip it across the floor than if I just put it down for her.
And, of course, by now your cat has learned that, to get a treat, she has to go long when you reach for them.
As the lifetime owner of seven different cats, three at present, I would have to say there is no “strange” cat behavior. There is just cat behavior. For a cat to act normally would be strange.
I’ve got a paw-dipper as well, Pipsqueak. I learned the hard way to keep the (scoopable)litter pan far from the water dish, after having to spend 45 minutes uncaking her left (only left) paw one evening.
And as I write this, my other cat Stretch and I are sharing Honey-nut Cheerios. He also likes pumpernickel and olive oil. He’s my snugglebunny, he’ll actually spoon w/ me while we sleep - all night.
I concur that there is no ‘strange’ cat behavior!