I’ve had my cat for a few years and about 6-8 months ago she started picking up pieces of her dry cat food out of her bowl, one-by-one, and bringing it to her mouth and eating it.
She doesn’t successfully chew and eat the whole thing, so the area around her food dish is sprinkled with crumbs of dry cat food.
Does anyone know why she has started doing this? Has anyone had this happen to them with their cat? I have not had this happen to me with any previous cat.
It’s quite interesting watching her do this, she looks almost human picking up food with her paw and bringing it to her mouth to eat.
My cat used to amuse herself by flicking bits of kibble out of her bowl and then eating them off the ground. Dunno why. She doesn’t do it anymore. Again, have no idea why she stopped.
Is it a different dish from the one she ate from before she used her paw? If it is, she might not like the shape. Sometimes their canines get in the way. If she needs a dental and has a sore incisor or canine, she may be finding it more comfortable not to bang her teeth onto the bowl or floor.
Or - cats is weird. I have one who puts kibble in his cheek and carries it around for a while, dropping it in random places. The windowsill. The bathtub. The bed. Weirdo.
That’s a good point. She is still using the same dish as before, but maybe a tooth problem might make it more comfortable to eat like this. I’ll ask the vet at the next checkup.
My cat Cleo (RIP) would bat pieces of dry cat food from her bowl before eating it, so the top of our dryer where the food and water were kept out of reach of the doggies was always covered in cat food pieces.
I agree, cats is weird.
On a side note, we had a female chow chow who would pick up mouthfuls of dry dog food from her bowl and set them on the ground from out of her mouth then eat it off the ground. She would not eat unless she had done this weird intermediary step.
My cat Denver used to pull pieces of kibble from the bowl, and let them fall on the floor. Then he’d eat them off the floor.
No idea why he did this, but he was amazingly dextrous with his right front paw. He figured out how to pull the bathtub plug from the drain by hooking a claw through the metal ring and pulling straight up (the plug was a favourite toy and tended to end up all over the house; we started keeping it in the drain so we could find it). So if he just wanted to use his paw for something other than walking on, that was okay.
We have a cat that does this. She pulls each piece of food out of the bowl onto the floor and eats it. She also jumps up into the kitchen sink and tries to drink out of the faucet whenever the water is turned on. I have no idea why.
Different bowl, different brand/kind of food? Any change could cause some weird behavioral change. Dental issue is a possibility. Or just a cat being a cat.
We used to feed a cat we had in a plastic double dish, one side for water and the other for kitty bits. They were the kind of bits that came in different flavors and colored shapes. I suppose the shape indicated the flavor. I alway found a fish shaped bit or 2 in the water bowl after the cat had it’s way with his meal. Never any of the other shapes.
I’ve had 2 tiny dogs (at separate times) who would walk all the way into the kitchen, grab a single piece of food, and walk the 20 feet back into the living room to eat it. I figured they probably expended more calories than they took in.
Back on topic, I’ve had a few cats that liked to take food out with their paws and eat it off the floor (or whatever). I think they do it for amusement and because they like manipulating things with their paws. I had at least one cat who batted the food around the floor for a while before she ate it. Face it; they’re cats, and living with boring humans must be a real drag for them. They have to take their entertainment wherever they find it.
I no longer try to figure out WHY cats do things, I prefer to just go straight to the “cats is weird” explanation as being the most likely.
Cats enjoy playing with things, and this includes their food. Many of the cats I’ve had have flicked bits of kibble onto the floor to eat it, or picked up a mouthful to deposit it on the floor to eat one bite at a time, or even carry food into another area of the house to eat it. I even had one cat who was convinced that he had to intimidate, subdue, and kill his canned cat food before he could eat it. He’d growl at it in the bowl, then swipe at it with his paw, and only then would he eat it. He LIKED canned cat food, he just had to go through his ritual to eat it.
She’s probably just exhibiting Weird Cat Syndrome but cats sometimes get acne on their chins which can get inflamed and painful if they bump their chins on their bowls. I’d give her face and mouth a good once over and then let her get on with her day.
Mayme started doing this around the same time we started tossing treats (to make her run to them, as she’s a tad plump. Okay, she’s fat). She will also take hard food out of the bowl, dip them into the water dish, then eat it it.
Then she’ll dip her paws in the water to wash them off.
And if she has acne and you’re using plastic bowls, switch to ceramic or stainless steel ones. Tiny scratches or imperfections in plastic bowls can harbor bacteria, causing or exacerbating the cat’s acne.
I’ve never had a problem with cats with acne before, until my Brixie came along. We were using plastic feeders and she broke all out on her chin. Switched to porcelain ones, gone.
K. Otherwise I’d think it might be a dominance thing. At least that’s why dogs do a similar thing.
My stepmom’s rotund cat normally eats kibble, some of which is shaped like the letter “X”. She will only eat them if they’re intact. Because she’s a messy eater, most invariably get shredded. At the end of the meal she will have a bowl half full of chunks which she will not eat.
Do your guys’ cats scratch/paw at the area around their dish and litter box? I’ve read it’s some kind of inherent marking behavior. My cat does it all the time. Come to think of it, maybe she started after the second cat came along.
