My cat Willy has always done this "burying" behavior in two contexts:
After using the litter box. As I understand, this is very common. After using the litter box, he always spends some time scratching the sides of the box, as if he is digging and burying his waste.
The other is near his food dish, which is more mysterious.
I am currently feeding him about 3/4 wet food, and 1/4 dry food. Whenever I feed him a wet meal he takes periodic breaks to dig around the area, which I interpret as trying to bury something smelly. But I keep his eating area mostly clean, and even after being freshly cleaned, he does this.
See the attached photo. This is from before I started him on wet food, but his eating area is the same. He only started this behavior after I transitioned him to wet food. He will eat a few bites, then "dig" on the floor and the wall around his eating area.
And yes, in this particular photo, the area is dirty, but I clean it after every meal today. Just wondering why he feels so compelled to "bury" everything. He will spend up to 2-3 minutes scratching on that red wall behind him after a freshly served wet meal, after the rubber mat and surrounding floor has been freshly cleaned.
This isn't anything that worries me, because he does eat the food. But I just wonder why he does it all the time.
After using the litter box. As I understand, this is very common. After using the litter box, he always spends some time scratching the sides of the box, as if he is digging and burying his waste.
The other is near his food dish, which is more mysterious.
I am currently feeding him about 3/4 wet food, and 1/4 dry food. Whenever I feed him a wet meal he takes periodic breaks to dig around the area, which I interpret as trying to bury something smelly. But I keep his eating area mostly clean, and even after being freshly cleaned, he does this.
See the attached photo. This is from before I started him on wet food, but his eating area is the same. He only started this behavior after I transitioned him to wet food. He will eat a few bites, then "dig" on the floor and the wall around his eating area.
And yes, in this particular photo, the area is dirty, but I clean it after every meal today. Just wondering why he feels so compelled to "bury" everything. He will spend up to 2-3 minutes scratching on that red wall behind him after a freshly served wet meal, after the rubber mat and surrounding floor has been freshly cleaned.
This isn't anything that worries me, because he does eat the food. But I just wonder why he does it all the time.
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