Do any of your cats put their toys in their food dish?

[cmshap]

This photo is from a few years ago. Willy isn't doing it now, but he was doing this for 3-4 years of his life... he would constantly bring his toy mice to his food dish and drop them in.

It was so funny. Thankfully he stopped because he is on mostly wet food now, and dropping toys into wet food would mean I'd have to clean them.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

No, none of mine have done that in recent years, and I don’t remember further back. Phoebe just swats Ballie and Mousie around when the mood takes her, and Daisy isn’t interested in toys except for my knitting yarn and row counters.

 

[Tobermory]

Not the food dish because I feed wet food and it’s never left over, but Iris periodically takes a yarn ball for a swim in her water dish.

 

[furmonster mom]

I woke up to a soggy pipe cleaner twisty on the bed.
Hercules likes to dunk things in the water dish.

 

[Furballsmom]

My angel Poppycat had a stage for several years where he loved dropping his toy mice into his water bowl, and then behaving as if he was bobbing for apples LOL. He wouldn't just try and retrieve them with a paw, he'd nearly drown himself trying to bite them and lift them out

 

[cmshap]

This was a daily occurrence for years.

I would feed him in the morning, then go to work. By the time I got home, one of his toy mice would be in his dish like in my picture above, with a little bit of uneaten food. He would greet me, knead on me, then immediately eat the rest of his food, and ignore the mouse until I removed it from the dish and tossed it back out onto the floor.

My parents have a cat that seems to try to cover her uneaten food with multiple toys. She piles 2-3 toys directly on top of the food. I understand that can be a sort of "burying" behavior. Maybe my cat was trying to do the same when he was doing this?

BTW, these two cats haven't lived with each other, so nobody taught the other to do this. It's entirely coincidental.

 

[Susanna72]

Jack and Stella used to do that! Sometimes Jack would drop them in the water bowl, too. Mostly I think they were like marking their food bowls like "this is my toy and this is my bowl." They used to try to bury their dishes, too. Just scratch at the floor like they were burying it. I had them since they were kittens and they both lived to be 17.

 

[cmshap]

They used to try to bury their dishes, too. Just scratch at the floor like they were burying it.

Willy stopped putting his mice in his dish, but he does the burying, still

Cat "burying" behavior

It's very likely that dropping a mouse on the dish is a related behavior. It's something with his scent all over it being put next to the little bit of uneaten food.

 

[Antonio65]

Some of my cats (both owned and fostered) used to drown their mice in the water bowl.

 

[Lorraine97]

Not mine, but my Dad's cat is always dunking his toy rat in his water bowl

 

[Gizmobius]

Adding in to say that I have a water dish toy dropper. I have so many of those little toy springs and he loves dropping those into his water dish and then trying to get it out. I always love the 50/50 chance that he knocks the water bowl over completely!

 

[cmshap]

It sounds like it's MUCH more common for cats to put toys in their water dishes. Willy seems to be one of the only cats I've heard of dropping toys on their food.

I wonder what the water dish thing is about? Does anybody know if there are any prevailing theories? Like drowning prey, or softening food (just the first ideas that came to mind, which could be wrong)?

 

[Furballsmom]

this article pretty much says, "nobody knows" ...
Why Do Cats Paw At The Water Dish? - TheCatSite

 

[cmshap]

this article pretty much says, "nobody knows" ...
Why Do Cats Paw At The Water Dish? - TheCatSite

Fortunately, Willy doesn't spill his water or mess around with it.

He hasn't been dropping toys on his food recently, but it did occur to me, after starting this post, that he is sometimes dropping toys near his food dish. Like 1-2 feet away from the dish.

Maybe he is continuing the same behavior as before... carrying a toy while walking to his food when he's hungry, and dropping it right before eating. He may have previously just waited until the last possible second to drop the toy, which was right on top of his dish. But now, he is dropping the toy just a little further away before starting to eat.

That seems like one of the simplest explanations.

 

[susanm9006]

Lola leaves something in her dinner dish every night. Its most often her large catnip fish or a feathered bird toy but she will also occasionally toss in a spring toy or a puffy ball.

 

[Margot Lane]

This is so adorable.

 

[Kris107]

I know the water dish is off topic a bit, but I had to learn to ALWAYS keep the toilet lid closed because of this habit. Especially because the wet toys would sometimes be brought to mom in bed!