My newly adopted cat only ate half his food then started scratching around his food bowl...

[wali_the_cat]

My new roommate Wali LOVES to eat. He gets fed twice a day and always finishes his bowl... until this evening. He only ate half his food and then started scratching furiously around the bowl as if to... bury the food?

Is this cause for concern????

He's on a permanent wet food only diet for a history of urinary crystals. Is he bored of his food? Is this just a fluke of some kind? Should I be concerned???

I'm a first time cat guardian so I don't really know if this is normal behavior...

 

[tabbytom]

He only ate half his food and then started scratching furiously around the bowl as if to... bury the food?

This is normal. They still have the wild instinct of burying their food after they eat or hunted down so that the other cats or animals will know that there's food there and also to cover his tracks if they are still in the wild.

My boy does that too and many of our members cats do the same. So don't worry about that.

 

[maggie101]

My new roommate Wali LOVES to eat. He gets fed twice a day and always finishes his bowl... until this evening. He only ate half his food and then started scratching furiously around the bowl as if to... bury the food?

Is this cause for concern????

He's on a permanent wet food only diet for a history of urinary crystals. Is he bored of his food? Is this just a fluke of some kind? Should I be concerned???

I'm a first time cat guardian so I don't really know if this is normal behavior...

My cats are fed 3x a day. In the morning my cat Maggie does not finish her bowl then comes back 5 minutes later and again. Some cats will try to bury thier food. She also has a food timer so I can feed her at night

 

[maeganj]

I've had cats most of my life and I've never seen this! My husband brought home a kitten in August and I noticed her pawing around her bowl. It's so funny/weird! I wonder why some do and some don't. My older cat is a stray from an unknown planet so I'd expect he'd fake bury his leftovers but he doesn't.

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

Neko-chan does this sometimes too. She came to us as a kitten and always had plenty of food so I guess it's just instinct.

 

[wali_the_cat]

Update: Ok I'm pretty sure Wali just didn't like the particular can he had last night. Maybe the meat was off or something, or maybe he's a bit bored of the flavor. I fed Wali a different brand this morning and he gobbled it up. Thanks everyone! I'm reassured to know that this is instinctual behavior!

 

[Hannah531]

My kitty boy did this! He eventually would wait until I closed the door to eat (before he was integrated with the other animals in our house.) Now as long as he's upstairs he won't try and bury his food.

 

[sivyaleah]

They will do this for 2 main reasons. To "hide" the food for later or, because the food is not good to them for some reason.
Seems like you figured out it was the 2nd reason