Why Does My Cat Scratch The Floor Around His Food Bowl

Scratching around the food bowl is a common behaviour in cats which is completely normal.

Why does my cat scratch the floor around his food bowl.

Although this behavior is obsolete in captivity it still happens which confuses cat owners. In the wild felines must hunt to eat. Wild cats as well as feral cats have all been observed burying any uneaten food to avoid attracting predators or scavengers. Other than just digging his paws around his food dish he may also try and hide things there.

Some cats may take this behavior to an extreme spending a good deal of time scratching at the floor or kneading the carpet around their food bowl. In some cases cats will also drag objects such as towels on top of their food bowls. Since this would be place where he ate his meals his food dish becomes his lair in the home. Whether it s a favored tree or a little cave it s somewhere that belongs only to him.

Ditty s motivation for scratching the floor and wall around her food after she eats differs from why she s scratching the wall after using her litterbox. Another theory is that as cats in the wild tend to eat where they sleep they don t want a rotting carcass lying around. What does the scratching mean. If there was a paper towel or other easy to move object near the food dish she would probably cover her food with it moving it by scratching and pulling at it with her claws.

Even though there is no soil to scratch or move around this behavior remains present in cats because it is related to an instinct. So when my cat eats some of her food first then begins to paw around the dish she s following an instinct that doesn t make much sense for her circumstances she is after all a house cat. In the wild a cat has some sort of lair. Now that you know at a high level why this happens.

This is an instinctual behavior to hide the scent that leftover food leaves behind.