# Cat Burying Motion next to food?



## jacc1234 (Mar 20, 2010)

I am just curious about this behavior. My cat will do the burying motion like he is trying to cover up a poop when his is next to his food or water bowl. Does anyone else have a cat that does this? He eats on a tile floor so there is nothing there to bury or even move but it doesn't stop him from trying.


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## aprilmay (Dec 29, 2009)

Mine do that. I think it can mean many things. Mine do it when they're finished eating. I think in the wild cats would bury their food. Just one of those behaviors that have carried over.

They'll also do it to show their displeasure at your food offering.


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## CataholicsAnonymous (Dec 4, 2006)

Mine definitely do it as a sign of displeasure of the day's culinary selection. Phmokey is the worst; he'll even find things to drag over and cover the offending meal.


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## Bethany (Jul 19, 2006)

Yep, it's a "Bury the food so predators don't know we're here... and maybe we can eat it later!" thing. 

Even if they don't like the food they may still bury so the food doesn't attract predators. It's tempting to think that the cat is making some sort of comparison between the food and the other things it buries... but cats don't do metaphor. It's just trying to hide its' presence by covering smelly stuff.


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## Miso (Dec 5, 2009)

My little kitty does this when she doesn't like what I feed her. She even tries to bury my other cat's food even while he's still eating. lol


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Even my blind kitties do the burying thing. They love their soft food and when they are finished eating what they want they paw by the dish. Its from their wild genes so preditors wont smell a food source and come around their territory and attack them.


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

yeah, my gal does this as a display of displeasure with the plat du jour as well.


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## OctoberinMaine (Sep 12, 2006)

Bethany said:


> ... but cats don't do metaphor.


 :lol: :lol: 

I think it's definitely a burying thing, although it's interesting to me that they'll go through those motions even though there's nothing there to bury with. That's it, they're playing charades!

Murphy doesn't do the burying motion; he brings toys from all over the house and lays them on top of his food. Such a goof.


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## Ricoh (Sep 16, 2009)

One of our cats is a master of this.

She'll find something to cover it with, and half the time, she'll actually overturn the dish of dry food. She's really good at it... almost all of the food stays under the upside-down dish. I don't think I could do it that well, and I have opposable thumbs. She eats the few kibbles that get out, drags a tea towel over the dish, walks away a few steps, inspects her handiwork from a distance, gives herself a quick bath, and moves on.

In her case, it's never been a displeasure thing as far as I can tell. She just does it when she and her kittens are done eating.


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## Des_Esseintes (Nov 27, 2009)

Add my cat to the list, too.

As soon as she's finished eating, it's scrape-scrape-scrape until I take her bowl away. I'm sure she'd flip her bowl over if I wasn't quick enough to take it away from her.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

this behavior is more common than I realized! My blind girls are the
first fosters to do this behavior out of all the cats that have come 
thru my home!


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

Its strange that for some of us, its a signal of displeasure. She absolutely only does this with food she wont eat.


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Miu does that once in a while, but she does it more often with water that's spilt from the waterbowl or as I said in a previous thread, if I don't clean up Rocky the dog's litterbox good enough..yep, Miu cleans it herself.


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