Although this behavior is obsolete in captivity it still happens which confuses cat owners.
Why does my cat scratch the floor around his food.
What is floor pawing in cats.
Everything your cat does even the things that make no sense to you at all are geared towards the cat s survival.
Since this would be place where he ate his meals his food dish becomes his lair in the home.
Now that you know at a high level why this happens.
Another theory is that as cats in the wild tend to eat where they sleep they don t want a rotting carcass lying around.
Domestic cat this is part of the burying behavior discussed above.
Whether it s a favored tree or a little cave it s somewhere that belongs only to him.
Other than just digging his paws around his food dish he may also try and hide things there.
Scratching around the food bowl is a common behaviour in cats which is completely normal.
Many cats will scratch paw or knead the ground around their food bowl before or after eating.
Why do cats dig and scratch around their food bowl.
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.
In the wild a cat has some sort of lair.
Another mysterious bit of behavior from your pal felis catus.
This is an instinctual behavior to hide the scent that leftover food leaves behind.
Wild cats as well as feral cats have all been observed burying any uneaten food to avoid attracting predators or scavengers.
Why does my cat scratch the area around his food.
These are large translucent storage containers that the cat can easily turn around in and when filled with about 3 inches of litter dig in to her heart s content.
Why does my cat scratch around his food.
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.
This assumption is inaccurate.