My 8 month old MC has exhibited a strange behaivior since she we got het at about 10 weeks. Sometimes she will 'scatch' the lenoliem floor in our kitchen when she is near her food dishes. She is not really scratching the hard floor as she does not extend her claes, she just makes like a wiping mothing with her arms/paws and always aropund the visinity of her food/water dishes. Its this a 'marking' behavior. She still does it now and then and usually when she does it she does not eat/drink afterwards. Anyone else MC do this? s it a MC thing or a cat thing?

Marianne and Paul

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Answers

My MC does the same thing when I give him cat treats or food that he doesn't want. He trys to "bury" it by scratching on the floor; or if I set the food on the throw rug in the kitchen, he trys to bury the food with the throw rug (and does succeed!) I guess they're trying to say, "No thanks; I'm full!"

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2000

Thank you! I've figured out my cat (got her from the Humane Society) is a MC and she does the same thing! I wondered why. She will paw at the placemat under her food dish, sometimes covers the food dish with the nearby kitchen rug. If the kids leave a bowl of cereal on the table she'll paw at the placemat under it, sometimes covering the bowl with the mat! So if this is commom to MC, why do they do this? My calico cat doesn't do it.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

I have a 12 week old MC female kitten who does this but my *pound kitty* burries his dish as well. When I put more food in the bowl than they want to eat at one sitting, they will bury it, and will even bury the others bowl -- saving for later, I suppose but what about this twist?

I "arbitrarily" try a new food flavor/texture and it gets turned down cold (sniffed but not a morsel past the whiskers) they bury that too - but for MUCH later! ;-)

BJ

-- Anonymous, December 16, 2000