Four-legged friends, as you know, walk on their own. They are mysterious, playful, at times elementary intolerable, but thousands of people almost adore furry pets. But for the owners it remains a mystery why cats after eating eat food. Probably anyone with a favorite mustachioed friend lives in this apartment. A cat or cat suddenly starts digging around its own bowl, amusingly clawing its claws on the floor surface that the owners bed in their own kitchen, trying to bury their lunch.
The action of furry friends is associated with cat instincts or habits, that is, acquired skills. No need to worry or come up with terrible reasons for what is happening - your cat "listens" to its own intuition. But if you are absorbed in interest or you need to understand the promises of an unusual action - read our article.
Absolute reflexes and their significance
Any animal endures all hardships thanks to absolute reflexes. Cats, kittens hunt and strive for this "by nature." Purring, pawing in place, malleable friction on the arm are also instincts. There are a number of solid, absolute instincts that control the life of the pet as a whole: breathing, coughing, sneezing, sucking, chewing, illness, vomiting.
A mother cat not only tries to bury food every time, but can also hide it in the most unforeseen places. For example, a piece of meat steak behind a freezer. Food instillation can be associated with almost any absolute reflex.
Instincts
Experts believe that cats have preserved some ancient instincts. So, a tame cat is prone to very unbridled actions, for example, instillation of food. What are the reasons?
The trivial root cause of this action is related to the desire to hide food leftovers from rivals to satisfy their own hunger.
Instinct - attraction to satiety. When the animal is hungry or has not eaten up, the pet begins to dig the floor, tries to “dig out” supplies from it, into which they were supposedly buried.
Digging and digging in food is manifested only in the autumn or spring. This is due to the presence of vitamin deficiency and increased appetite.
Burial of food or its residues can be explained by the cat’s desire to clean up. Cats are very clean - they will definitely bury their toilet and leave a clean place after their lunch.
Another reflex of instillation of food is associated with the smell. This means that if “aroma” comes from food - an unbearable, unacceptable odor resulting from a spoiled feed, then in this case the four-legged pets will also bury the food.
In the event that your family friend refuses high-quality dry food, bury it and ignore it in any way, the root cause is hidden in the cat’s own preferences.
Quite possibly, it’s not to your tailed pet’s taste, or he decided to arrange a fasting day for himself (yes, this happens with cats).
And if more than one tailed pet lives in the apartment, then digging in food is, first of all, desire to hide it from the opponent.
Habits
Habits and rules are the result of an experienced skill, both positive and negative. Basic feline households are trained to use the toilet tray. Many may have a logical question: "How exactly is the tray associated with the instillation of food?"
Almost directly. As a rule, bowls with food and water are nearby, and at times they are combined. Not all owners have time to buy a Velcro mat. When the bowls are combined, the cat often, making its way to food, clings to the drinker and splashes water.
Seeing a puddle on the floor and realizing that the owner will not like it, the cat will try to very quickly eliminate the “misconduct”: she digs the floor, and then she knocks over the cup and bury the water with food.
There is still the root cause of digging a bowl of food - the cat does not like her eating place. There are a lot of reasons: the pet does not feel protected there, it is cool or it is repelled by some unpleasant aroma. Also, do not place cups of cat food near the washing machine: the sound made by the appliance can immediately scare the animal, as a result of which it will experience discomfort and fear.
Remove the bowl to another place, cover the place where you eat with a rug, you can use a thick oilcloth, do not distract the cat when it dines, and carefully make sure that other family members do not distract it. A more effective way is to put bowls of food and water on the windowsill or on the rug near her bed, protect your pet from possible irritants.
Hungry memories
There are times when a pet tries to bury a bowl of food every time. It is likely that in the past he was very hungry and still can not forget this unpleasant stage of his own life. This oddity must be understood. Only affection, affection, peace and stability will help your friend free himself from fear of hunger.
Antipathy
Some “diggers” are driven by antipathy. Remember how painstakingly neat cats burrow their own excrement so that the “aroma” does not spread? Also, the cat can painstakingly bury food, too, the one that she did not like.
Thus, if a pet snorts and scornfully rubs its paw, scratches the floor, look at its bowl - maybe they gave it a spoiled product or something with a pungent smell got into the dry food (garlic,onion or lemon peel).
If the bowl is located in the kitchen near the garbage bucket, the not very pleasant smell coming from there irritates the tailed ones - in this regard, the pet may also begin to bury the bowl.
Tasty food
In addition to the above reasons, cats can bury home food if they like it. Thus, he experiences and demonstrates gastronomic admiration. The dish seemed so delicious to the animal that the genes of the forefathers woke up in it, and the pet decided to arrange supplies. Please note that wild cats also hide not all prey, but only the most delicious.
Well, connoisseurs of good cuisine, of course, cherish only what they like best. If the cat starts digging after having lunch or dinner with great appetite, this means that he appreciated your kindness and care.
Conclusion
So, to summarize, what are the reasons for burying food:
- unfortunate place where the bowl is;
- low quality products;
- stress due to loud and unpleasant sounds, the presence of other animals or annoying people;
- the cup is very dirty;
- low floor temperature;
- depressed pet position;
- disease and malaise.
Playing with food is an original method to attract a host. Pets often lack attention from owners who occasionally go home and ignore them. Scolding animals for playing with food is contraindicated.
If your pet digs, buries a bowl of food, then felinologists are primarily advised to make sure that the four-legged pet is not stressed. It is necessary to provide the cat with its own place, so that other animals do not have the opportunity to approach his food. Also, loud technical devices are not allowed to be placed near the bowl. In addition, the place where the animal eats should be kept clean.
To wean the cat to dig the floor, you need to take care of him, monitor his feeding, allocate portions of food at one time, carefully check the quality of the products.
If you see that the animal has again taken up the old, then distract his attention by giving his favorite toy.
You will learn more about the causes of cat behavior in the video below.