Why do cats try to bury their food?

Does this sound familiar? You feed your cat and after eating, they start pawing around the sides of the dish like they're trying to bury it? My cats will even hop up on to the table and try to bury my plate, sometimes while I'm still in mid-meal! Why do cats try and bury their food? 

Catster.com says your cat my be trying to bury food to save it for later. This is called caching and it's an instinct inherited from cats in the wild! When a big cat like a mountain lion makes a kill, they sometimes have leftovers. They will cover the meat they haven't eaten with leaves, sticks and grass so they can come back to it later. Your cat may not have killed a deer, but they still have the instinct to try to cover their leftovers so they can try to save them for later! They don't have any leaves or sticks, so many cats will paw around their dish to simulate this caching behavior. A few scrapes around the dish is usually enough for my cats, but some will actually cover their food with a napkin or towel if they can get their paws on it.

Caching might be more common in multi-cat households where cats might feel like they need to compete for resources. They might try to bury food because they are afraid the other cats will eat what they have left and then there won't be enough for them. If you think your cat is getting a little obsessive over trying to bury their food, catster.com recommends giving each cat their own food and water dish and privacy while eating. 

 Thecatisinthebox.com mentions an extreme case of caching - the Reverend George Wood wrote about his cat in his book The Illustrated Natural History. His cat would search for a piece of paper to cover her food. If she was unable to find one, she'd dig around in his wife's pocket for a handkerchief. Failing that, she was known to put a kitten on the food, shred up the carpet and put the shreds over the food, and even went so far as to pull the entire tablecloth from the table to cover her food! 

Another reason why cats pretend to bury their food is that they are trying to cover up the smell. Last week I learned that a cat might lick their lips after a meal to make sure there isn't any food smell on them, and burying their food might serve the same purpose. Since domestic cats can be both predators and prey, Pangovet.com says that cats know that leftover food smells could attract bigger predators that could hurt them, so they would want to try to mask that smell.

Covering food may be especially important for mama cats trying to make sure their kittens are safe from predators that might smell leftovers. Mama cats might also be caching their food to make sure there is enough for the kittens. So, if your cat has had kittens and has suddenly become more interested in trying to bury food, she is being a good mother! 

Pangovets.com mentions another reason why why cats bury their food and it's because they want their area to be neat. Anyone who knows cats know they spend a lot of time grooming themselves, so this might be their way of grooming their space. They might drop or splash their food around while eating, but they don't want to come back to a mess at their next meal. 

There is one more reason why cats might try to bury their food, and that is if they don't like it! If your cat gives their food a sniff and then immediately goes into scratching around it, it could be that they don't like the way it smells and are trying to dispose if it. I suspect that this is often the reason why my cats try to bury my food at the dinner table. They think I'm eating garbage! If your cat is having this reaction to cat food though, check out the expiration date, and catster.com also recommends storing any leftover wet food in the fridge or disposing of it within an hour to try to make sure food is fresh and safe for your cat to eat. 

For the most part, a cat trying to bury food is a harmless instict, but if your cat is damaging the floor while scratching or getting food all over the house and you want to try to discourage it, Catster.com has some advice. We mentioned above that in a multi-cat household, you may want to have separate food and water dishes for each cat so that they don't feel as insecure about their food. If possible feed your cat on a hard floor or put a mat under their bowls to make it easier to clean up any stray food. They also recommend supervising feeding times and taking away the bowl when it seems like they are done. Then you can distract them with some playtime instead. Giving smaller meals more frequently so that there aren't leftovers to be buried might also help. They also mention that an automatic feeder can help with that if you aren't home all day to give smaller meals. 

Does your cat try to bury their food? Do you just leave them to it until they are satisfied, or have you tried to change their behavior? If so, do you have any tricks that worked on your food-burying friend? 

Cover photo by Bryan Debin on Unsplash