Does your cat overturn the food bowl and eat the kibble directly on the ground? He doesn’t do it out of spite, rather out of instinct. Let’s find out the main reasons for this behavior together
If you have ever witnessed the scene of a cat overturning the bowl of food and eating the treats directly from the ground, you may have also wondered what is behind this unusual behavior. What may seem completely anomalous to us humans may be extremely natural to our feline friends. We should therefore not be surprised to see this kind of attitudes: knowing the reasons behind it could help us to know and understand our cats better.
The cat overturns the bowl of food: the reasons
Similarly to what happens with other particular actions, such as when the cat brings prey home, the main explanation lies in the intrinsic nature of the feline, that is, in its primordial instinct.
Before becoming pets, cats were wild animals, and as such they needed to get their own food and at the same time had to make sure that no other predator was able to steal their hard-won prey. Mindful of these primitive activities, today’s cats have probably kept this instinct of theirs, coming to apply the same actions with the food provided by humans. Then, the felines spill the food on the ground to have the feeling of getting it for themselves and begin to play with it as it once was with the prey.
They could also take the treats to a place they perceive as safer and more sheltered, away from indiscreet jaws, pointing out a strong sense of territoriality towards other cats or animals.
Another cause could be that of a toothache in the cat: caries, crooked teeth, occlusions or bacterial infections could give him problems eating from the container, making him prefer to take out food to ingest more easily.
It could also be a behavioral disorder related to the shape, size or texture of the food, perceived by the cat as too big or too dry. For this reason, the cat would tend to put the kibble on the floor to be able to divide them calmly and adapt them to his needs.
How to solve the problem?
If you see that the cat moves the food after removing it from the container, try to place the bowl with the brittle directly in a safer and more secluded place, where cat can eat undisturbed.
It is then necessary to pay attention to the type of bowl, avoiding the deep ones and preferring the larger and wider ones: this could also be one of the reasons why the cat suddenly stops eating.
Finally, we recommend that you keep a broom, a binder and a damp rag close to the food container to make it easier to clean the crumbs dropped by the cat and repair the damage if you really can’t avoid it.
