Why do cats bury their poop in front of their food?

Cat owners are no strangers to the strange actions their feline companions often make in front of food. (We can understand durian, but sometimes, cats will also bury their poop in front of delicious food. Why is that?)

Today’s content is a little explanation.

The reason why your cat buries its food actually depends on the situation. We’ll discuss two scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Sometimes, your cat will suddenly start rummaging through its food while eating, making scooping motions, or it might suddenly stop liking a food it used to love and continue burying it.

There are four possible reasons:

① Food storage behavior

When a cat is full, burying the leftovers to eat later is a food storage behavior. Hiding uneaten food for later consumption is an instinct ingrained in a cat’s genes. After all, when cats’ ancestors lived in the wild, they would go hungry or overeat if they didn’t store excess food.

At this time, it’s recommended that you reduce the amount of food you feed your cat each time, because its actions are telling you it can’t finish it.

② Loss of Appetite:

If your cat is faced with its favorite canned food but unexpectedly starts to sniff it and then bury it, this is mostly because it has lost its appetite. There are many reasons for this, such as being too full, the weather being too hot, or feeling unwell.

We need to observe the cat to see what’s wrong, such as any unusual behavior or physical pain. If the loss of appetite is due to hot weather, you could turn on the air conditioner.

③ Not used to the food:

This usually happens when changing food or switching to a different brand of food. The cat might initially be willing to try it, but after a couple of bites, it suddenly starts burying its food, indicating that it doesn’t like the taste.

④ Dislikes the placement of the food bowl:

Yes, cats can be picky sometimes. If your cat stops eating or tries to bury its food after you change its bowl’s location, it’s probably just protesting the new placement.

Scenario 2:

The cat is burying human food.

There are two possible reasons:

① This could be because the human food smells a bit bad to the cat’s nose… Cats hate this smell, but not everything that humans find smelly is smelly to cats. Some cats even like to eat durian!

② Trying to cover up the smell

If the food smells too strong or has a smell that makes the cat uncomfortable, it will instinctively try to bury it. This is because when cats lived in the wild, they would cover up certain strong smells to protect themselves and avoid attracting predators to the area. Burying feces is based on the same principle.