Cat scooping food out of dry food bowl

[Zevida]

My rascally cat who just turned one year old likes to put her favorite toy (a hair tie) in her dry food dish, eat some food, and then she tries to fish the hair tie out of the bowl. Which results in her using her paw to scoop copious amounts of food out of the bowl and onto the floor.

I use a very wide, shallow dish. Initially I thought maybe she was scooping food out to eat because maybe the bowl was too deep and whisker fatigue, so that’s why I went with the very wide and shallow bowl. I’m tired of cleaning up her mess. Any suggestions for alternate food bowls or approaches?

[RedHorses]

I had a ball with adjustable holes that let the dry food out a kibble at a time. The cat has to bat the ball around to get their food out. My cat loved it.

[CanadianTrotter]

Try picking the hair tie up and hide it away until after she’s done eating.

[Zevida]

@CanadianTrotter

Try picking the hair tie up and hide it away until after she’s done eating.

Right now they get free feed dry food, which while they were kittens I wanted. I’d like to wean them to wet food only and maybe this is a good motivating factor! I need to find a wet food this kitty likes more first though. My boy is happy with his wet food but she barely eats any of it.

Last night I tried moving the dry food dish to the table, because I thought she probably wouldn’t carry the toy up there. And she did not but when I woke up this morning the dish had been moved to nearly the edge of the table and a bunch of kibble spilled out. She just likes scooping out the food to even eat it.

This morning I switched to a very heavy and deep dish - it’s still wide enough to be comfortable. She can still fish a few bits of kibble out but it’s harder and she can only get a few pieces out instead of whole scoops, so less mess so far today.

[jvanrens]

I have a cheap rubbery placemat that I put under the dishes, so when spillage occurs (often through my bad aim) I can just pick it up and put the kibble back in the dish.

Now if I could get my dog to quite carrying her kibble into the livingroom to eat, I’d be happy.

[endlessclimb]

I’m clearly not a cat person - I had no idea they prefer dry kibble to wet! All the barn cats about fell over themselves when I’d bring wet food as a treat, and all the dogs I’ve known would go for wet food before dry.

Interesting!

[CanadianTrotter]

@Zevida

She just likes scooping out the food to even eat it.

Maybe it’s an age thing? If she’s young that’s probably the reason she’s doing it.

When my Ella was younger she used to scoop the food out of the dish one at a time and then play air hockey with it, then eat it and go back for the next piece to do it again. She actually ate everything she swiped out so it didn’t bother me. She grew out of that and then started dragging her favourite mousy toy that I had tied a long shoelace to the food bowl, put the end of the string into the food and then eat. She stopped doing that and now her habit is to lick her paw, rub her paw on the food then lick her paw. She isn’t eating the kibble, she’s wiping the fat flavouring onto her paw and licking it off.

Rotten Ralph is 15 years old and has never played with the water bowls until now. Now he swipes water out onto the floor before he drinks. I put the water bowl into a large, high sided oblong plastic container and it has seemed to stop him… so far.

Maybe get a taller bowl and put less food in it? It would be harder for her to get the food out onto the floor.

ETA: Oops, I forgot you said you had a deeper dish.

[Zevida]

@endlessclimb

I’m clearly not a cat person - I had no idea they prefer dry kibble to wet! All the barn cats about fell over themselves when I’d bring wet food as a treat, and all the dogs I’ve known would go for wet food before dry.

Interesting!

Cats are persnickety!

[Zevida]

@CanadianTrotter

Maybe it’s an age thing? If she’s young that’s probably the reason she’s doing it.

I definitely think it’s a playful young cat thing and hopefully she’ll grow out of it…but in the meantime I’m going to try to minimize the mess.

[Zevida]

@jvanrens

I have a cheap rubbery placemat that I put under the dishes, so when spillage occurs (often through my bad aim) I can just pick it up and put the kibble back in the dish.

Now if I could get my dog to quite carrying her kibble into the livingroom to eat, I’d be happy.

I have a placemat too but it’s only just the right size for the large bowl so most of the kibble ends up the floor and it can be several paw sizes scoops worth

[Zevida]

I forgot to add a pet tax pic. Here is the sweet innocent food scooping mess making baby.

[jvanrens]

Mine is big enough for two dishes, since we have to hairballs, it’s the size of a human placemat, but with a rim. I sometimes lack accuracy first thing in the morning so it is handy!

[CanadianTrotter]

@Zevida

@CanadianTrotter

Maybe it’s an age thing? If she’s young that’s probably the reason she’s doing it.

I definitely think it’s a playful young cat thing and hopefully she’ll grow out of it…but in the meantime I’m going to try to minimize the mess.

Put her food bowl in a container like the one I put Ralph’s water in. She will still get the food out of the bowl but it will be contained inside the container and easier to clean up.

[ASBJumper]

For the same reason people would rather eat yummy sugary or salty snacks over raw vegetables if that’s what they’re used to eating, cats will often reject anything that doesn’t taste/smell like “kitty crack” (kibble).

Because dry cat food is ultra-processed, dehydrated and pretty much devoid of any nutritional value, stuff has to be “added back” in during the manufacturing process - and the final touch is spraying the kibble nuggets with a “tasting spray” that is an artificial flavour enhancer, which entices them to eat food that is not really food.

@Zevida I would encourage you to pursue the wet-only route, but it will likely take a while to convince your kitty you’re not torturing her.

I just got two foster kittens in last week. I was told they had tried a variety of canned food but that they would only eat Friskies (Chef’s Dinner pate variety), and the rescue gave me a big bag of kibble. I asked if it would be ok if i tried to wean them off the kibble, they said sure. They were SUPER picky/disinterested about most of the wet food - until i stopped offering kibble. Lo and behold, it’s been 9 days and they will now eat ANY type of wet food i put in front of them. With gusto. One of them has also come around to bits of cooked chicken - which they both turned their noses up at when they first arrived (“sniff sniff… wtf is this…?”).

Bottom line - kibble = bad. Free feeding kibble = doubly bad.

So go with your gut, and start the transition to wet food. Maybe even throw in some freeze-dried raw or cooked meat here and there, too. Obligate carnivores are supposed to eat meat.

[Christa_P]

I use a plastic boot mat to put the food and water bowls on.

[trubandloki]

Be happy it is the kibble?
Ok, so that is not really a solution.

I would go with a bigger mat, like the boot mat mentioned above.

I have a cat who likes to play in the water dish. Scooping water out with their paw, splashing it all over.

[shiloh]

All that’s missing in that top pic is the halo. She is too cute and doesn’t she know it.

[Larbear]

Sorry but she can do no wrong

[RedHorses]

I had a cat who liked to push her water bowl around because she liked to watch the light (through clear water and bowl) wobble on the floor. I got a solid ceramic bowl to solve that!

[Zevida]

I am pleased to report my gigantic heavy ceramic mixing bowl has worked well to minimize the mess. She can only get one or two kibbles up the side of it at a time so no more sweeping up pawfuls of wasted food. She can also still get her hair tie toy fished out. And she and her brother don’t seem bothered by eating out of it.

I only saw her standing in it like this the one time