this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Speaking of animals and food oddities, my dog used to carry his food one mouthful at a time out to the living room so he could eat around us. He'd drop it on the floor and then leisurely eat it and go back for more.

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[–] [email protected] 120 points 2 months ago (2 children)

When cats bring you food, mice, birds, etc. it's because they think you're an especially stupid cat, but they like you enough to keep trying to take care of/teach you.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This has been debunked, unfortunately, male cats do this too, and they don't teach kittens to hunt.

It is believed now, they simpltdo this because they want to bring their prey to their core territory. Which is also where you are.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad 56 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

My fatto catto has somehow learned to catch chipmunks but i am unsure if he cant (because he is mostly toothless) kill them or wont. He will bring them to me to show his prowess just.... Jammed in his jaws until i praise him and give him a treat to drop the lil guy who quits playing dead and scampers off. Three chipmunk messiahs have been ressurrected thusly.

Funnily enough this has not caused the chipmunks to respect him. A younger chipmunk came up while my killer was recharging in the sun and pulled his butt hair and once he had his attention, scampered off to his safe space on the fence to chirp. I dunno if it's the same guy but when my cat is inside there's one little dude who will come by my door to looking for him. Shits like Tom and Jerry out here

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My parent's cat would do the same thing. They hated it because they had to get the messiah chipmunks out of the house.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Our family's first cat brought in a crow. I can't remember how we got the crow out of the house lol

[–] wander1236 33 points 2 months ago (3 children)

My orange idiot will wait at the door with a mouse in his mouth until I let him in and then put it on the ground and scream at me to make sure I see it. He'll never eat it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

My old house ended up with a mouse problem in the utility room (which was weird, we couldnt find where they were coming from, and never any mouse evidence in any other room, so we could only guess it was because it was warm? The mice were pretty skinny) And my single orange brain cell absolutely loved playing with them if they ignored the set traps and crawled under the door. He would play and play and play, until I guess the mouse simply died of exhaustion or maybe being chomped just right.

Anyway, it was dead, and he'd still bat it around, and eventually I'd hear him yowling as if he'd lost a toy somewhere he can't reach, and sure enough he batted the dead mouse under the couch down there.

To this day, toy mice are by far his favorite thing to play with. He'll play with feathered wands and catnip kickers, but a toy mouse he'll play with alone or with you any time of day for up to a couple hours at a time.

[–] prettybunnys 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You could try not letting your cat out, that’s a neat trick.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I love this fight. Some frame it as US vs. UK thing when it's just animal welfare thing. It gets juicy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

...our orange kitty does the same, but he's the smartest cat we've ever known: perfectly adept at opening doors on his own, so we must keep them all deadbolted lest we find wild critters brought into the house, which has happened on several occasions...

(he's also pretty good at operating our ipads and desktop computers; he's sent gibberish text-messages more than once and i worry that someday he'll buy something online!)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Then why do they put it down right by you and leave it? When it's for themselves, they'll eat it or play with it. At least my mob do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

"yo, can you put this away for me? I got shit to do. Laters"

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 months ago

They are not exactly wrong now, are they?

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The cat never sees you eat and is concerned. The dog carries his food out to you for roughly the same reason, he wants you to know he is eating and you should not worry about him. It's a social thing many animals do.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My ex wife got really pissed when I would take a bite and thoughtfully place it in front of her on the floor.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Honestly, her fault for marrying a non sapient creature.

[–] ellabee 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

my guinea pig herdleader likes when everyone gets to eat a treat.

she didn't really get why the cat liked meatpaste, but she'd yell until I put out a treat for the cat. I often grab a little something to eat while I sit next to the pen with them while they eat their veggies. it makes them feel like I am part of their little herd. i get all the positive reinforcement grooming and nuzzling affection.

she's just a little too greedy to give me her food, though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

In fairness, humans do this too. Ever share a meal where someone has already eaten? People find it extremely off-putting. It's to the point where pacing your eating to someone else will make them like you more

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 months ago

Pretty girl! Taking good care of her human, too. You're lucky to have such a good friend. 🐈 ❤️

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Cats in the wild tend to share food with their friends. They must think we're some rude ass motherfuckers when we push them away from our own dinner.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, we also think they're rude motherfuckers with how much they insist on dropping stuff from tables and using our computers and laptops as beds

[–] piccolo 3 points 2 months ago

Maybe they are trying to tell us the internet is giving us severe brainrot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Ours gets bits of cold cuts on breakfast. She sits in her sitting basket on the table and starts waving if she's not getting enough cold cuts.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (4 children)

My cat eats a few bites of food then finds a string, swallows it down a good bit, then pulls the string back up from her throat and takes a few more bites of food. This continues for her whole meal.

There's nothing more disgusting than stepping on her food string. It's cold and wet. So gross.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That is bizarre! Do you think she might have weird stomach acid production? Like, maybe she uses the string to evacuate some sort of gross stomach fluid? I am going to lose sleep over this

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Interesting idea! When she doesn't have string, she just chews a toy to death. But I'm not sure if that's evidence against or for your idea

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

That is uniquely peculiar, but somehow completely normal cat behaviour. As in, I'm sure she is the only cat that does that, but they all have one equally strange habit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

She's just making sure to floss after eating c:

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

One of my cats love fishing used tea leaves out from mugs. She doesn't eat them, she just paws the leaves out from the cups and then leaves them on the counter. We have no idea why she does it but she absolutely insists on doing it. No other cat does this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

That cat knows the future

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My cat sometimes drives her little scooter to my workplace when i forget my lunch.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

Your roomba either has great battery life, or you WFH.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Maybe she thinks youre eating it

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My dog also carries around mouthfuls of food. She'll spit it out and then eat it one piece at a time. She's better at chewing up her food than I am. You can hand her a grain of rice and she will chew it up before swallowing it

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

My dog swallows things whole, including rocks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I have to be very careful when I eat pizza. My dog will sneak up and swallow a slice whole before I can react.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I caught her chewing a piece of glass one time. Found it outside. Barely had a graze on her gums. She's a wild fucking dog with insane mouth and tongue control

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I'm ashamed to admit that we found our dog chewing on a scraper razor blade once, to our horror. No idea how he got it, and we're even more baffled by the fact that he wasn't injured. We're pretty much on 24/7 suicide watch over here.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

our dog does the exact same thing! she'd rather eat by her humans than where her food actually is xD

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

My dog also did the same thing, but it was to the front hall.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

When dogs do that relocation of food is because they don't feel safe eating at the bowl. Usually because it is in a corner or the shape of the bowl blocks their peripheral view. They are skittish of where they eat, since it is instinctively a vulnerable act. Same reason they might get zoomies after pooping, you want to be as far away as possible as the smell gives away your position, predator stuff. Relocate the bowl to a location with a wider view of the room, not giving their back to open spaces. And choose a wide but shallow bowl that lets them see what is in their surroundings as they eat.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Dunno, that might be true in general, but he'd only do it when we were in the living room.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

My dog does the same thing! I didn't know that was a semi-common thing

I'm not super convinced it's to eat around us with my boy, because he'll do it in the middle of the night too. But he has to do it where there's carpet. He'll only eat if there's carpet he can spit his food onto. Rugs under his food bowl don't count lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago