Our kitty (7 months) has less-than-desirable table manners that I would like to abate a bit, as they interfere with our cleanness standards. (The kitty seems to have, from the start, high cleanness standards in other respects, namely, he keeps his longish fur in perfect order, was perfectly toilet-trained, etc.) I used to have another cat that (was not a Coon and) did not exhibit this behaviour.
The cat uses his paws a lot when eating/drinking. He will lick milk or water on occasions, but more often he dips his front paw and licks the liquid from the paw, rather than drink from his bowl. At other times he will slosh the milk around the bowl. He lifts chunks of meat with paw, too, and tosses them randomly around bowl, maybe playing with them, eating them later from the floor. At other times, he burrows around the bowl (in vain, on a wooden floor) as if trying to hide its contents.
I do not know what to make of the burrowing. He usually does not finish what I give him, even in case I give him rather little wet food at one go. We give him high-quality canned meat for cats or freshly cooked meat at times. He seems loudly unhappy about going on solely dry food (which, admittedly, is much less messy).
I have tried a few options -- larger bowl, or bowl with saucer, to no great effect. I avoid deep bowls because of lots of whiskers. Of course I use a layer of newspaper to protect the floor, but no great improvement there either (burrows under newspaper for lost bits of food).
Before resigning, is there anything I can try?
