Why would a cat cover one type of food, but not another?

Question

We've had a new cat for about a month now, and have barely been able to observe him until fairly recently -- he was quite scared of people at the start; almost too scared to eat.

Now he's starting to get into being petted, eating when he's hungry instead of in a rush in the middle of the night, etc.

And he's taking whatever's handy and covering his wet food with it after eating a bit.

Rather bizarrely, he doesn't do this with the dry food.

We've got one other cat, who I've never seen fighting him for the food or anything. Wet food comes out when he seems hungry (he's underweight), and there's a supply of dry out at all times.

There's a mention of cats covering food here: http://www.healthypet.com/faq_view.aspx?ID=92&sid=2 but it doesn't explain why it'd be just the wet. (There's a variety of wet, and all kinds of wet get covered, too.) He _does_ like to eat the stuff.

It is an amusing quirk. But is he trying to tell me something about the wet food, and if so, what?

Answer 1

One of my cats does the same thing with her wet food. I asked the Vet once and he said that it is a natural instinct that cats have. Their larger cousins Lions and Leopards kill large prey and feed off the kill for several days so they bury it or hide it in a tree for safe keeping.

So, not only does the kitty like the wet food...he likes it so much he wants to save it until later and make sure no other kitties get at the good eats....

Answer 2

I agree with both of the answers you've gotten, but just from my own experience of more than 30 years being owned by cats, I think the second answer is more often the case. It is really surprising how many cats do not like canned food. The cats I have now do not even like most kinds of fish.
I think if he was just trying to save it, he'd try to do the same with the dry food.

Answer 3

Kitty is telling you exactly what he thinks that wet food smells like! He may eat it sometimes, but that is not what he likes best.

My roommate kept trying to feed his cats wet food and one of them would eat a few bites and then try to cover it, and they always preferred my cats' dry food. He eventually gave up on the wet food because most of it was being wasted.

They all get tuna a couple of times a week, but they are very healthy on almost all dry food.