Answer: This is instinctive behavior, resembling taking the prey somewhere quite to eat it, and it arises frequently in cats fed with large piece of meat. Quite a number of cats prefer to remove food from their dish and to eat it from a piece of paper placed alongside. If the food is moved no further, this may will prove acceptable to you.
The technique recommended for training cat not to remove food from the dish is simply to tell the cat firmly ‘No’ and then to pick up the food and replace it in the dish. This should be repeated as often as is necessary for the cat to get the idea. If this doesn’t work, try serving a very sloppy diet with plenty of added gravy which it will be impossible to carry about.
One item to check is that the side of the feeding bowl is not so high that it touches the animal’s neck and interferes with swallowing.
