# Chi's instinct to bury bones/food?



## Pixie Luna (Jan 11, 2011)

Is it a Chi's/any dog's instinct to bury bones etc? - For some reason, I presumed this was just a Terrier instinct, ie digging/foraging etc?

(I think I may approach a problem with Pixie burying bones under cushions when I transfer her onto a RAW diet..)
I thought it would be ideal for her to chew on a raw bone whilst we watched TV but instead she was more concerned with taking it off somewhere...

Do your Chi's also move their food?
Both Luna and Pixie take their food out of the bowl and run off with it only to eat it about a metre away (Even at times when they are seperate and in a private place) which usually leaves a lovely trail around the house


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## BellaLina's Mom (Mar 16, 2007)

My late chi buried her dog biscuits throughout our home to eat at a later date. She also took her dog food (a few kibbles in her mouth) out of her food bowl, walked to her dog bed, and ate her kibbles there. We finally moved her food bowl next to her dog bed for her meals. She was the sole chi in our family. 

Bella also buries her treats in our home (usually under the blanket in her dog bed or in between the sofa cushions) to save for later; however, Lina would find Bella's buried treats and would eat them for her. :roll:


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## MChis (Oct 13, 2009)

Yeah it's really any dogs instinct to burry bones. They're high value & if they don't eat them right away they hide them until next time. I'm sure some Chi's/dogs are more apt to do this than others. I know Mari & Lulu will "burry" things with a blanket at times. I don't think you'll approach a problem with raw as long as you set a certain place for them to eat & just keep putting their food back on the towel/blanket/etc. If they've eaten enough that they're not hungry anymore...chances are they've eaten enough.  

Some do take pieces of food & go off & eat them until they are secure/comfortable in their eating spots. You can try seperating them a bit so they aren't so close together...or just give them time to become secure. When we fed kibble a new addition would always do this until they were here for a bit. I always kept my dogs eating close together (more a pack activity) and they did great. Still do actually.


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## CarrieAndCalista (Jul 22, 2011)

can you say AGHHHHHHH!!!!! This drives us completely insane. Everytime we puff the sofa we find all sorts of buried goodies, bits of food, hay from the rabbit cage, rabbit food, calista food, bones, chews, bits of toys, half eaten chicken chunks (we do puff the sofa every couple of days thankfully...).
She will also go through the burying ritual but without covering the items... i.e. in the corner of the room, she will rub her nose along the carpet to 'cover' the food for 20 odd minutes until she is satisfied... and then walk away leaving the goody in plain sight. We pretend for her sake that we can't see it... don't want to damage the ego


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## svdreamer (Feb 20, 2010)

CarrieAndCalista said:


> She will also go through the burying ritual but without covering the items... i.e. in the corner of the room, she will rub her nose along the carpet to 'cover' the food for 20 odd minutes until she is satisfied... and then walk away leaving the goody in plain sight. We pretend for her sake that we can't see it... don't want to damage the ego


That's so funny. None of mine bury things, though I STILL can't find Delilah's collar, but they do run off to eat their mouthful of food somewhere else.


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## klein (Dec 17, 2011)

oh my i just laughed out loud as i was googling this "issue" and this topic came up.
Klein is hilarious as he does this all the time, then eventually gives up and eats his food.. but omg this is funny!
covering the food with 'thin air'... LOL


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## theshanman97 (Feb 19, 2012)

tillie does that! LOL in my mums plant pots -_-  x


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

BG loves to hide things and when I tried to teach her and Sonny to potty in a litter box Sonny would potty outside of it but use it as a sandbox to bury his bone! LOL


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## Bandit (Jan 4, 2012)

When I first brought Bandit home he would try to hide his treats. I really had not paid attention to the fact that he had stopped doing that until we went to my mom's house this weekend. There is another dog there, and he was again trying to hide the special treats. (Stolen from the other dog, of course.)


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## proudpeyotemama (Feb 20, 2012)

Ote ALWAYS takes her food to another spot when she's eating. Even before we had Mojo, she would take a mouthful of kibble and run off under the couch to eat. Now that I switched her over to raw, she tries to drag the raw meat under there as well. I have to watch her closely and confine her to the kitchen floor near her bowl, which she hates (but ICK I don't want raw meat juice on my carpet, LOL). As for the digging, she doesn't really try to hide any of her food in our house, luckily. But she does occasionally get into her "digging moods" where she will literally dig for 20 minutes at her dog bed with such determination. She has a donut bed, and she loves to shove her paws into the creases and dig like she's going all the way to China. LOL


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## Chi Nation (Mar 7, 2012)

*YES!!! Hotchi and Nugz (knuckles) bury just about everything. If i give them a piece of biscuit or a treat and they dont feel like eating it, they will walk off and stuff it in cushions, a blanket, in my shoes is their fav spot, in one of the dog beds, or in the stack of wood. I think it funny to watchthem hide stuff :foxes251:*


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## intent2smile (Dec 4, 2011)

Jaxx hides items in his bed. I wash his bed every week and now I know to look in it very closely but the first time I ended up washing treats and greenies.

Jaxx has also always taken his food to another spot. When we first got him he took it to his bed but now that he is relaxed and used to our home he brings it into the middle of the living room and eats it in front of us. I joke that he just wants company while he eats. I would love to switch Jaxx to a raw diet but we can't confine him in our kitchen while he eats because the entry way is too large. I don't want to risk getting yucky stuff all over the carpet so he isn't going into a raw diet anytime soon. I am hoping that we have a better setup so that I can keep him in the kitchen when we move and then I can switch him to a raw diet.


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## LaceyGirl (Jan 10, 2012)

Between Lacey and my ferrets, my rug never has anything on it...everything gets dragged under my futon or hidden under blankets. 
Lacey's finally decided to eat all her kibble instead of stashing it, but she still will eat half a chew-stick and hide the rest. It drives me NUTS!


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## OzChi (Oct 26, 2011)

Chloe eats anything you give her immediately but Axle loves to bury things in his bed or hide them behind the TV unit. Then he goes back to where Chloe is eating and whines because she has something and he doesn't. Then Chloe goes and unearths what he buried and eats it and he really does end up with nothing. This whole drama is very entertaining to watch, no matter how many times it happens he still hasn't learnt to just eat what he's got!


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## Chi Nation (Mar 7, 2012)

LaceyGirl said:


> It drives me NUTS!


I know the feeling. Everytime i am cleaning the house i have to be careful how hard i shake the blankets out lol Little pieces of treats and buiscits will fly everywhere. :foxes251:


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## Finn (Sep 14, 2010)

Mine will try to hide poo in their beds. That's just great . . .


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## GoldenPig (Mar 31, 2012)

Trudee, my 9-month old Chi will bury every pig ear, treat or bone she gets. By bury, I mean hide in a blanket or in her daddy's office, under a chair or the bed. She doesn't leave it there long, though, a few minutes seems to satisfy her instinct.


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## Chachis Mom (Dec 23, 2011)

CarrieAndCalista said:


> can you say AGHHHHHHH!!!!! This drives us completely insane. Everytime we puff the sofa we find all sorts of buried goodies, bits of food, hay from the rabbit cage, rabbit food, calista food, bones, chews, bits of toys, half eaten chicken chunks (we do puff the sofa every couple of days thankfully...).
> She will also go through the burying ritual but without covering the items... i.e. in the corner of the room, she will rub her nose along the carpet to 'cover' the food for 20 odd minutes until she is satisfied... and then walk away leaving the goody in plain sight. We pretend for her sake that we can't see it... don't want to damage the ego


This sounds very familiar. Chachi does it too. I was wondering where all the chew stix were going and lifted the couch cushion one night, and found out? LOL ...it was FULL of them. 

He also takes his kibble out of his bowl and eats it a few yards away. Crazy dog!


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## quinnandleah (Sep 28, 2011)

Leah does this with everything. Her favorite place to hide stuff is under my moms behind on the couch. :rollseyes:


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