pick up when he is done and give him a fuzzy ball?

My kitten Rhett does this too. I just put the bowl of dry food up
when he starts because he isn't interested in eating it. I've found
that if I put dry out on a carpetted surface rather than the
kitchen floor that it isn't as much fun and he'll just go to the
food when he wants to eat it. This spring is not going to be fun
because he bats the food under the stove which is hard to clean it
out from, so I'll probably have a big-time ant problem.

I work away from home anywhere from 10-11 hours a day, so in the
kitten stage it can't be helped to leave out food, dry so it
doesn't rot, and full of fillers and calories to bulk them up. This
is where leaving it on a carpetted floor helps. You just have to be
prepared to keep the carpet cleaned or else face pest problems.

I keep hoping he'll outgrow it because I've never had a cat do this
before. My sister has a tiger tabby cat and he still bats food
around (dog food because sis has a big dog) and he's 3 years old
now.

He's doing it because it's fun.  It's normal for some kittens and full grown
cats.  I don't know if it can be stopped, but I'm having trouble imagining how
you would stop it.

At least it's dry food.  Er, it is dry food, right?

(Hrm, maybe switching to wet food -- which current thinking seems to indicate
is better for cats anyway -- would solve the problem.)

Sounds normal to me.  Francis eats his dry kitten food up on a high
chair/stool so he won't have to defend it against his older siblings.
Sometimes he'll knock a piece out and down off the chair to where the
big cats are waiting below.  I think he's teasing them!  But generally,
after chowing down for a while, he'll start pulling pieces out of the
bowl one at a time and eating them off the chair cushion.  He
particularly likes to knock them into the little valleys formed by the
buttons on the cushion so he'll have to work to get them out again.
He's like a three year-old playing with his food!

Priscilla

***Justin,

Yes, it can be stopped with time and training. I wouldn't call this
behavior normal, but it's not necessarily abnormal. I have a kitten who does
the same thing, but luckily, he only does this occasionally.  I'm training
him, Dove, not to do this. That this/his behavior is not* okay with me. So
far, so good. Personally, I don't want food scattered all over the kitchen
floor for me to have to sweep up, not to mention waste. Also Counters,
tables, and my couch, is 'off limits' to him.

What I* do when I see Dove take his paw, then dip into the dry food bowl to
begin scattering his dry food all over the floor, is say very loudly to him,
"NO!!" Then I remove the food bowl and place it on the counter. Basically
the more you let you cat/kitten know that this is NOT okay with you, and
immediately remove the food bowl, then they eventually will 'get' that it's
not okay with you. But you must be totally consistent in/ with reminding him
or her that their food is not* a toy, it's to eat and not* play with. HTH.

ML