Cat Only Eats Off The Floor

Both of my "cats" eat like raccoons. They use their paws to drink water and scoop dry food out of the dish and onto the floor. It wouldn't be so bad if they'd eat it all, but they leave pieces all over. There is a 3 foot area around their dishes of little bits of hard food that does not feel good on barefeet and it looks atrocious. I've tried using high sided dishes, flat pans, large bins, a towel under the dishes and none of them works! They are over a year old now and don't seem to be growing out of it. I'm at my wits end with the mess. (Joey Klein - Wisconsin)

This is a tricky problem, and one that I have never encountered before. It really is quite incredible the lengths your cats seem to go to to eat off the floor. I have two suggestions, but maybe they're not very useful. Firstly, if they're going to eat off the floor anyway, no matter what you do, you might as well minimize the mess. perhaps if you neatly pile the food on the floor in the first place less mess will be created by them trying to move it. Secondly, you didn't mention if you had tried using soft material as a 'plate'. You could try a flat piece of plastic such as a chopping board, and neatly place the food onto it. This might give to illusion they are eating from the floor...?