I haven't had mine do that with thier food or 'thanks God' there poop. Although Bob will pick out a piece of food drop it next to the dish and eat it.

However, Joey will take just about anything and play what I call soccer. She bats it around and then goes for the score and bats it under something. It really looks like she is going to the shot sometimes.

You might want to enticing Nicodemus into using plastic bottle caps from water or pop bottles. Joey loves those. I am assuming she like them because they are free.