Sleeping in the Litterbox?

I was in PetSmart (pet-stuff store) who keep cats and dogs there to adopt and while there I saw two of the cats sleeping in their litterboxes. Now all the cats had cat beds and a little nook to sleep in as well as a litterbox in their cage. Is there a reason why they would prefer to sleep in a box rather than the bed? And if one of these cats were adopted, how likely would it be that they'd sleep in their litterbox at home?

Just curious...

I'm sure someone else will come by and say much the same. But sleeping in their litter boxes seems to be something cats pick up from being in shelters, maybe because the cages they're kept in are sort of small or maybe they just feel more secure there. I have seen threads on this board where people have adopted cats that have this behavior.
If given space and plenty of other more comfortable places to sleep, I'm sure any kitty would chose else where for a nap once they settled in to the home.

Cats in wire or metal cages often curl up in their boxes. I've noticed it too when I worked in rescue. Cats are very sensitive to textures (like how many cats like sitting on paper.) One of my cats has super-thick fur. We live in the South and it was 91 degrees here yesterday where many other states are buried under snow. Anyway, this cat likes to lay in the bathtub or on the tile at the hearth to cool off so the temperature in the store could be part of the equation. Perhaps more influential is that a cat's natural instinct in an unfamiliar situation is to hide. Sometimes the shallow sides of the litter box is better than nothing!

The likelihood of these cats continuing to sleep in a box once they move to a home is very small. They'll find better places to hide!

http://howtoholdacat.blogspot.com

When we brought Kitters home from the guys who threw her out we had to put her in a box and since then she sleeps in lots of boxes all the time. Thank goodness her potty was never a cardboard box or I'm am positive she would have been sleeping in it!

Were these kitties ferals that were fostered and are now "ready" for adoption? ALL of our feral kitties slept on the litter boxes at first - it is a more familiar texture to them than a bed or blankets. If these guys were at one time feral, maybe being on display in PetSmart is making them nervous, and they're reverting to behavior like this makes them feel less stressed.

Once the our kitties had to USE the litter box, then they wouldn't go sleep on it!

Laurie

Originally Posted by strange_wings

But sleeping in their litter boxes seems to be something cats pick up from being in shelters, maybe because the cages they're kept in are sort of small or maybe they just feel more secure there.

Click to expand...

My two shelter kitties were sleeping in their litter when I went to adopt them. There were 5 kittens in one tiny cage, so space was pretty limited for them. When they first came home with me I would occasionally catch them playing in the litter (rolling around and flinging it) but haven't seen that in a bit. Lucky for me because I could always tell when they'd been doing it from the litter stink wafting off of them. Although the other day I did see Pekoe sitting in the litter box looking mighty comfortable...