My cat lost the art of covering!

penaltybox95

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Last March we took in two 3 month old brothers who were surprisingly easy to train. They immediately took to the scratching post, they liked the first kittly litter we bought (the cheap store brand clumping kind
), and they took well to a lot of the toys we bought them.
We always had an additional tiny back-up litter box for use in their "time-out" cage in case of emergencies. Every once in a while they would use the small one in place of the normal size one, which would get messy when they'd cover.
One day my girlfriend pulled the bigger long-furred brother out of the small litter box before he had covered to save us the inevitable clean up. And that was that. From that day forward he almost never covers, but instead just scrapes his paws on the walls of the litter box. Often his brother will come by and cover up for him. How could 4 1/2 months of good habits be lost forever? Can he be re-trained?
 

dragonlady

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The cats cover to hide their scent, and if he still is scratching the sides of the box he may think he is doing the trick. A larget box should give him room to hit pay dirt so to speak. hehehe Best of luck
 

jason

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Take the kitties paws and put him thru the motion of covering his mess. I had to do that with one of my kitties after a struggle with a sinus infection. I think she quit covering because she was all stuffy and couldn't smell.
 

hissy

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just give kitty a bigger box with a lot more cat litter in it and let nature take over. If you spray the bottom of the litterpan with PAM cooking spray, let it sit for a minute before putting litter on top of it, clean up will be a lot easier.

You really cannot adequately show this kitten how to cover his waste, but his brother can. When you see the other kitten using the box, bring the brother over and just sit with him and let him watch. Going in there and grabbing kitty paws to scoop over the waste will just freak the kitty out.

Two kittens should have 2 litterboxes ideally. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but in the long run, it is best.
 
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