AAAGGGHH Stop it! (Excessive litter box digging)

Boris has had a tendency to invest a great deal of time and effort digging around in the box after he uses it. He seems to be almost obsessive compulsive about covering everything up, trouble is, he is lousy at it.
He will walk around in the box and dig at the sides (and if he uses the covered box, sometimes the ceiling) barely contacting the litter, and thus spending minutes on end in the box before being satisfied with his covering-up job. sometimes he will do this for several minutres, walk out, then return to do it again for several more minutes. I've seen him in there for 5-10 minutes, just digging around after using the box. It ONLY happens right after he uses it, although usually not after he urinates, in fact i can tell what he has done in the box by listening to the length of time he spends scratching.
It is very loud when he does it, because he is often raking at the box itself, but the real problem is that he spends so much time moving around in the box that while he does this he frequently tramples all over what he is trying to cover up with annoying and disgusting results. Now i have to check his feet all the time. I used to take a wet nap or a paper towel and clean his feet off (which he doesn't like, and it is time consuming since it often gets squished up between the pads on his feet etc.....) but now i've taken to dipping his feet into a bathtub with half an inch or so of water in it (he likes this even less, but it is much faster)
It almost looks to me like he has an OC disorder or something when it comes to covering up. it wouldn't be too big a deal if i didn't have to worry about him tracking crap all over my house. it is a pain to have to clean him off when i'm home, and i don't even want to know where he has been walking when it happens while i'm gone at work.
is there anything i can do about this? maybe dissuade him from spending so much time digging around in the box? i want him to keep using it, i just want the stuff in the box to stay there rather then get tracked all over my living room......

Have you tried using a different brand of litter?

I would also maybe try uncovering the box? If he can get *around* the box, he might be able to get it done a little more efficiently.

Is his poo really stinky? If it smells very strong then he may just be trying extra hard to cover the smell. If it's stinky and soft enough to stick to his feet, you may want to look at a different food for him. Food has everything to do with poo smell and consistency. Cat poop doesn't have to smell that bad

He doesn't like something about his box. The smell, the placement, the litter... something is wrong.

My best guess would be that he hates the texture of the litter. What kind is it?

He shows a clear preference for the covered box over the un-covered box, and the covered one is the smaller of the two boxes. he seems to like privacy (who doesn't?) but i have thought about getting a larger covered box to give him more room to "manuever" so to speak. maybe that would help.

It could be the smell. he is 10 months old, but i still have him on kitten chow, but a food switch is coming up shortly because i'm going to put him and his sis on adult food soon i think.

I haven't tried switching the litter yet, mostly because i'm concerned that could make it worse since the brand i'm using now is what i've been using since last december when i got them. i've never had a problem with him going anywhere outside the box thank God, he's never done it, as far as i know.

i think the first steps may be looking at a different brand of litter, and getting a larger, but still covered, box.

I have a cat that does that, and since she lives with a lot of other cats she takes it upon herself to do it for others that are sloppy. She'll do the same on the floor if by chance someone leaves a hair ball that I don't notice right away. We call her "the snitch" but do realize that she has an obsessive compulsive disorder.

We honestly haven't tried to change the behavior, but after trying everything else that folks suggested, you might try to redirect him to something of greater interest outside of the litter box, like a toy.

My sister's kitty will do something similiar. She'll scratch and dig and scratch at anything and everything BUT the litter. She will paw at the shelf beside the box, the wall, the floor outside of the box, for several minutes sometimes. I've changed their litter a couple of times since she's been here, so it's not that. I think a bigger box would help, since she likes to go in the middle of the box, maybe she'd actually be hitting litter then! But there's no room for a super-sized box where it has to be to keep the dogs out of it. (Not much worse than a dog running up to kiss you and you get this huge whiff of cat poo...right AFTER they slobber on your face, of course!)

i've tried distracting him before too. nothing works. not toys, not tapping on the box, not even shaking the treat bag, which will bring him running any other time. this morning i even gave a treat to his sister right in front of the box where he was and he just ignored it and kept digging.
so far this morning he's used the box once and gone in and out three times so far to resume digging in there.

it really does seem like he is hard wired to dig.
i feed the cats canned food on paper plates in order to keep the dish for their dry food fairly clean, and after he finishes his plate he will often scrape the tile floor all around it as if trying to cover up the remains of a "kill" like a cat in the wild would do. he'll do the same thing if he encounters his sister's empty plate before i throw it out, he'll also do it with the water dish, and i think i've even seen him scrape around on bare floor after eating a treat off of it.
maybe he just has a really strong digging instinct?

Kazanlak, my cat is the same! She's a year old, and never goes back into the box to clean again, but she spends a while digging all over (also being loud as hell) and digs more around when she comes out. Has been doing this since the first time she came to us, about 10 weeks old. And she always "covers" her food with her digging after eating, and when we leave our own food plates (even empty) on the coffee table, she comes up, smells it and then starts digging around them. I've came to this thread because recently it seems to have gotten a bit more intense. Shd started going towards her water bowl (which sits directly in front of the sandbox but about 2meters away) and then covers the water bowl as well. And today I just noticed she also came into the bathroom (which is by the water bowl) after using the litter box and digged a bit in there too...

I agree that it must be something like they just have a strong instinct to protect themselves, but I just don't want her to be feeling too OCD and bothered by it, I hope it's just something normal that doesn't affect her negatively. Will try the distracting technique as well!

Yup, Pia does this too. I've tried lots of litter configurations and sizes, and it makes no difference. She also digs around her food to "cover" it, to the point where I put her food down on a mat so she doesn't destroy the carpet.

She is a bit of a nervous cat, and I suspect this is just part of how she expresses her nervousness. She didn't get the best start in life, which I suspect is why she's like this, but she has come a long way since I first adopted her, and most of the time, I get to see her natural "lazy cuddle cat." So, at this point, I accept the OCD digging thing as just part of her baggage. I'm just happy that in most aspects of life, she's gotten much calmer and more confident.

That said, the messiness issue may be an underlying problem with his tummy not liking whatever food he's on. Cat poop should be pretty solid, and not too smelly (with raw, I found Pia's had basically no smell at all, but she eventually rejected the only brand I can get out here, so she's back to traditional wet, which still isn't so bad depending on the brand).

You may want to try other brands to see if you can find something that gives him more solid poops, and reduces the chances of it sticking to his paws. Also, a bigger box might help with that too if he's mainly scratching the box itself -- gives him more distance from the poop as he circles the perimeter.

Less smell might also cut down the time he spends trying to get rid of it. But, the behavior may or may not go away completely. Pia still did this even with her almost-odorless raw food poops, but I do feel it was a bit less.

I had no idea smelly poops meant bad food. She has pretty smelly ones. I wouldn't say they're soft, but they're not too hard either. But they do smell awful. I have fed her Royal Canin (appetite control because she eats a lot) because I figured that was a good "expensive" brand, but now I'm not sure...i will have to try a new brand out and see if it make a difference.

However, kitkat is not a nervous cat at all! She's the most sociable cat I've ever seen. Not afraid of any visitors or other animals. Tends to lay and rub against new people as if it was nothing. Never hides from anyone who comes into the apartment. So I think its not related to trauma or anything like that.

Jubispo said:

I had no idea smelly poops meant bad food. She has pretty smelly ones. I wouldn't say they're soft, but they're not too hard either. But they do smell awful. I have fed her Royal Canin (appetite control because she eats a lot) because I figured that was a good "expensive" brand, but now I'm not sure...i will have to try a new brand out and see if it make a difference.

However, kitkat is not a nervous cat at all! She's the most sociable cat I've ever seen. Not afraid of any visitors or other animals. Tends to lay and rub against new people as if it was nothing. Never hides from anyone who comes into the apartment. So I think its not related to trauma or anything like that.

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Royal Canin isn't a bad food per se, but it may just be that it doesn't agree with her system as well as it could. Expensive isn't always better.

Yeah, it may just be his "thing," rather than any particular trauma. I can't know for sure if Pia would be the way she is even with an ideal kittenhood -- it's possible she would. But with her, she came to me with a lot of nervous behaviors, so I simply suspect this is part of that whole package for her.

Kitkat might just have a particularly strong tick for burying stuff.

My two young ones, now 3 yrs old, dig for ever and on the walls not the litter, as well. The other two bury it but one of those two actually tries to bury anything she does not like the smell of including my husband’s tomato juice if we are out of the room for a second.

After I put the young ones on adult food, the poop consitancy was such that it does not stick to feet. I moved the litter boxes to a room where the noise does not drive me crazy. I am just very happy they go IN the box. My neighbor has a cat, believe me she spent hundreds of $$ trying to find out why and fix it, who ALWAYS poops outside the box—and not on peepads.

The Scoop on Poop

Thanks for the tips lilin! Will try a different food to see e if it makes a difference

My guy has been doing this. I'm not sure if he's doing it to gain my attention when we are asleep, or if he's anxious, or trying to clean his paws.

You have replied to an old thread, Date is on the grey bar on the left hand side. It is fine to do so, but you will receive more help and get more responses if you click on Forums at the very top on the brown bar and start your on thread. Welcome to the site, by the way, and Merry Christmas! I hope you continue to be a member, we have so many experienced cat lovers here, we can help on most problems and questions. Pictures are welcome too, we all need our 'fix' of new faces of those darling little furballs!

My cat does this as well and has since day one. Her process is simple. 1. Enter litter box and prepare it for her release - 3 to 7 minutes. 2. Turn around several times to get in exactly the proper position - 1 to 2 minutes. 3. Sniff, sneeze and cover profusely - 1-3 minutes. 4. Exit litter box and clean self thoroughly.
She is definitely OCD but she is an amazing cat. I got very lucky. It doesn't harm her and I am personally grateful for her hygiene habits. Her box is big enough and her litter is fine. I know this because I experimented to see if I was doing something wrong as a cat mom. Nope, I was not. What can I say, she likes "building sand castles".
Also, reading about food...YES, it is a major factor in their poop smell and consistency. Grain free is essential for maintaining a good weight but quality ingredients without preservatives and salt is also a no-no. Keep it fowl meet if you can. Cats are don't really eat a lot of fish and red meat in moderation. Their natural diet consists of mostly insects and birds. They also drink more water than you realize and prefer their water sources in different places than their food. Also, milk is a big no-no. I do bring a live plant home once in a while. My cat loves Maidenhair ferns - gets really protective of hers. When I go to water it, she'll run in from wherever she is and sit right next to it and stare at me while I do it. However, she isn't a fan of catnip.
She also loves to drink the water out of the fountain in the yard. Vet says she is a very healthy cat. I say, just let them be their unique selves. Like humans, they each have their idiosyncrasies. Live and let live. I wouldn't change one thing about my fur baby...even on the rare occasion she is naughty. I mean the cat comes when I call her, plays fetch, snuggles me endlessly and obeys commands. Dig away I say!!!!

Both of my cats do this and my apartment with hardwood floors is like the frigging beach all the time! I have three kitty litters for two cats. Two are now uncovered because my 14 year old cat has decided he won't use the kitty litter if it's covered but will instead pee on the spare futon or bathroom rug instead. Vet diagnosed him with unspecified urinary inflammation and anxiety but he only got picky about uncovered litter since he developed cancer last October. And he uses the litter fine when he gets enough pain meds.

My other cat is obsessive about digging. He's allergic to everything so I had to change him from the feline clumping pine litter I've used his whole life. They both liked that one but the younger one is allergic to pine.
I have to buy the lightweight clumping litters since I live in a city and it's hard to find close parking so I have to carry it far away and then up stairs to my place. I was using tidy cat clumping lightweight but the dust was killing my allergies. The alternative brands are lightweight, kill odors for multiple cats and say no dust so are easier to breath for me.

I can't change the food, iams sensitive diet dry food and fancy feast gravy lovers meat cans (beef, turkey and chicken) are the only foods I've found that my allergy cat can and will eat that doesn't have any ingredients in them that he's allergic to. And that my cancer cat will eat. With the cancer and the awful chemo he gets lots of stomach meds for side effects daily and he wasn't eating well and got down to 9 pounds. Now he's back up to his normal twelve pounds. But is very picky and I found out the hard way that offering him anything to keep him eating is bad because now his stomach can't seem to take any diet changes anymore. He had awful diarrhea for three weeks before. Not fun for a longhaired cat. I spent all day cleaning after him and bathing him and finally the vet shaved his whole tail.

So I can't change anything. But he just goes in the kitty litter, uses it, digs at the walls not burying anything and leaps out and flies out at warp speed sending it everywhere. And won't use covered litters anymore after having them for 14 years. I have a huge box and that's his favorite but it has to be open. The small covered one my smaller allergy cat pees in once a day and that's it. He obsessively uses and buries after his brother. I think he wants the cover back on.

I hate sweeping and cleaning All the time but five minutes after I do it looks like I haven't swept in a month. I have mats outside all the kitty litter but they don't do much for the olddr cat who jumps out and lands in the next room and sends it flying everywhere.
No one bothers him, there's a baby gate so dogs don't even go in there. He loves my dog anyway and if I'm busy and not immediately available for cuddling, he goes to the dog and gives him love bites and chews on him and cuddles on him. He's bigger and beats up the younger cat if he bothers him but they also cuddle a lot

He has to have his favorite water in the bedroom away from the food like someone mentioned and won't touch the water bowls near the food. He digs and scratches the floor obsessively while he drinks and gets mad if any other animals touch "his" water bowl. I have to hide it in his spot under a table and change it immediately if anyone else contaminates it lol.
So there aren't a lot of other kitty litter brands I can try based on one cats allergies and how heavy most are to carry, plus I need low dust myself. Changing the food isn't an option. Little cat is allergic to salmon and pork as well as a whole bunch of other things. And any change causes diarrhea for my cancer cat.
But the digging and litter everywhere drives me crazy. And it does stink. I think they both stink but the litter covers it up well now.