Does anyone elses cat do this?

I have two cats, one is an all black cat, and the other is a tabby. I have two litter boxes, and they seem to use both. But my tabby Rocky takes forever to cover his mess. He covers it, but then keeps on covering it. I mean I counted last night and it took him 10 minutes to finish digging up the litter. He also scratches the wall, the chair, and he even wipes the poo on the wall, I have had to clean it twice.

Our apartment is small, so I can only fit the boxes in one spot in my dining area. The only other place I can put it is by the fireplace, which they didn't like. I wish I could put the box somewhere else, but they are large boxes, and I can't even fit one in our bedroom. Why does he do this? He's not neutered, is this the reason?

Harley does this, too. She is a determined digger, every single time she gets into her litterbox. She takes forever when she goes in there - it sounds like she's trying to dig to China.

When I first got her, I didn't have a covered box. Snickers ( ) didn't throw litter everywhere. He went in, did his business, and hopped out. But that was a big mistake with Harley. She threw litter everywhere with her rampant digging. I'd wake up in the morning and find mountains of litter (and occasionally poop) all around the box - which is in my kitchen (it's really the only place to put it in my apartment). It was a big mess to have to clean up every single day. Not to mention it was wasting litter.

I bought her a covered box, which took her some time to get used to. At first, she didn't dig at all; it took her about two weeks to start up again. But she can dig to her hearts' content in it and not get litter (or poop) all over the floor. As far as why? I'm not sure why she does it, either. I've changed brands of litter three times, thinking maybe it was the litter, but it isn't. I think she just likes to dig.

Originally Posted by Libby'sMom

I have two cats, one is an all black cat, and the other is a tabby. I have two litter boxes, and they seem to use both. But my tabby Rocky takes forever to cover his mess. He covers it, but then keeps on covering it. I mean I counted last night and it took him 10 minutes to finish digging up the litter. He also scratches the wall, the chair, and he even wipes the poo on the wall, I have had to clean it twice.

Our apartment is small, so I can only fit the boxes in one spot in my dining area. The only other place I can put it is by the fireplace, which they didn't like. I wish I could put the box somewhere else, but they are large boxes, and I can't even fit one in our bedroom. Why does he do this? He's not neutered, is this the reason?

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This is a question, not advice. What prompted you to use two boxes? Did you try at first to use one box just to see what they would do? It may well be too late to try that now though since they are used to having two boxes. When Alley came to live with Persi, I put an additional box in her "safe room". After about a week or ten days they started liking each other so I removed the additional box to see what would happen. And I guess I am so lucky because they both use the same box with no problems. I live in a three story home. Their single box is on the ground floor. They sleep with us in our bedroom which is on the third floor. To reach the box they must get out of bed and go through the open bedroom door into a common area and then go down a flight of stair into the living room. From there they must go through another common area and go down a triple flight of stairs to get to their box. But get to it they do. They have never had any kind of accident in the two years they have been sharing one box. Of course I keep the box very clean throughout the day.

I bring this whole thing up because for two months we were taking care of another cat (kitten) and we provided a separate box for the third cat. But she would not use her own box and wanted to follow the big cats into their litter box. So for two months I had 3 cats all using the same litter box. And not even the kitten had an accident. Here are some vibes for you:

Pumpkin takes her time in the box, too. I've watched her carefully, to make sure nothing's wrong, but that's just how she works. Does her thing, and then has to cover it up just so. If it's not right, she'll keep working on it until it is.

Originally Posted by Libby'sMom

Why does he do this? He's not neutered, is this the reason?

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As far as I know, neutering doesn't affect digging behavior or how long a cat pokes around in the litter box - only whether they'll be more likely to mark outside of the box.

I know you don't have a lot of space, but maybe you need bigger boxes? And to try another litter. He shouldn't be stepping in his poo or pee (if he gets it outside of the box he is obviously stepping in it). Are his stools loose at all? even occasionally?

As for scratching all over things after, that's just a cat thing. Changing litter type and moving a scratcher of some sort near the box could help. I suggest a cardboard one so if it gets icky you can toss it out.

Lucky did this when I was using Feline Pine as litter, but she doesn't anymore since I changed the litter back to clumping litter. She does try to bury her food, treats, etc., when she gets full; she does the 3-d burying, as I call it

I bought two boxes because I had read that you should have one box for each cat, I didn't have room for the third box, so I figured two would have to do it.

I have two large boxes. So I think I am covered there, they are older kittens (8 mos).

Now here is what Rocky does. I have a good amount of litter in the boxes. He will go to the box. Scratch the litter, then take his paws and drag his paws on the side of the box, scratch again, then scratch the wall. Scratch in the box again then scratch the side of the box. It almost reminds me of when I make meatloaf, when you take a rubber scraper and use it to get the meat off your hands, only he does it on the box. So it seems like he doesn't really like the litter or that the clumping kind gets stuck on his paw pads or something. IDK?

Nora use to do this, and would take FOREVER to finish burying. Like someone said, she sounded like she was digging to China! lol She would get litter and poo everywhere and would waste more litter than she used. She was also smearing poo on the walls, which was disgusting.

I finally went out and bought her a big high sided rubbermaid tub to use instead of a regular litter box. She can dig as much as she wants to but doesn't get it everywhere. I still left a regular box down (for Milo at the time b/c he was too small to jump into the big box but left it down after he died) and for some reason she doesn't spread litter everywhere anymore. She does use the regular box, so I have no clue what changed. Now whatever litter is out is from her tracking it.

Try a scratcher nearby then. Maybe that will help him remove the litter and not have the urge to scratch on the wall.

Our cats share a box and sometimes Reilly doesn't cover very well (we use feline pine, so it can be a little trickier.). I've noticed Lila will come behind him later and spend a few minutes covering up for HIM! Not to mention the long period of time she spends covering hers just right.
Then she seems to get a little offended when i dig it out! We have a workout machine in the room with their box, and one day I turned around from cleaning and she was hanging upside down at about my eye level from one of the bars watching me clean it out!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I plan on getting a scratcher next month, and I am slowly changing the litter too to see if that will help. Our money is tight, and I'm in the process of getting their booster shots this weekend, and they are getting neutered at the end of this month, so next month I'll be able to buy some more toys and cat trees for them.

My cat Mony (female) also takes forever to bury her poop. She generally takes about 5-10 minutes to do it. Sometimes, if I interrupt her by walking by, she scrambles away, and then returns to the job when I've left. She does not spread it around and make a mess, however.