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Scratching bowls??

post #1 of 15
6/22/10 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 
2 of my cats, Bobo and the littlest kitten Kitsy (lydia dawn) have a weird habit. They excessively scratch their litterboxs when they are done using it. The plastic sides, in what looks like an attempt to clean their nails. Now I could understand if the litter was clumpy but I'm REALLY on top of it, as soon as I hear scratching I'm over there with the scooper waiting for them to be done. Sometimes the scratching goes on for 5 minutes to the point in the night where you just yell STOP! haha.

That I can deal with, but now they do it on their food bowls after they eat? Their paws arent anywhere near the food or water!

Suggestions? Help? Anything will be considered!
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post #2 of 15
6/22/10 at 1:57pm
Some cats are diggers. Mine is. Genever will spend ages in the litterbox digging and digging and digging, then do her thing, and then scratch the sides, dig some more, scratch, dig, etc. Yeah, at night. Litterbox is in our bedroom. It's actually kind of just gotten to the point that it's funny more than anything else..

As for scratching around the bowls, Genever does this too. I guess it's kind of like 'burying' their food when they don't like it, or when they're done and coming back for more later. I think in the wild, cats take care to cover any tracks that they've been around, including burying waste, and leftover bits of prey they caught and ate. It's harmless, it's silly I think, to see a cat really going at it to bury her food by scratching the placemat. I also have read on here about some cats UN-burying their food or water. I have no idea the reason behind that one!
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post #3 of 15
6/22/10 at 2:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkMavis View Post
Some cats are diggers. Mine is. Genever will spend ages in the litterbox digging and digging and digging, then do her thing, and then scratch the sides, dig some more, scratch, dig, etc. Yeah, at night. Litterbox is in our bedroom. It's actually kind of just gotten to the point that it's funny more than anything else..

As for scratching around the bowls, Genever does this too. I guess it's kind of like 'burying' their food when they don't like it, or when they're done and coming back for more later. I think in the wild, cats take care to cover any tracks that they've been around, including burying waste, and leftover bits of prey they caught and ate. It's harmless, it's silly I think, to see a cat really going at it to bury her food by scratching the placemat. I also have read on here about some cats UN-burying their food or water. I have no idea the reason behind that one!
This actually explains a lot! Both of the cats we're once outdoor cats. That explains why Eli doesn't do this. Thank you! And I guess I'll just learn to deal with it and never attempt to use liners It's not so much of a mess, litter just sometimes goes outside the pan, but it's on the kitchen floor so it's easy cleanup! Thank you!
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post #4 of 15
6/22/10 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkMavis View Post
Some cats are diggers. Mine is. Genever will spend ages in the litterbox digging and digging and digging, then do her thing, and then scratch the sides, dig some more, scratch, dig, etc. Yeah, at night. Litterbox is in our bedroom. It's actually kind of just gotten to the point that it's funny more than anything else..

As for scratching around the bowls, Genever does this too. I guess it's kind of like 'burying' their food when they don't like it, or when they're done and coming back for more later. I think in the wild, cats take care to cover any tracks that they've been around, including burying waste, and leftover bits of prey they caught and ate. It's harmless, it's silly I think, to see a cat really going at it to bury her food by scratching the placemat. I also have read on here about some cats UN-burying their food or water. I have no idea the reason behind that one!


Mine do it too! I think they get a little grit in their paws in the litter box sometimes - my male cat has huge feet and very long "toes," and he gets a lot stuck in those big old feet. He'll sometimes scratch in there for ages...if that doesn't work, of course, he'll move to sit in the middle of my bed and systematically pick all the litter out of his toes.

As far as the food - just wait, they'll get amusingly creative sometimes. I feed mine wet food on the dining room table sometimes (before anyone asks, no we don't eat there, it's kind of like a giant desk/mail dump!) so the dogs don't bother them while they eat, and I recently found a phone bill laid across the top of a half-finished dish of wet food. I also regularly wake up to find one of my socks neatly stretched across the tops of the dry food and water bowls in the bedroom.
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post #5 of 15
6/22/10 at 2:33pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by at129 View Post


Mine do it too! I think they get a little grit in their paws in the litter box sometimes - my male cat has huge feet and very long "toes," and he gets a lot stuck in those big old feet. He'll sometimes scratch in there for ages...if that doesn't work, of course, he'll move to sit in the middle of my bed and systematically pick all the litter out of his toes.

As far as the food - just wait, they'll get amusingly creative sometimes. I feed mine wet food on the dining room table sometimes (before anyone asks, no we don't eat there, it's kind of like a giant desk/mail dump!) so the dogs don't bother them while they eat, and I recently found a phone bill laid across the top of a half-finished dish of wet food. I also regularly wake up to find one of my socks neatly stretched across the tops of the dry food and water bowls in the bedroom.
I'm not alone! Sometimes I feed the cats on top the kitchen table (that we also do not use) just because sometimes people can track in things on their shoes and I dont want the cats getting anything but food in their system. Call me paranoid but it just puts my mind more at ease.
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post #6 of 15
6/22/10 at 2:33pm
Very normal catly behavior. Ootay scratched for a good five minutes after she was done; in the box, on the floor outside of the box and the newspaper under the box, the walls next to the box, and the walls OF the box after she got her tall sided box, on and on. And she was with me since she was 5 weeks old.

Tolly and Jennie also have unique noisy prolonged scratching habits. Oddly enough Mazy cat, who is The Litter Box Police, is very quiet and discreet in the facilities.

Tolly often scratches the floor around his bowl before eating, and before drinking, too. Jennie used to do that with everyone's dish, but it was a burying instinct from surviving on her own for so long. She was quite shocked at the careless way the other cats left uneaten prey lying about and would get quite frantic about covering the dishes.

Just talking about this now makes me realize, she doesn't do that any more. I guess she finally feels safe.
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post #7 of 15
6/22/10 at 2:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by otto View Post
Very normal catly behavior. Ootay scratched for a good five minutes after she was done; in the box, on the floor outside of the box and the newspaper under the box, the walls next to the box, and the walls OF the box after she got her tall sided box, on and on. And she was with me since she was 5 weeks old.

Tolly and Jennie also have unique noisy prolonged scratching habits. Oddly enough Mazy cat, who is The Litter Box Police, is very quiet and discreet in the facilities.
Hahaha! Yeah we had to move the box away from the wall because Bobo would scratch it and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard that makes every hair on my body stand up! Even my other cat would wake up mid-nap and look very annoyed!
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post #8 of 15
6/22/10 at 4:58pm
Oh, QD - as other posters have indicated -- you are DEFINITELY not alone in this.

A couple of my cats engage in MAJOR EXCAVATING to have a poop, like a dog digging hole to bury a bone - litter everywhere, while others take great pains to cover their waste with scratching, scratching, everywhere.

Tex is my litter pan police. He will cover his mess and then dig, dig, dig in the other pans to cover everyone elses - whether they needed it or not.

And yes - they "bury" their food for later. As someone else said - it is an instinct left from their wild ancestors. So no one knows where it is or can track them!!
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post #9 of 15
6/22/10 at 5:58pm
After she's done her business, pee or poop, Jennie always carefully scratches until she has a nice neat tall pile of litter. The problem is, that nice pile of litter is no where near the target!
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post #10 of 15
6/22/10 at 6:13pm
You know what, I just thought of it now, that excessive digging in and scratching on the litterbox was the reason I joined this site in the first place! I thought something was wrong with Genever, I never experienced such 'thoroughness' in a cat before.. But now I know that some cats just do that, and G-cat sure is one of them. Silly silly silly. Annoying while I'm trying to sleep, but just funny. But not funny when she rolls in the box. No, that's just gross.

She didn't start the food dish burying until after we had her a few months. I don't know what brought it on.. And she hasn't covered it with anyTHING.. yet.
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post #11 of 15
6/22/10 at 6:25pm
Mazy rolls in the boxes, too. And it is gross. I've mostly broken her of the habit, but I catch her at it sometimes even still.
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post #12 of 15
6/22/10 at 6:28pm
We tried putting a handkerchief down under Tuxedo's food dish thinking that if he managed to dig that up and over his dish, he'd feel satisfied. We just always ended up with a dirty handkerchief, because he'd just keep digging.

Spooky is hysterical - she'll bury her pee or poop - and then paw the air around the area for a few minutes.

Shelly is one who "un-buries" the water before he'll drink. It's hysterical!
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post #13 of 15
6/23/10 at 6:58am
One of our current fosters, Olive, digs like CRAZY in the litterbox. I swear sometimes she's trying to dig to China. It's enough to drives us nots because she is kept in our bedroom with us and she'll do this at night for a good 20 minutes straight when we're trying to sleep. It's a good thing she's cute.

Cleopatra II also tries to "bury" her food when she's done with it, which is funny because she was born in my home. Her mother however was a stray who also did this, so it is obviously a learned behaviour.
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post #14 of 15
6/27/10 at 2:50pm
Nuts has to dig to China in his litter box and he has to dig multiple holes before he decides which one is right and go in it. I know I need to add more litter when a clump gets stuck to the bottom of the pan. He digs all the way down to the plastic bottom.

They definitely have to bury whatever they put in the litter box well. You hear them scratching forever before they do and after they do. Nuts more so than Attitude.

Taryn
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post #15 of 15
6/28/10 at 8:21pm
Luna scratches her bowls too after she's had her fill of food or she just isn't interested in what I put out for her. It's her way of saying "I don't want this crap" .
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