Cat won't cover up poop in litter box?

I have a kitten who is just over a year old. He has not been neutered, but I plan on getting him neutered in the next couple months when I have a little more spending money. Two problems:

1) He is constantly on the kitchen counters. We can't keep bread, butter or anything that is edible on the counters cause he will tear into the bags or take lids off the butter container and eat stuff and licks any dirty dishes in the sink. This happens even when there is food and water in his dishes. I've even tried disciplining him, but he doesn't learn. How can I get him to stop doing this?

2) For about 2 months now, he has been using the litter box and not covering it up. This has become a problem because I live in a smaller house and there isn't anywhere to really "hide" the litter box. I keep it in a corner of the bathroom, but at least a few times a week he will take a giant crap and not cover it up and it makes the whole house reek. I have tried throwing him in the litter box and showing him how to cover it up, but he keeps doing it. I empty the litter box a few times a week, so he has no reason to do this. He has also MULTIPLE TIMES crapped over the side of the litter box making a huge mess on the floor.

How do I stop him from doing this? Does it have anything to do with him not being neutered yet and would neutering him make a difference at all? What should I do?

Hello welcome to the site.

My advice to your first question would be to simply not leave any foodstuffs out on the kitchen counter, sounds simple but in time he probably won't bother jumping up there if there is never anything there for him to steal. I always give my counters a quick once over with antibacterial spray before preparing any food just in case either of mine have had a crafty look around while I've been out.
Your second question is a bit harder to answer as I also have a cat that does not cover her poop. As annoying as it is we have never been able to make her cover it and she probably never will. It's just one of those things. As for pooping over the side that is easier to fix. My girl who doesn't cover her poop also stands to pee (yes I know, she has terrible toilet habits) and she used to pee over the edge of a standard litter box and even with a covered litter box her pee used to leak out of the join in the middle. We purchased a large plastic high sided storage container and cut a hole in one side and use that as a litter box. It works brilliantly, no more accidents!
Please don't physically discipline a cat because they don't understand this form of punishment and It could lead to even more problems.
Good luck !

KittyWhiskers said:

Hello welcome to the site.

My advice to your first question would be to simply not leave any foodstuffs out on the kitchen counter, sounds simple but in time he probably won't bother jumping up there if there is never anything there for him to steal. I always give my counters a quick once over with antibacterial spray before preparing any food just in case either of mine have had a crafty look around while I've been out.
Your second question is a bit harder to answer as I also have a cat that does not cover her poop. As annoying as it is we have never been able to make her cover it and she probably never will. It's just one of those things. As for pooping over the side that is easier to fix. My girl who doesn't cover her poop also stands to pee (yes I know, she has terrible toilet habits) and she used to pee over the edge of a standard litter box and even with a covered litter box her pee used to leak out of the join in the middle. We purchased a large plastic high sided storage container and cut a hole in one side and use that as a litter box. It works brilliantly, no more accidents!
Please don't physically discipline a cat because they don't understand this form of punishment and It could lead to even more problems.
Good luck !

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It's very difficult to evaluate any male cat's behavior if they are intact and adult.  Look for a local humane society to do a low cost neuter, that would be step one.

I have a couple of Toms, have had five over the years.  I have noticed and have read that sometimes Toms don't cover their waste to claim their territory.  Leaving their waste uncovered establishes their dominance.  Also, kittens that are hand-raised without a mother cat sometimes don't learn to cover their waste. 

You mentioned the obvious odor - one thing you can do is to make sure you're feeding a high-quality food like Science Diet or Royal Canin. The higher quality the food, the less the waste smells.  No kidding.  Lower quality supermarket food is usually high in ash content and that causes the waste to smell worse (plus, it's not that great for your cat either). Not saying that stool from a Science Diet kitty smells like roses - but, there's a huge difference.

I heard covering their poop was a learned behavior. I think if they are already adults when you get them it's hard to train them. I trained my first kitten by putting him in the litter box and moving his paw in a digging motion I did that maybe 6 times and he started burying. After that whenever I got a new kitten I'd have them watch the other kitten or cat bury and they picked it up with no problems. I had an old Tom cat I took in that didn't bury. I left him alone rather than train him because he already had a tough life. I suppose you can train adult cats the same way I used to train my kittens. They are very smart and can imitation very well.