not covering urine

My 11 1/2 month old female, Pepper, uses the litter box but does not cover urine. Poop is not completely covered but at least she makes an effort. Urine? Forget it!. Is this a hopeless situation since her mother's not around to teach her? We have an older cat in the house who covers everything well, but Pepper doesn't seem to learn from her.

Thanks for your help.

Carolyn

I have the opposite with Rosie and Sophie. Rosie will be 3 next month and Sophie will be 1 the same month.

Rosie covers it but not properly, so Sophie usually stands by and watches until she's finished then walks over to the tray, sniffs at it and will cover it completely!!

I have several who don't cover anything, as long as it is in the litterbox I am happy.

Hmm, Max does that sometimes too. He also likes to pee on the bottom of the box. Grrr - there's nothing like scraping off pee from the bottom of the box. But I figure, as long as it's IN the box, why complain?

Meish will scratch and scratch for about five minutes before she emerges from the litter box. Now... exactly what she is scratching I have no idea because the little poos are never covered.

However I did see that she scratches at the littler mat OUTSIDE the box. Its like she is wiping her paw. lol

maybe let her see you bury it? Maverick doesnt bury anything. we showed her how to bury and she did it for about a month before she 'forgot' and went back to her old ways *sigh*

Most of mine try to cover but they won't scratch the litter...the side of the box, the wall, the floor...anything but the litter!

Sometimes it is deliberate, they are marking the litter pan as theirs- or it could be that the kitten wasn't with mom long enough to learn litter pan manners. Add another litter pan and see if that helps-

Originally Posted by rosiemac

I have the opposite with Rosie and Sophie. Rosie will be 3 next month and Sophie will be 1 the same month.

Rosie covers it but not properly, so Sophie usually stands by and watches until she's finished then walks over to the tray, sniffs at it and will cover it completely!!

Click to expand...

That is so cute!

i read somewhere it could be adominance thing. as they are alpha cat they have no need to conceal their own smell.

Interesting, about the dominance thing. My Wallace, who is definitely the dominant cat, doesn't cover his urine. Everyone covers the poo but Wallace likes to pee in the corner, often on the bottom and he never covers it. A couple of my kitties paw at the air, the sides of the box, the top of the box...I find that quite funny.

L.S. is the only one who covers his urine. Merlin and Hans just go and then leave. I've never noticed a problem with smell or anything, and I use scoopable litter.

And I know what the dominance thing it like. For about a month after I got Hans, him and Merlin had "The Peeing Wars". I'd go to clean the boxes, and the entire center of one would be nothing but one big ball of clumped urine. They just kept urinating, one on top of another. Thankfully they finally decided that it was a silly thing to do and stopped.