Plays with poop!!

My cat has decided she likes to kick the feces out of her litterbox and play with it. It ends up everywhere in my apartment and even in our laundry piles! I have her box scooped every other day and am pregnant so I can not just pick up her feces all the time! Anyone have any ideas for help with this? Thanks~! PS she is about 9 months old and the vet says it is a behavioral problem.

Maybe shes bored? Does she have a variety of toys? Sometimes my cats do weird things like that when they need more attention from me I heard somewhere that pregnant women should aviod cleaning litterboxes..not sure of the details why, anyone know?

Melissa thanks for the advice. She has toys, even a monkey she loves that she carries around and holds onto at night like a baby! IT is soooooo cute! I was told that cats carry a certain disease/bacteria that can cause birth defects in babies. So my boyfriend cleans her box.

I'm glad to hear that your boyfriend does the 'dirty work' for you I remember hearing something about it when I was pregnant, just can't remember the details. Well, if shes not bored, then maybe shes trying in a not-so-subtle way she wants her litter cleaned more often. Some cats won't use a box with a speck of anything in it. I'm not well versed on cat behaviour, so maybe I'm completely wrong there are lots of experts on here..they just don't seem to be around right now I'm sure someone will have better advice for you very soon Good luck!

To break her of this habit you want to be sure her litterbox is cleaned a lot more often than it is. Make sure that there is plenty of litter in the litter box, and don't for the time being use clumping litter. Since she is carrying the litter to places outside the box, the clumping litter if ingested can cause problems. Change the litter completely ever week to week and a half.
And make sure the litterbox is the proper size. It could be she smells another cat even if it might be outdoors as feral cats spray and she is carrying the feces to tell him to back off she is the one who owns the house. Good luck

Oh my gosh, once during Spring Cleaning, I moved my bed so could really give the floor underneath a good vacuum, and lo and behold, there was a big ol' dried out turd just sitting there. I had caught my Satey once before pushing around a hard old turd with his paw, but I immediately took it away from him. Now I make sure not to slack off on the litter box cleaning!

This has only happened twice, and the last time was long ago, so I don't think it was territory marking, just maybe boredom, and also a too-dirty litter box.

The disease they warn you about is Toxoplasmosis. There's no reason to panic about it, but you do need to be careful with several things. Here are a few Toxo facts:

1. Most people are exposed to Toxoplasmosis at some stage of their life. Symptoms are usually very mild and sometimes there are none at all. If there are, you can't tell them apart from a mild case of the flu. Toxoplasmosis can be dangerous for people who have problems with their immune system or for pregnant women. If a pregnant woman gets Toxo during the first trimester, the fetus can develop serious deformities and even die. Most cases end in a miscarriage.

2. Once you get toxoplasmosis, your body develops a natural immunity so chances are you'll never have it again. Same is true for cats.

3. Cats that are actively sick with Toxoplasmosis shed the oocysts (kind of eggs) in their feces. The oocysts then need to "ripen" for at least 24 hours before they are infective.

4. You can get Toxo by swallowing the ripe oocysts. Touch or inhalation will not get you infected. Washing your hands thouroghly after cleaning the box and cleaning the box daily (to prevent the "ripening") pretty much guarantees that you want catch Toxoplasmosis from a sick cat (remember, that if the cat is not actively sick he won't be shedding it in the first place).

5. The most common way for people and cats to catch the disease is by eating meat that was not throughly cooked. If you like your stakes and hamburgers medium rare - chances are you have already been exposed to Toxoplasmosis. If you feed your cat raw meat or if your cat hunts, then she is also likely to have been exposed in the past.

6. Before you get pregnant or very early in pregnancy, you should take a Toxoplasmosis test. The test will show if you have been exposed in the past and are immune to the disease. If so, you have little to worry about. If you are not immune, you can then check your cats for toxoplasmosis. The test will tell you if the cats are immune (in which case they are not likely to catch it again and infect you), or if they are actively sick.


Basically, keeping your cats indoors, not feeding them uncooked meat and avoiding uncooked meat your self is enough to keep you and your cats from getting toxoplasmosis. Taking the extra precautions of avoiding the litter box when you're pregnant, or using disposable gloves when cleaning the box, pretty much covers you against possible infection.