Digging Furiously in Litterbox?

2 questions here.
My Autumn only poops once a day in the middle of the night, is that normal?
And when she does go poop she starts digging a lot in her box till nearly half the litter is on the floor and poops (in her box). This has been going on for the past 2 days and she only digs so hard like that when she poops. When she pees she doesn't get litter on the floor.
We have 2 litter boxes(1 upstairs and one downstairs) and she uses them both the same way when she pees but when she poops upstairs, she starts digging around like crazy. Her poop is normal looking as well.
Thanks for your help in advance.

Give her a total of four boxes, two in each place. Make one a covered litter pan a boda dome and see if that takes care of the problem. It is not natural for cats to pee and poop in the same place. In the wild, they never do. Only when we insist upon it and give them no other options do they do this.

When Rosie goes for a wee she just has a little dig in the litter, but when she has a poop you'd thinking she was digging her way through the litterbox!

Oliver poops an average of once a day... sometimes twice and yes he's a digger! I got a covered box because so much litter was ending up on the floor, but he'll be in there for a good few minutes most times after a poo digging his way to the other side of the world to make sure it's all covered and then pops out of the box... but when it's #1 he just uses a few paw swipes to cover and he's done... I definitely think a covered box would solve your litter mess (they're not all that expensive for the jumbo ones at walmart - that's what oliver has and it's perfect)

A high-sided box like the Rubbermaid boxes sold at Petsmart will contain litter that cats like to kick about.

Originally Posted by rosiemac

When Rosie goes for a wee she just has a little dig in the litter, but when she has a poop you'd thinking she was digging her way through the litterbox!

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Second that! Little Saba is only 4.5 lbs, but she makes big poop logs for such a little girl (only 1x per day, no worries)...and then she digs and digs so fast and furious, ya think she was digging her way to China!

Thanks guys for the advice.
I was a lil worried about her only poopin once a day like that and the digging.

marsh will poop 2x a day, and does dig like crazy. he almost never digs for a pee, just goes in and out. I'd think it's an instinct.

i have a high-sided box, maybe 10 inches high, and it really does the trick. also, i use crystal litter, which does not fly out of the box easily.

now that I know Im not the only cat owner with this problem.....im guessing its somewhat normal? My cat Cougar will go to his litter box in the middle of the night and use it. Then he will dig and dig and dig.....dig some more, scratch the wall a little, dig some more....until finally it wakes me up and I have to yell at him to stop. Im assuming he scratches the wall to get the litter out of his paws, but its something I really need to break him of. I have considered putting carpet scraps around the wall near his litter box but im afraid that caters to him rather than letting him know its wrong.

Someone with advice.....please!

gotta run, Cougar just discovered he has a tail again.....this cat cracks me up

Originally Posted by AScat

... but its something I really need to break him of... letting him know its wrong.

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Sorry, but this is something you don't want to do. This behavior isn't "wrong" -- it's perfectly normal and acceptable from a cat's point of view. It's just behavior that's irritating to you. You don't want to "break" a cat of normal litterbox behavior. The result may be something that's even worse. I suggest you find some other solution, so his normal behavior doesn't bother you. Different location for the litterbox? Don't know. You'll have to get creative.

I agree... Oliver used to do the same thing before I had a covered box and I just put carpet up around the box.... now that he has a covered box, he just scratches the sides of that when he's digging and there's no harm done - yeah it can be annoying early in the morning, but if it actually wakes me up, "Oliver, enough!" firmly usually gets him outa there quickly.... definitely don't try to break your kitty of this behavior