I REALLY need some advice---someone please help!

[fr gregg]

My Maine Coon Kitten Felice (Felicidad)...takes a small 'pooplette' out of one of the litter boxes every once in a while and plays 'poop hockey' with it...batting it around the livingroom.  Not 'kool' at our house!  I just take it away from her and don't make a big deal about it.  The three cats have two HUGE litter boxes (plastic sweater storing boxes...as suggested by someone here)...and they are scooped very frequently and cleaned/changed weekly.  They have MUCHO toys of all types and we play with the three of them every evening and more on weekends.  I think perhaps an occasional 'pooplette' ends up outside the box when one of the cats 'covers' and then Felice finds it and plays with it.  How do I get her to NOT play with poop?  It doesn't happen regularly, but it has happened several times...and we come home from work and find Felice playing hockey in the livingroom.  HELP! 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Fr. Gregg

 

[Ms. Freya]

I can honestly say I've not seen that before...

Hopefully someone else will come along who's had some experience stopping this behavior, but 2 things you could try:

1. Switch to a covered litter box (if the cats are okay with it) maybe the cover will make it hard for Felice to get it out of the box.

2. Maybe try leaving some toys around by the box to distract her. It might just be that she's a kitten and is easily fascinated so maybe some toys will distract her from the umm...less appropriate toys.

Good luck!

 

[p3 and the king]

Maine Coons are clowns in every sense of the word!  I should know!!  She probably does it for a laugh!!  Instead of being embarrassed, as most cats would, Coons try to turn it into a joke.  Try not to get too upset.  What I do with King Arthur whenever he does something "Unkool" is I tell him calmly but firmly "No King Arthur.  Not good. Not funny." and I just remove it but I give him something else to play with.... A compromise.  It works everytime.  A covered litterbox is a good idea... And maybe catch her as she is coming out of the litterbox a couple of times to keep her from bringing anything out?  She'll catch on after a couple of times.  Coons are very smart!

 

[fr gregg]

Thanks everyone!  So far, little Felice hasn't been playing 'hockey' with anyone's poop lately.  We scoop an extra time in the morning...and give her more toys to play with during the day.  The covered litter box seemed like a decent idea---except our cats rejected that some 6 years ago.  We bought a $200+ huge little cabinet and they didn't seem to like to be in there with the smell.  They stopped using it shortly after we bought it...so we moved to several LARGE little boxes at that time. 

Thanks everyone!

Fr. Gregg 

 

[sevenwonders]

Glad to hear that you haven't witnessed any "Poop Hockey" lately...clearly not a sport for everyone.  

If she tries to revive the game, I would give her a stern "No Felice!" then take it away from her and immediately give her one of her favorite toys instead. As soon as she starts to play with the "good" toy, give her some praise and petting. It might take a few repetitions of this scenario for her to stop completely, but I'm sure she will get it.