# Cat not burying her poops



## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Yes, it's a new thing. Miu covers up her pee, but not her poop. I read somewhere that not burying poops is a sign that she thinks she's the highest on the hierarchy and there's no 'predators/anything more threatening than she is' in the area.

What can I do to get her to bury her poops again?


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

You bury it or get another cat who will bury it for her. I do not think there is any way for us to teach a cat to do this, other than by example ... meaning you use her paws to physically bury the waste, but an adult cat is not as easily shown and manipulated in such a manner, so they will learn and not object, as a small kitten.
You're stuck with stinky-poos.


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## Leazie (Apr 14, 2007)

How deep is your litter box? Maybe a deeper one would encourage her to cover the poop?

Simba doesn't cover his poop, never has. He has other kitties for that :lol:


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Well she used to cover her poops. It's just lately that she's stopped doing it. When I go over to clean it up, she mostly follows me. I make sure she's looking, then I bury it in front of her. She doesn't seem to care.

The pan is roughly 3-4 inches tall?

The aggravating thing is, she buries her pee but not her poops. What's the difference in her head?


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Poops stink, pee doesn't?


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

So she wants to leave a STRONG message to me somehow? :?


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

IF she is .... she may be telling you she doesn't like how stinky her poops are? :?: 
Meh, who can figure cats out? May I ask what you are feeing her?....it could be that whatever she is eating is making her stink and she doesn't like it. But, you may just have a cat who has decided she's done burying poops. Our cat Shadow is like that. Sometimes our other cats will bury it, but usually it is just left uncovered. We have a large LitterChest that is vented outside with clothes dryer ducting so we get *very* little smell, even if she deposits a stinky right behind me. ..._the litter chest is about 3' behind my office chair._


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

She has both wet and dry EVO.

I also noticed that she makes burying motions OUTSIDE the box but not IN the box when she does a poop. It's like she's trying to bury the entire box in the ground!

Or maybe she's just weird....like I explained in another thread...


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Oh, that burying motion of everything *but* the litter ... is simply her expressing a very good/strong instinct to bury, but she just isn't pawing the right material to get it covered. I view that as a sort of mis-fire; she's burying and doing what her instincts demand she does ... she's just not burying it _correctly_. Unfortunatley, I don't know of a way to re-train them to scratch the litter. Sometimes using a large and hooded litterbox helps as they are contained and can't scratch around outside and/or if the box is large enough and she doesn't go near an edge, there is more chance of her actually scratching the litter and not the walls of the litterbox.


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Hmmm....you got a point. Perhaps I'll try a BIGGER litterbox. She does tend to do both types of business at the edges of the litterbox. 

It's comical and weird that she does that. The litterbox sits on top of a piece of cardboard. There'll be silence and out of the blue, you'll heard this loud nails-against-cardboard scratching that goes on for quite a while. When you go look, you see the poop, sitting on top of the litter. Nice.

Oh...wondering, if it could also be related to the TYPE of litter? Now that I think about it, could it be that I'm switching to the Feline Pine from the clay? Right now, there's more pine than clay in there. Could it be that she doesn't like the feel of the pine? I don't want to switch back to the clay though...it seems to kick up a lot of dust. Can't be good for her to be inhaling that stuff.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Well ... did she bury it when you used the clay? If she did, she could be telling you she doesn't like the pine?


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

There's no way to find out unless I go get another batch of clay. I'm not sure I want to do that though. Again, I'm worried about the dust that kicks up from it. 

I changed the litterbox to a larger one. Same thing. Oh yes, I discovered, it's not only the poop she doesn't cover, it's the pee too. I just caught her doing her business and then, she's burying OUTSIDE the box again. I quickly got the scoop and covered it in her presence, but she didn't seem to care. Watched for 2 seconds and then scampered off.


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## igloe (Mar 1, 2010)

Alpaca said:


> I read somewhere that not burying poops is a sign that she thinks she's the highest on the hierarchy and there's no 'predators/anything more threatening than she is' in the area.


I don't know but this makes sense to me. My cat Pico used to bury her poo/pee. Ever since I got Harley, she doesn't bury anymore. She will still "phantom scratch" at the walls of the litterbox like she is burying but then leave. Harley will then go in after her to bury it LOL


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

IMO, I do not think the dust is much of a problem unless you have a cat with URI, breathing issues and/or people in the home with severe breathing issues. The dustiest time is when I add fresh litter or if I get too vigorous flinging sand when I scoop the boxes. The little bit of digging a cat does really doesn't stir up very much dust. ...and it's just dust, the same dust outside animals/people deal with on a daily basis. If they have a problem with it their bodies will produce more mucus to 'catch' the dust and help move it outside the body with sneezes and nose-blows, though I've never noticed any of our cats having any problems like that. 
_...but again, our super-large LitterChest is vented outside so most dust/smell is sucked outside anyways._


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

I'm figuring that her face is very close to the dust so she'd inhale it real good.

I'm not too concerned about her not burying. Actually, I like that the smell alerts me that it's time to scoop. My mother complains about Miu stinking up the place though. She'll be yelling at me saying 'Your daughter didn't bury her stuff again!!' LOL. I'm just more curious as to what she's thinking.


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

igloe said:


> I don't know but this makes sense to me. My cat Pico used to bury her poo/pee. Ever since I got Harley, she doesn't bury anymore. She will still "phantom scratch" at the walls of the litterbox like she is burying but then leave. Harley will then go in after her to bury it LOL


Phantom scratch....somehow that's a very appropriate phrase. I'll file that away for future use. hee hee!


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