# Not covering poop/pee?



## **Ashley** (Aug 29, 2006)

Well Im not sure which cat it is, I have 2, but they are getting really lazy lately. Everytime I go downstairs, I smell poop and pee, then i look in the box, and i find out that whoever it is, isnt covering it up! Its just sitting there right on top of the litter! Why does she do this? Its not like I dont clean it out, its cleaned out everyday, so they have fresh litter and whatnot. Any help is appreciated!!!


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

How old are they? Are they both female? Have they been spayed/neutered? How many boxes do you have?


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## **Ashley** (Aug 29, 2006)

coaster said:


> How old are they? Are they both female? Have they been spayed/neutered? How many boxes do you have?


They are both around 2 years old, both female, both have been spayed, and I have a giant box, its a rubbermaid container, not an actual litterbox.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Mmmmmm.....well, that eliminates the most likely causes: dominant marking by a male cat (though a female can do this too -- cats leave their scat here and there outside to mark their territory); or immature cat not covering his/her feces because hasn't learned to do it yet. So, I don't know what to say. The mostly likely thing to try at this point is another litterbox. Maybe a box with finer-grained litter. One of the cats might not like scratching the litter you use now. That's what I'd try at this point.


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## TAsunder (Apr 6, 2004)

My calico does this sometimes but only in one litterbox. It appears that she needs about 2 feet of nothing around the litterbox before she will properly cover it up. The litterbox she has trouble with is in a closet next to some boxes, and when she is done, she makes scraping motions on the boxes as if there is litter there. The other boxes have clearance around them and she is much better about covering up.

My other cat has a different approach, and smells the litter to make sure hsi scent is gone. The calico seems to just sort of thing the physical motion is what matters.

Also worth noting, the calico is especially stinky.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Ha ha ... my calico does something like that, too. I wonder if that's a calico thing? I have high-sided boxes and Mellie can easily spend 10 minutes scratching the _sides_ of the box after she's done her thing and already covered it up. :lol:


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## nklincoln (Aug 2, 2005)

Molly Girl has a litter box for Poop and another for Pee. Pee box has puppy pads as she doesn't want to get her dainty paws dirty. The Poop box has litter but heaven for bid if she poops and I don't clean it fast enough and she needs to go again she will use her pee box and if that is dirty she will poop on the carpet. She never has covered her mess and she is 14 years old. She is the queen and I am here to serve her every need.


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## MattH (Oct 26, 2005)

yep...dorn does that too... he digs and digs....and digs and digs....

good thing he has a few inches of litter in there....i think thats why he does it....quite comical too....


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## Frenchy (May 12, 2006)

My cat Samson doesn't cover his poop either, and it stinks to all high H-E-double hockey sticks. I have two litter boxes and he's 1.5 years old. I just clean the darn thing out often though, so it doesn't stink up my house. The funny part is, he will scratch at the area around the litter box, but not actually in the litter box. I mean he'll do a little digging before he goes potty, but not after. After, him and the new kitten, will scratch at the outside of the side of the box, the wall, the floor, but never cover anything up.


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## kitkat (Sep 22, 2003)

My cat Sugar sometimes doesn't cover and it stinks really bad. Sometimes if we startle her while she is doing her litterbox duties, she will just jump out and not even bother. Sometimes I go in after her and while she's perched on the edge of the litterbox staring at the stuff, I fling some litter over it and she looks at me do it like it's my duty. 

Maybe something is startling your cat or they heard a noise while they were in there. Other times they are usually the dominant ones. I don't know how to fix it, but many of us are in the same boat. 8)


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Sugar has you trained pretty good, Kim.


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## kitkat (Sep 22, 2003)

Hehe she is the smart one alright :wink:


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## kana (Apr 23, 2004)

Cats are suppose cover their poop and not us human??? :lol: :lol: 

I'm a cat servant to the extreme!


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

coaster said:


> Ha ha ... my calico does something like that, too. I wonder if that's a calico thing? I have high-sided boxes and Mellie can easily spend 10 minutes scratching the _sides_ of the box after she's done her thing and already covered it up. :lol:


3rd vote on the calico thing....Callie would dig for 5 minutes before going and afterwards would scratch the lid of the box for a couple minutes, but never her poop. But she did cover pee...go figure.


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## Lori (Jun 8, 2003)

Velvet generally covers her pee, but usually leaves the poop logs on top of the litter uncovered. She used to be pretty good about covering both, but I am finding as she gets older she can't be bothered. Guess she has better things to do than dig in the litter box. :roll: :wink:


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## weluvcookie (Dec 6, 2005)

Cookie always covers his pee/poop. He's about 18 months old. Cookie is intelligent... you can see his brain working when you look at his eyes. :wink: 

Ellie is younger (only 7 months), we got her at 6 weeks old. Ellie NEVER digs a hole before peeing or covers it up afterward. For her other business, she'll dig a hole, poop somewhere else in the box, and scratch in a third place. :roll: 

She will also pee in our vinyl bean bag chairs, because they rustle like a litter box, and for some strange reason she'll also pee in baskets of clean clothes that are waiting to be ironed.

When it comes to a sweet cat, they don't come sweeter than Ellie, but bless her heart, she's dumber than a box of rocks. :lol: 

I wonder this?? How can a younger female kitten gain higher status over an older male cat, who was here first? Is the litter box thing always a status thing or can it be just lack of smarts?? Or did we take her as a kitten too soon??? We were told she was 8 weeks, but i would say she was more like 5 or 6 weeks old. She didn't use a litter box like the lady said, and she didn't really know about solid food either. :?


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## Cat Daddy (Aug 3, 2005)

At this young age, you'll have to take her to the litter box several times a day until she gets the hang of it, I did it for about 3 or 4 weeks for my kitten. Even if they don't go everytime, it's good training. 

Use an enzyme cleaner on the places she has went to get rid of the smell, or they'll both start to think it's okay to pee there. And if you suspect a UTI, get to the Vet right away so they can get started on medicine before it getsreal bad. Good luck, kittens are great!


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## karebu (Sep 12, 2006)

*not covering poo*

My cats have never bothered to cover their smellies in the litterbox; my living cat is real funny because everytime he has a particularly smelly one, he tears out of the litterbox like his tail is on fire, trying to outrun the stink is my guess. To cut down on the smell, I use a covered litterbox that has a place for charcoal filters and keep the box in a closet. My closet has one of those accordian style type of doors, so my cats can open it when they need to use it. my sister keeps her boxes in a closet too and installed a doggie door so the cats have access to the boxes yet she can keep the door shut to stop the smells. If you walk into her place, you would never be able to tell she has four indoor cats. I also scoop it out daily to cut down on both the semll and to keep him from stepping in it and tracking it all over the place. Before my Tuxie died, he had been fighting CRF (kidney failure) for a year. He really smelled bad because of his prescription food and the canned pumpkin I gave him when he'd get constipated...the smell would be so bad sometimes, it turned flies away. I started to mix Arm-N-Hammer baking soda in with the litter. That helped cut the stench allot.


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