Litter Habits

[Miss Kitty]

We've had a cat before, but this is our first MC. He has, shall we say, 'interesting' litter habits such as:

* excessive scratching around the pellets both before and after using the litter
* having to use the litter immediately after it's been replaced (gets replaced daily)
* going in the litter for just a general scratch around

His pellets are strewn everywhere - so we just got the super dooper hooded litterbox for a large cat.

I just wanted to see if this is "normal" MC behaviour and to see what antics your cats/kittens display when it comes to this.

[jckkerrison]

Pretty general MC behaviour I think,we have one that has to make his mark in every clean tray,one that scratches to the bottom of the litter & then some more that I am surprised he hasn't joined our Austrailian forum members another one that goes to the toilet by standing with both front paws on the edge of the box to go & then ends up scratching the sides for ages & wonders why he is not covering anything,normally his brother who likes to be frist in comes to the rescue & just leans over & covers it up for him,the rest have pretty normal habits, dig hole,go, cover up & exit but they funnily enough seem to bring more litter out with them than the others.....

[Helen & John]

Hector watches you change the litter and then hops in to christen it, I have tried changing it after he has just used it to no avail, in he jumps and manages to go again!!

he is too a digger and I can always tell if it's him who has pooped in it as the litter is in a hill over it.

They both like to scratch the wall behind the tray while still in the tray after they have finished.

[Louie-Louie]

Normal

[FreyjaRoMaine]

Like everyone else's puss, Freyja loves a fresh litter tray and watches avidly when it's cleaned and refilled. She also finds watching me shovel her little parcels out fascinating. She was quite clumsy with the burying thing, but having taken some advice on another thread we now have a much deeper litter tray (looks like a small bath) and the digging, burying, tracking and stepping-in have all now appear to be "under control". Yours sounds pretty normal!

[mcguy]

One of our four scratches the wall and anything else around the tray when she is done. Really annoying at night, as she goes on for like a minute! A cat newsletter we get claims that this behavior indicates stress, but that does not seem to be the case.

All the cats enjoy having clean litter. Last time we changed one tray, that was the only one they used for several days. Right after a tray is scooped, someone will often appear to leave something new!

[Miss Kitty]

Thanks all - reassuring to know his antics are normal MC behaviour... out of curiousity and whilst still on the topic of litter, how often does your kitten use it per day for #1s and #2s? My kitten wees about 3 times a day and poohs about twice. Is this 'normal'. My eight year old cat didn't go that often! (hmmm... he didn't eat as much though either!)

[Louie-Louie]

I think its a MC thing because there tummys are the same size as a normal cat but they have to eat more often to keep them full - could be wrong - our other cats mainly go once a day but then they are pensioners & lazy paws

[mcguy]

Never seen any of our MCs ever pooh more than once per day (except when they were having, er, difficulties). The peeing can vary quite a bit depending on the cat and how much water they have had. I would say they generally each go 2-3 times, but some do giant pees and only go slightly more than once. One of our girls does smaller pees and goes more often. Interestingly our young boy always pees right before he poohs, so sometimes this results in a tiny little clump. None of the other cats have done that.

[oscar cat]

I find Oscar likes to try to dig his way to the earths core, before relieving himself!! He also watches in amazement when I remove is little parcels from the tray!!