So have you ever challenged the cat? That is, have you scooped repetitively after every leaving, to see how much more scat/pee the cat could wring out of itself? I’d find this an irresistable challenge.
Hmmm…Our kitty, Duffy , whom we call The Dominator[sub]TM[/sub] visits China four or five times each day, we think.
We’re just happy he’s such an intrepid explorer and world traveler.
I shall resist this challenge.
Well this is not making me feel any better about finding a workable solution to the problem. I mentioned this thread to my wife, and told about the “changing the litter a few times a day” solution, and she said that when the cats grew thumbs, they could change it that often. So, has anyone had any success with those automated litter boxes? Or the flushing kind? What about toilet training a cat, has anyone actually gotten their cat to use the toilet?
Thank you everyone for the advice, even if there is no hard and fast solution. Mods, I realize this is moving towards something more suiteable for IMHO, so if it needs to be moved, I think I’ve gotten the only factual answers I’m likely to get.
I know that cats bury their feces and food to kind of eliminate all scent traces of themselves.This is done by more submissive cats in the wild whereas the dominant cats will just piss and shit and not cover it just to let everyone know he is there and that’s his territory.
Could be that your cat sees you as the dominant leader and himself as at the bottom of the line after your wife(or maybe she’s first and you’re second;) )
Anyways, if he is burying them cause he wants to hide the smell,it could be that he just has really smelly shit and is trying his best to cover the smell.They say that cheaper brands of cat food produce smellier and alot more feces,so maybe try switching him to a higher quality food.
Just remember that by burying his poop,he is trying to please you,oh great masterful one:p
Atrael, try using another brand of litter. Maybe the pebbles are getting stuck in her toes? You could try some of the, uh, what’s that stuff? The recycled newspaper junk? Oh! Yesterday’s News. You could try that and see if it makes any difference.
Ok, then- 1. Scoop it at least once a day. 2. Get another litter box. 3. How about this? the laundry room has a door, right? Get a kitty door in that inside door, then the digging will make less noise.
Yep, looks like those are the choiced. We’re going to change the litter more often. We had 2 boxes before, one for each cat, but decided to go with one much bigger one, with a door. And I have considered the cat door thing. That may still end up being an option. Again, thank you to every one that responded here.
Spud seems to take great glee in devising new ways to wake us up in the morning, as he knows when we wake up, he gets fed.
He knows enough not to meow as we get mad at him, so he sits on the floor near the edge of our bed and:
Licks himself. Continously and far louder than normal. And yes, a cat can lick loudly with that sandpaper tongue <slurp-slurp-slurp>
Scratches himself with his hind legs (thump-thump-thump).
Walks on anything on the floor that may make noise (IE - plastic bag)
Walks around the bed (on top of the bed)
And the most devious of all, makes a phoney purr loud enough that the neighbors can probably hear it. How can you yell at a purring cat?
Once again, I have no doubt whatsoever that he does it is so he can get fed. Is it possible your cat is doing it for the same reason?
I’ve wondered that myself. But our cats have food down all the time, so they can eat whenever they want. I thought for a while that he was doing it for attention, because the way I’d stop him would be to call him up on the bed, and pet him to settle him down. But after several months of this, I’m much less inclined to pet his sorry ass, and more likely to toss a shoe at him.
We just put the fan back in the room, and with it turned up high, it seems to drown out the noise. So we’ll see how long it takes for him to find a way around that.
Hello. My wife and I have four cats, one of whom has developed a tinkling problem. Long story short, we invested in a separate box for her with some special litter called “Cat Attract.” It’s scented and much softer than standard litter.
Solved her problem and yielded one neat observational by-product: occasionally, one of the other cats, our little digger, will get into this private box. He doesn’t dig, no matter what he’s left there. He’ll nicely cover the stuff and promptly leave!
You might want to give it a try. Also recommended: Nature’s Miracle powder for the litter. It’s expensive, but very effective in quashing tinkly stinks. Extends the life of your litter by 3 weeks.
Just FYI.
Is the loudness of scratching in the litter because the kitty’s hitting bottom? Perhaps try a litter box so deep, that the cat can’t hit bottom without the hole refilling.
Perhaps the scratching just feels good. Perhaps a carpet covered scratching post near the box will be a bit quieter.
Or, there’s a relatively quiet scratching post you can put all the way out in your living room. It’s padded and bit big, but I’m sure you’re cat will appreciate it. It’s called a couch.
Peace.