Males and litterboxes.

[britishbandit]

Is this just the males I've owned, or is it a male cat thing to be litterbox stupid? LOL

Bandit is great about covering his business, but he takes FOREVER to do it, and typically spends most of the time scraping at the walls of the box. After so long he finally realizes he needs to scrape at the litter, not the walls.

Never had the problem with females. I've had 2 in the past 10 years, both my old cat Mawer and Abby have cleaned up their business completely and quickly, never scratching at the walls.

Bandit seriously drives me nuts when he spends 15 minutes scratching away at the plastic of the booda dome........especially when I'm trying to sleep! I'd rather he not bother.....it's a covered box, can't smell much anyway. LOL

My old boy Chubby was even worse, he'd spend even longer trying to cover it up, but he'd give up on it and just leave it in the end. Bandit always went in to cover it up for him when he finally gave up.......twice the agony for me trying to sleep.

[KatzNK9]

I've never noticed it to be related to the sex of the cat. Some cats are just obsessed with covering it up. The ones that drive me nuts are the cats who go inside a plastic covered box & want to scratch the plastic instead of pawing the litter.

[britishbandit]

That's what Bandit does! Just can't figure out why it only seems to happen with males in my house. Maybe just coincidence, but I've noticed it's always the males.

Abby is awesome with the litterbox, I can barely hear her covering it up, she's a top notch scooper!

[Sabledog]

hahaha Ryu is BAD he will cover with the litter, then move on to the covered walls, then goes outside the box and uses the wall then the floor, he trys to be VERY tidy, but gets lost along the way and usually ends up not covering his mess very well lmao

kalani will do a few paw scratches on the box too, but not usually more than a few times. Ryu trys to cover just about everything its quite funny lol, he has now started to try to cover the melted snow on the floor from when the kids and dogs come inside... weirdo

[Sarah]

Rigsy is a nightmare, she'll scratch the walls and floors, but rarely manages to cover it up LOL.

Lucky on the other hand, is very good and clean when it comes to his tray eliminations!

[MuttsandaShihTzu]

This thread had me laughing cause my male midnight is the same way. He scratches the wall and the box for over 15 minutes every time. It drives me insane. He is also a litter flinger. The girls are wonderful and cover theirs up perfectly.

[SarahFish]

I think it depends on the cat rather than gender. When Mila had a litter box (back when she was still a kitten and inside) she was pedantic about covering it up - to the point of the litter flying outside the box, but then all the cats at work vary a lot.

There's always a few who scratch at the walls of their runs (drives me insane!) before I go over, tap on the cage and they stop and do it properly, some who barely cover it at all just because they don't (and then, of course, it stinks), the ones who just cover it well and walk away and then, of course, the ones who make the litter fly everywhere in their attempt to cover it (by which point half the litter is outside the box...).

I've never noticed any difference in males or females, or even intact versus spayed/neutered, but then again I haven't really been taking too much notice.

I'm predicting that next time I work I'll actually be looking to see if there is a pattern (shows just how boring it is to spend a good chunk of the day changing, cleaning and filling litter trays!).