Foster Cat Kicked Half His Litter Out Of The Box?

[smosmosmo]

He's been here nearly a week and he's finally loosening up, although he still hides whenever I come in the room. Last night he started meowing after six days of radio silence, and kept crying until 4am (which is when I finally fell asleep). I would pop into the room to talk to him every time he meowed because I felt like he was calling for me, but he would get very quiet and hide every time I came to see him.

Eventually I got too tired and passed out, and this morning went in to find that he had...quite the night. His blankets were dragged out from under the bed and literally half his litter kicked out of the box. A bunch of stuff flew out and I found a couple, er, treats on the floor.

Prior to this he's mostly stayed under the bed and hid. Can someone explain the sudden maniacal behavior? For what it's worth he seems a lot less scared of me today - this is the first day he hasn't scooted away from me when I've come close to him.

Another thing, could I get recs for items around the house I could use to line the bottom of the box? I was going to use newspaper we have lying around, but don't want to deter him from using his box by introducing strange new smells. I could be overreacting on that though, since my cat Smo is so neurotic she has avoided eliminating because she can't stand the smell of rubber mats.

Please advise, cat gurus!

 

[danteshuman]

How old is he?

 

[susanm9006]

Puppy pads are inexpensive and work great to place under a box or to line the litterbox. I buy extra large ones that cost $5 for 15. As far as your guys night, cats just need to let loose and get their energy released. He was feeling safe in the room so he let off some steam.

When I adopted Willow as a one year old, she immediately went under the bed and would have nothing to do with me. Next morning I went in to check in her and there were two things that stopped me in my tracks. First I had set out about a dozen or more cat toys for her and every single one was gone, pulled under the bed with her. Second was this tower she had made in her litterbox. She had scraped every bit of litter from all four sides of the box into a volcano shape in the middle that had to have been eight inches high. She has never done that since so I think she was just having fun in her new big litter box after weeks in a cage with a tiny one.

 

[smosmosmo]

danteshuman He's about a year old. He looks a lot like your kitty, but with black markings!

susanm9006 Is that Willow in your avatar? She's beautiful, what a sweet little nose. I think you hit the nail on the head, he's finally feeling more comfortable and is probably hyper from not budging all week. Last night was a lot less crazy, thankfully. Thanks also for the tip about the puppy pads!

 

[susanm9006]

Yes, that is beautiful Willow. She was a one year old semi feral when I adopted her and she is eight now. Probably one of my prettiest, sweetest and most neurotic cats ever.

 

[maggiedemi]

Maggie does that when she's constipated, digs like crazy and flings litter out of the box, and drops some poops outside of it. Is your cat getting enough canned food? Are you looking for something to put under the litterbox or inside it?

 

[catlover73]

Is it possible that the litter box is too small or not deep enough?

This reminds of when my Starbuck was a kitten. For some reason she did not like it when I scooped out her litter box. She used to get in the box and start kicking litter at me. I would have to make sure I was wearing dirty clothes to scoop out her litter box. She only did this to me. She did not fling litter at my hubby or my cat sitter. Then one day she just stopped doing it. Now she will sometimes watch me but the litter stays in her box. I still have no idea why she did this to me but it was really annoying.