Is it normal for a kitten to be less competent at litter etiquette and is this something one would expect they will grow out of, even if they are post-learning-from-mother?
Background: I've had River (my first cat and pet) for five years, and he is a very well behaved and domesticated cat. The only toilet issues I have and do have with him is, for reasons I haven't determined but I seem to happen mid-zoomies, he may leave singular nuggets of poop out of the tray, but this is the exception rather than the norm. Other than that, my experience with him is well buried poop. I use litter tray liners because I do not have the spoons to wash the actual tray, so I just use liners which allow me to simply pick it all up within the liner, bin it, and replace with fresh litter - River has never had an issue with this - earlier liners I used he would puncture, but I moved onto a thicker brand and it's all been fine since, with little leakage.
Lillie is my new cat, she's just over six months now. Her toileting habits are, in comparison with River, poor. She gets the steps right but isn't that good at it. She will dig a corner of the litter before she toilets (so far so good), but seems to both over-dig slightly and dig too far out - in that she will end up moving all the litter from that area, reaching the liner, and continuing to attempt to dig, which ends up dragging the liner off and into the tray, ripping into it. The fact there is no longer any litter to fig through doesn't seem to register, she continues the same motions (on the few times she's completely moved the liner off a corner, she may continue to make the digging motions on the actual tray itself).
Then she will toilet and it's not necessarily in the same place she just dug up (although it can be). Sometimes it's just adjacent.
And then she will do the burying motions, but rarely is she actually burying what she just excremented, usually she is covering a completely different spot. And will continue to bury until she reaches the liner and starts ripping into that. She does this even to the point where the height of the pile of litter she has just made is higher than the litter tray itself, so that I have to make sure I tip and shake the tray slightly before removing the lid otherwise it will spill out.
So in short, she appears to insensitively know the three toileting steps, but doesn't seem to actually think and make them apply to each other. Is it usual for a young cat to be less good at this and get better over time, or is this just a Lillie thing I will have to learn to live with now that she's six months and is past the stage where cats learn from their mothers? (Although maybe she will learn from River, she does sometimes seem interested in sticking her head into the litter box River is using, which I am sure thrills him ...)
To offer myself a possible solution, it may be I need a bigger litter box - I have three trays as per the x+1 rule, two which are the same size and a bit larger, and then one which is more kitten-sized, so smaller (and the ideal size to fit in my corridor without blocking the way, the only real place left for it). For the last couple of weeks, Lillie has been recovering from her spay, so she's been in a cone. To make it easier for her, I've taken the lid off of her tray (and temporarily relocated it to the living room, as she was confined there during the first few days), and to prevent mess, placed it in a cardboard box with one side cut out. I'm glad I did because watching her poop without the lid, she clearly likes to stay on the edge - both when digging and burying, and also toileting. Culminating in a few hours ago where she pretty much had her but almost against the cardboard box (so just over the edge of the tray - if the box wasn't there, she would've been pooping outside the tray). So it seems like she's quickly overgrown the tray size (or at least in regards to how she toilets - River rarely, if ever, uses her tray - but I have seen him go once, and he had no problem despite its smaller size ...).
But Lillie has and does use the bigger trays, and while the above issues happen is less magnitude, they do happen - she seems keen to toilet at the edge, evidence suggests digging, toileting and burying irrespective of each other, and she does dig at the liner when she gets past the litter.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
Background: I've had River (my first cat and pet) for five years, and he is a very well behaved and domesticated cat. The only toilet issues I have and do have with him is, for reasons I haven't determined but I seem to happen mid-zoomies, he may leave singular nuggets of poop out of the tray, but this is the exception rather than the norm. Other than that, my experience with him is well buried poop. I use litter tray liners because I do not have the spoons to wash the actual tray, so I just use liners which allow me to simply pick it all up within the liner, bin it, and replace with fresh litter - River has never had an issue with this - earlier liners I used he would puncture, but I moved onto a thicker brand and it's all been fine since, with little leakage.
Lillie is my new cat, she's just over six months now. Her toileting habits are, in comparison with River, poor. She gets the steps right but isn't that good at it. She will dig a corner of the litter before she toilets (so far so good), but seems to both over-dig slightly and dig too far out - in that she will end up moving all the litter from that area, reaching the liner, and continuing to attempt to dig, which ends up dragging the liner off and into the tray, ripping into it. The fact there is no longer any litter to fig through doesn't seem to register, she continues the same motions (on the few times she's completely moved the liner off a corner, she may continue to make the digging motions on the actual tray itself).
Then she will toilet and it's not necessarily in the same place she just dug up (although it can be). Sometimes it's just adjacent.
And then she will do the burying motions, but rarely is she actually burying what she just excremented, usually she is covering a completely different spot. And will continue to bury until she reaches the liner and starts ripping into that. She does this even to the point where the height of the pile of litter she has just made is higher than the litter tray itself, so that I have to make sure I tip and shake the tray slightly before removing the lid otherwise it will spill out.
So in short, she appears to insensitively know the three toileting steps, but doesn't seem to actually think and make them apply to each other. Is it usual for a young cat to be less good at this and get better over time, or is this just a Lillie thing I will have to learn to live with now that she's six months and is past the stage where cats learn from their mothers? (Although maybe she will learn from River, she does sometimes seem interested in sticking her head into the litter box River is using, which I am sure thrills him ...)
To offer myself a possible solution, it may be I need a bigger litter box - I have three trays as per the x+1 rule, two which are the same size and a bit larger, and then one which is more kitten-sized, so smaller (and the ideal size to fit in my corridor without blocking the way, the only real place left for it). For the last couple of weeks, Lillie has been recovering from her spay, so she's been in a cone. To make it easier for her, I've taken the lid off of her tray (and temporarily relocated it to the living room, as she was confined there during the first few days), and to prevent mess, placed it in a cardboard box with one side cut out. I'm glad I did because watching her poop without the lid, she clearly likes to stay on the edge - both when digging and burying, and also toileting. Culminating in a few hours ago where she pretty much had her but almost against the cardboard box (so just over the edge of the tray - if the box wasn't there, she would've been pooping outside the tray). So it seems like she's quickly overgrown the tray size (or at least in regards to how she toilets - River rarely, if ever, uses her tray - but I have seen him go once, and he had no problem despite its smaller size ...).
But Lillie has and does use the bigger trays, and while the above issues happen is less magnitude, they do happen - she seems keen to toilet at the edge, evidence suggests digging, toileting and burying irrespective of each other, and she does dig at the liner when she gets past the litter.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
