Kitten's Excessive Digging In Litter Box Making Huge Messes

[ldy71]

I adopted two kittens a week ago today: a boy and a girl. They are both 14 weeks old.

I'm having issues with the boy's aggressive digging/covering up in the litter boxes. Before he goes to the bathroom he'll dig around for at least 30 seconds, and is sometimes so aggressive with it that he catapults litter out of the box, or worse, runs his paw through some old excrement. This is less of a problem when I've recently scooped the box, since there's no "treasure" for him to accidentally dig through. Luckily I'm in between jobs at the moment, which gives me the freedom to scoop the boxes 3-4 times a day, but I know this won't be possible once I start working again.

However, the problem that concerns me more is how aggressive he is in trying to cover up his business after doing it. It isn't really a problem after urinating, but after going poo, he gives it everything he's got to try and cover it up. 50% of the time, he does okay and there is no issue, but the other 50% of the time, he makes a mess. The past two mornings, I've woken up to him flinging his poo against the wall, and I had to jump out of bed to grab him and clean his paw before he hopped out of the box. Needless to say, I would prefer to not keep waking up like this.

Anyone have any tips for rectifying this situation?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!

As a partial solution, can you get a big storage tub, cut out an opening and put their box inside it?

 

[FeebysOwner]

You might also consider two litter boxes to help with having too much 'stuff' in one box. The rule of thumb is one box per cat, plus one - so theoretically you could use 3.

Some cats are driven to cover up poop because of the smell - especially compared to pee, which a lot of the odor is dissipated by the litter.

Check to see if his poop smells unusually strong - and even compare that to your girl's poop. Some food can cause that in certain cats, and could cause him to be extra diligent in trying to get rid of the smell.

 

[susanm9006]

At a minimum you need a extra large box with taller sides. If he is still flinging litter you can set the litter box inside a bigger box or you can buy a washing machine liner, which is about 30 x 30 and costs around $20, to catch the flung litter.

 

[maggie101]

Big sterlite storage bin. My biggest one I got at the container store, 30x 30 inch tall. My small 7 pd cat pees standing up. She hits the 13 inch marker. Looks like she tries real hard. Try to measure how high he shoots. Just realized someone already typed this!