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- Aug 4, 2014
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I have (at least) 3 out of 7 of our foster kittens who wipe their paws on the wall when in the litter box.
We use very tall, XL litterboxes, and they will stretch and climb over the edge to do this. They do it regardless of littler level, too.
Some of those same kittens also insist on using toys/blankets/bedding to bury their cat biz, food, and water bowls (they’ve done it since 8 weeks old, they’re about 6 months now).
I am fully aware of why they are doing what they’re doing, there’s never been a question about that.
But I am struggling for solutions and trying to find alternatives that I can offer their future families.
We could always use corrugated plastic sheeting for the paw wiping, and there are other options I can also think of, but all are major eyesores that most adopters are not going to be fans of.
Has anyone else had an issue with this? Is a covered litter box the only practical solution here?
For the second issue, I am just at a loss of what we can do. I can deal with constantly disinfecting toys and bedding that ends up in the litterbox (although adopters are likely to feel differently), but the food and water bowls are harder.
They often bury the food to where the other kittens can’t access it, or don’t realize they can.
And once a toy or blanket is in the water bowl, the dye nearly always bleeds into the water, and then cats drink out of it... I have tried and tried and tried to find toys where the dye won’t bleed but I swear it happens with nearly all of them.
I also try to put out a ton of different water bowls out so that if one bowl has a toy or blanket in it, the cats have others to choose from - but they often will still choose the “buried” bowl! I also try to check frequently so I can wash and refill these bowls, but I can’t do that every couple of hours, and I can’t ask an adopters to either.
I’m just kind of stuck about how to address these issues in a practical way.
We use very tall, XL litterboxes, and they will stretch and climb over the edge to do this. They do it regardless of littler level, too.
Some of those same kittens also insist on using toys/blankets/bedding to bury their cat biz, food, and water bowls (they’ve done it since 8 weeks old, they’re about 6 months now).
I am fully aware of why they are doing what they’re doing, there’s never been a question about that.
But I am struggling for solutions and trying to find alternatives that I can offer their future families.
We could always use corrugated plastic sheeting for the paw wiping, and there are other options I can also think of, but all are major eyesores that most adopters are not going to be fans of.
Has anyone else had an issue with this? Is a covered litter box the only practical solution here?
For the second issue, I am just at a loss of what we can do. I can deal with constantly disinfecting toys and bedding that ends up in the litterbox (although adopters are likely to feel differently), but the food and water bowls are harder.
They often bury the food to where the other kittens can’t access it, or don’t realize they can.
And once a toy or blanket is in the water bowl, the dye nearly always bleeds into the water, and then cats drink out of it... I have tried and tried and tried to find toys where the dye won’t bleed but I swear it happens with nearly all of them.
I also try to put out a ton of different water bowls out so that if one bowl has a toy or blanket in it, the cats have others to choose from - but they often will still choose the “buried” bowl! I also try to check frequently so I can wash and refill these bowls, but I can’t do that every couple of hours, and I can’t ask an adopters to either.
I’m just kind of stuck about how to address these issues in a practical way.