Scratching the side of the Litter Box

[missriss]

My Boyfriend's Cat Cash will scratch the side of the letterbox for what feels like forever in the middle of the night. It is like he is in a trance! My boyfriend will snap his fingers and Cash will stop and finally come out. I really think he gets hypnotized in there!  

 

[crankydave]

 
My Boyfriend's Cat Cash will scratch the side of the letterbox for what feels like forever in the middle of the night. It is like he is in a trance! My boyfriend will snap his fingers and Cash will stop and finally come out. I really think he gets hypnotized in there!  

One of mine gets the same way, like some sort of OCD repetitive motion trance. With him, he always goes near the edge of the box (he's a big fella), and he tries to bury it by reaching straight ahead instead of twisting left or right to reach fresh litter. I usually step in after 5 minutes or so, but I honestly think he would keep pawing at the plastic indefinitely.

 

[Jlhagerty]

My cat is almost 2 years old and she scratches the sides of her litter box. The nice thing about it is that it is a covered litter box, so she only scratches on the insides of her litter box.

My only concern is her claws, sometimes I worry that she will hurt herself scratching at sides.

Ever since I got her as a 17-weeks-old kitten, she was always good about using her litter box, refuses to let herself have accidents outside of her litter box. When I go traveling with her, she refuses to go to bathroom anywhere but her litter box. I have a small litter box for traveling, and I set it up in the bathroom. She refuses to pee or poop when outside.

Rarely she ever pee or poop outside of her litter box. Though the first morning after I got her, I had her spend the night in the bathroom, and I found her poop in the sink. Her first gift to me and she looked up at me and meowed. I laughed at her and cleaned up her poop. That was a one time thing, never happened again.

 

[MizzFlorez]

Hi all! I did a little research on this because I took-in a litter of 9 week old fosters that scratch like crazy at the side of the box after use and found 2 good tips:

1. They may prefer more litter in the box, so try adding another inch or two.

2. They may be excessively marking if the box is a shared box. Consider placing a 2nd box in the home.

3. They may be trying extra hard to hide their 'business' from 'predators' as is their nature if the box is too exposed.

If you try remedying these 3 factors and the bbehavior stops, huzzah! You are one step closer in the never-ending struggle to please your furr baby! If it continues, this may just be a behavior your particular kitty enjoys!

 

[MonaLyssa33]

My Maisie would do this all the time and I'd get so annoyed. I ended up getting a bigger box and another one that is top-entry for different reasons but fortunately found that she doesn't do the scratching thing with the new boxes.