Kitty (Litter) Problem

clsCorwin

Alright, so as some of you may or may not know, I have 2 cats. One is almost 2 years, female, and spayed (Precious). And A wee little one, coming up on a year old, male, and neutered (Tiger). We just moved to a different house, and a little bit before we moved, Precious just stopped scratching after she took a shit, so it would just stay there and smell. She used to scratch, and this really annoys me, and is vomit inducing to my girlfriend.

So, any ideas on how to get her to scratch again?

And while I'm at it, Tiger has a nasty habit of wanting to drink out of our water glasses, and usually ends up spilling them. How can I keep him out? (Tried water, doesn't work for him)

Omnicron9999

clsCorwin wrote:

Alright, so as some of you may or may not know, I have 2 cats. One is almost 2 years, female, and spayed (Precious). And A wee little one, coming up on a year old, male, and neutered (Tiger). We just moved to a different house, and a little bit before we moved, Precious just stopped scratching after she took a shit, so it would just stay there and smell. She used to scratch, and this really annoys me, and is vomit inducing to my girlfriend.

So, any ideas on how to get her to scratch again?

And while I'm at it, Tiger has a nasty habit of wanting to drink out of our water glasses, and usually ends up spilling them. How can I keep him out? (Tried water, doesn't work for him)

I really don't know what to suggest for the not scratching...

As for the water though, my cat had a similar habit that couldn't be broken. We tried all of the negative reinforcement techniques, spraying water, loud noises, etc. In the end, he won and we ended up giving him his own glass of water on the floor. We were then able to break him of our glasses of water. So he now has his own glass instead of a bowl.

As for your cat spilling them, I'm sure you can find a more squat, stable glass to give him. Just make sure to keep it filled high, or else hilarious cat in glass activites will ensue.

Two notes though: My cat liked our water better because it was cold, and filtered through a brita pitcher we kept in the fridge. So we mimic this in his water in his own cup. Problem solved.

Not sure if its the same thing with yours though.

clsCorwin

Hmm, I'll see if giving him filtered water in his bowl will stop this before I move to his own glass, heh.

Nerissa

for the one that isn't covering her leavings, this is kinda gross, but have you watched her at it? I used to have a cat that was just incompetent at that particular task -- he'd scratch at the rug, the wall, the floor, anywhere but inside the litter box. This is an entirely different problem from her just not caring. If she just doesn't seem to care, I'd look for changes in her life about the time she stopped. In particular, when did you get the second cat, or was he just hitting some level of maturity at the time? Did he start using the litter box more, or did you start scooping it less? Maybe a second litter box, if you have space for it, is the answer.

For the water glasses... I don't know, I just started drinking out of travel mugs or other glasses with lids when I had that problem.

Rothgarr

If the litter problem doesn't stop, how about getting one of those "self-cleaning" litter boxes?

http://www.amazon.com/LitterMaid-LM500-Automated-Litter-Box/dp/B00005MF9T/sr=8-8/qid=1170954419/ref=pd_bbs_8/104-2271104-0457552?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden

Heh, kinda looks like the bottom half of a laser printer...

Menthol

if she's TRYING to bury but missing, you could get one of those litterboxes with a lid on top... they look rather like carriers, and some of them even have two bottoms and a sifter for easier scopping.

clsCorwin

she just stopped caring. She still scratches when she pees, but nada for the poop. We got the kitten in October, and she was spayed about 2 weeks before that, but she was fine and dandy until about mid December.

NexusSix

Having been around them my entire 36 years on this planet, I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty much impossible to get a cat to do, or not do, anything. They're are basically on an acid trip 24/7, so who knows what goes through their tiny little minds. So, some suggestions:

Litter issue:

I haven't heard many good things about the self-cleaning boxes. I'd go with Menthol's suggestion and get a box with a top. We have 4 of these in our house. You might also want to get an extra box or two and space them out around the house so they have more areas to go--she might be getting upset that another cat is using her box even if you've had the new kitten for a while. Cats are fucking weird and can start doing stupid shit out of the blue.

Trying a different type of litter might work, but, again, these are weird creatures we're dealing with here. Have you checked her paws? Maybe she injured one of her pads or is having a problem and doesn't want to dig in the litter.

This is a bad thing to do to cats, but I'll ask anyway: has she been declawed recently, or ever? If so, she could have litter getting in there and agitating the area where they removed the knuckle.

Water glass issue:

Don't bother trying to chase the cat away; they just come back and you'll get more annoyed and the cat won't really care. I'd move to using bottled water--you can pick up a case and just keep refilling the bottles from the tap and keep them in the fridge. One of my cats has a fascination with drinking out of our water glasses, so we either just use bottles or set down a glass of water for him (one that isn't easily knocked over, of course). Fresh tap water in a glass, especially with ice in hot weather, is going to taste better and will be cooler than the water in their bowl even if you're giving them fresh water on a daily basis. We had a cat that loved drinking out of a running bathroom faucet even though it would get his head soaking wet.

Aurin

Rothgarr wrote:

If the litter problem doesn't stop, how about getting one of those "self-cleaning" litter boxes?

Litter Maid hunk o junk

Heh, kinda looks like the bottom half of a laser printer...

Oh please don't get that thing. They last for about a year, and dump litter all over the floor in the process.

If you must have an automatic litterbox:

Litter Robot

It looks like a spaceship, but it's worth the money. It's quiet and actually works. Keeps things from being a gagfest, if you start to smell anything from this thing, it's because you need to empty the tray in the bottom.

AbsoluteZero

For the water problem...

Get the cat to think that your water is not good to drink. Put something gross in it that isn't dangerous to the cat (like garlic salt and lemon juice).

Don't drink it yourself, obviously, but if she thinks your water is gross she will lose interest in it eventually.

clsCorwin

Doubt this will work, as my cat will eat anything. Including lemons.

DrZiplock

My one cat doesn't do the scratching thing either....well....he tries, but fails.

There are two of them, littermates. The one is pretty good about covering up his stuff, the other...scratches the wall, the floor, around the box, against the box, takes a look and then calls it good.

Thanks, dude.

I have two and live in a rather small space, thus....I actually mix litter. Half multicat, half flushable. They seem to like it. When my nose detects a bomb, swoop in, scoop up, and flush away.

keeps the scent to a very very low level.

crake

Every single time I've heard this story about the drinking water, they try everything before giving up and giving the cat it's own glass. It's also entirely possible that she'll go back to normal litter activities once she gets what she wants too. (because cats are weird like that)

phoxphyre

My little kitten (okay, so he's nearly 1 year old) was very interested in the contents of glasses also.

We didn't so much break him of the habbit, as give him other places to drink from. In my bedroom there is an "ensuite" corner with a sink (which is almost never used). We put a bowl in the sink (on an angle so it will slowly seep down the drain), and set the tap on a miniscule number of drips per min.

A couple of days later they were drinking from it, and glasses weren't seen as immediate water sources.

Heck, even (retched, grr!) neighbour cats know where the good water is in my house!

Sorry I can't help with the scratching thing, but I **do** second the seperate litter box idea. Encourage littlest kitten to use a seperate one. Big kittie might use both for a while, but when introducing my two I found that seperating the litter boxes seemed to work.

Good luck!

Cimmerii

Don't have any suggestions on getting precious to scratch, sorry. Did you change brands or anything?

Tiger is apparently aptly named
My cat is picky about water, we keep a bowl for him next to his food dish, but he almost never uses it, because it is not as fresh as he likes.
We keep a little bowl for him in the bathroom, its a little bit cooler and the bowl is rinsed out and gets fresh water at least once a day, he likes drinking right after its filled.

Try giving Tiger fresh water, colder then room temp, and filterd if you want (does your tap water taste nasty?) just keep a small bowl in a convenient area where it's easy to pick up, rinse out, and refill.

Unless you wanna go all out and get one of those foutain/water bowl things.

LadyM

What if you have a cat who digs so frantically that kitty litter gets kicked all over the floor? I switched to a covered litterbox which helped a lot, but still.

What brand of kitty litter do you guys use? Right now I'm using Nature's Miracle pine-based litter (smells like Christmas!), but I'd like to find something cheaper, but still clumping and scented.

Aurin

LadyM wrote:

What if you have a cat who digs so frantically that kitty litter gets kicked all over the floor? I switched to a covered litterbox which helped a lot, but still.

What brand of kitty litter do you guys use? Right now I'm using Nature's Miracle pine-based litter (smells like Christmas!), but I'd like to find something cheaper, but still clumping and scented.

I've found that good ol' Fresh Step works pretty well, though it is a bit dusty.

You might try something like this to catch the stray litter:

Litter Mat

The mats work well, it's easier to clean and keeps most of the litter off of the floor. My cats tend to be more of the race out of the litter box when they're done and spray litter all over the place, though they do get kicks of enjoying to try to dig to China in there or something.

MichaelLC

I (well, the cat) use FreshStep and find it works well at it's job of reducing the smell. Have a litter pads too. Does cut down on the litter when he gets out of the box.

Cat loves to paw all around the box too, but usually get's his poop covered in the process. Sometimes he just doesn't, seems only when he's in a hury or excited.

Where is your litter box? Can you move to a less central/busy location?


For the water glass, yeah, good luck with that. When I drink bottled water, I'll pour some into the cap for him; he freakin loves that.

matt7718

The water glass thing seems to be universal to cats. They are just fascinated with water and running water.

Just turn on a bathroom faucet and they will stare for hours.

LadyM

I got one of those litter mats and the cat repeatedly pulled it into the litterbox, apparently believing it was a poop-burying aid. Oh, kitty. No.

jhunter46

We have the same problem with one of our cats, she would never bury her junk.

We picked up the Litter Mate delux automatic box, and it's worked really well. The only catch is you have to get the premium litter for it to work as well as it can.

The deluxe version is quiet, has a sleep timer and a hood.

Litter Box - 150
Litter for a month - 25
Disposable Containers for a month - 15

Not having to clean the cat box very often/smell it. Priceless.