Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We just adopted this cat in december. I don't know what I am doing wrong. The person who had this cat before did not train him well at all. He is a very loving cat but that is not the problem. When he uses the litter box he digs all the way down to the bottom of the box and goes on the plastic. He then scoops just a little bit of litter on top of it and then dumps litter out into the floor. I have a litter maid but he has just made a major mess of it. I now have to figure out how to take it completely apart and clean it. He has gotten poo everywhere. and the litter on the floor is unbelievable. How do I retrain a cat that is 11 months old and weighs 11 lbs? Can anyone help me on this? Also I know that this is not the place for this but he is terrified of baths. He claws and scratches and howls so loud. I don't know what to do? He also meows constantly. I give him attention like you would not believe but its not enough. What do I do there. I am new at this whole cat thing so can and would someone help me please. I don't want to screw up.

Hi There,

You aren't doing anything wrong. You just have a cat that likes to scratch excessively when he is in the litterbox. This is sometimes affectionally referred to as "digging to China". You can't change the behavior but there are things you can try to minimize the mess.

I would get rid of the littermaid. You have found out the hard way why I don't like them. Besides being difficult to clean, they just don't work well with some cats. I would much rather use an old fashioned litterbox and hand-scoop. It's not much work if you keep up with it, and I have a 10 feline household.

A covered litterbox may be your answer, IF your cat will use it. It would be the best way to try to keep litter in the box and off the floor. A deeper litterbox may also work well. But there will still be some litter that ends up on the floor. It
s just a fact of life with cats.

Very few cats enjoy being bathed as it is unnatural to them. Most cats clean themselves well and never, or rarely, need a bath. Unless your cat really needs one, I wouldn't bother. It's too stressful for both of you.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Sorry about the littermaid mess! As kitkat mentions, a covered litterbox might be the way to go for you. For a while I tried a litterbox set inside a larger, cut down cardboard box to help contain the litter being tracked every where. Leave at least 4-5 inches all the way around the litterbox. It was an okay solution that trapped the worst of the mess.

I have 3 cats, two of whom I bathe. They don't like it, but they don't kick up much of a fuss. The 3rd will commit murder before she'll allow me to suds her up. If leaving kitty to clean herself is not an option (one of my cats is too fat to reach everywhere) try calling an animal groomer in your area, or see if it can be done at your vet's. It maybe that with time, kitty will decide trying to get out of a bath is useless and you'll be able to resume bathing kitty yourself.

Congrats on your new fur baby! like any new family member a little adjustment period is to be expected - you'll be fine.

Purrs,
Elizabeth

I have a digger. He'll dig and dig and dig and dig in the box until he has a pyramid in the middle and poops on top of it. It is like a shrine to his poop, LOL... He's done this for 15 years, so I doubt I'll change him now...

I agree w/everyone else. Throw away the Litter Maid. What I've found works best is an enclosed litter box. The sell them for around $10 at Walmart and places like that... I put the fake astroturf welcome mats outside the only opening and that catches most of the litter... You can get one or two cheap at places like Walmart and they also come in other colors than grass green. One would probably work, but I use two as my cats are big and can step wide when they leave the box... I use scoopable litter (not the old fashioned type gravel) and scoop twice a day. I have two cats and twice a day works well. You could probably get away with scooping once a day if you just have one cat. Not a lot of work...

If he is indoor only, and I hope he is, then he doesn't need a bath. My boys are 15 1/2 and have never had a bath (except the weekend I first adopted them, I gave them a flea bath with shampoo from my vet since they picked up fleas at the SPCA where I adopted them). I asked my vet early on -- no bathing necessary. I do brush them regularly... Sometimes I'll run a damp washcloth over them after I brush them to pick up the loose hairs... There is no need for you to bathe him, particularly since he hates it so much...

His need for attention should die down. My digger is also a meower. The best thing to do is ignore him when he meows for attention at inappropriate times (bedtime, etc.) It'll be annoying, but if you say "NO" and totally ignore him and don't give in during inappropriate times, he will stop. Might take a couple weeks. If you give in at all, then you reinforce that his meowing works.
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey