You don't say how old kitty is, but it does sound like he's being intimidated by your girl with her staring at him. I would discourage her from doing that by luring her away with a treat or toy. Can you set up a box for him in a different location where your girl isn't likely to use a box, and where you can observe it? Once his habits are well established andhe's confident u can always move it gradually to another location. You want him to have confidence that he isn't going to be bothered or attacked, and even tho she hasn't actually done it the staring by itself is intimidating to him.. About all you can do to encourage covering his poo is to make the motions with your own fingers and partly bury it, and hope he eventually get the hint. Praise any attempts at all. You don't necessarily have to give a treat.

On the other hand I have had males that for whatever reason did not like to bury their poo....or would poo outside the box. I think females are more fastidious when it comes to toilet habits. Maybe just the male thing, like not putting down the toilet seat!

 

He's two months, three weeks.

He has two of his very own boxes upstairs to use, and he hasn't buried in each one so far at least once. It seems random.

I have distracted the 9 month old, but she seems like she's just continuing her playing because he goes from wrestling to poo in about 5 seconds lol

 

I dunno if it was necessary, but I just grabbed his paw and buried it for him.

He buries now too, but he's retarded and scratches the plastic on the top of the Omega Paw box for five minutes as well. *facepalm* Oh well, as long as he gets the job done, I don't mind it taking a while heheh!

^-^

 

That news is encouraging me. The fact that he knew what I wanted when I put him back in after a few times helping him out didn't hurt, but this is definitely something I wanted to nip in the bud while I could.

 

Still kind of having the same problem. He's now about to hit 3 months old and randomly not burying some waste. I can usually tell within a short time frame, so I grab him and sit in one of the litterboxes. He'll smell it then bury the stuff like it's pirate gold all for him. I'm talking overkill. Like half the litter in the box goes into the bury mound lol.

I'm at the point now where last night instead of lavishing him with praise and petting after this, I shut him in the room for about 3 hours hoping he'll take that hint. Only seems to do it if I am home, too.

 

I'd been encouraged by his behavior. At least he's trying to please you. After all he is still pretty young, and hopefully as he gets older and bigger he'll be more consistent and feel more confident in himself. When you see him doing it, just keep praising him.

 

That's true, and I'm hoping it's just youth that causes him to leave early sometimes. Like I said, he buries like it's his job if I'm in the room or if I smell it and put him in the box again, but not if I'm not around after a certain point and its smell losses its 'omg bury this now' factor.

Like yesterday I had stuff I needed to do, so I didn't get home until about 4 hours later. He clearly didn't finish his job, but it had been too long that he wouldn't fix it if I put him in the box, so I ended up putting him in their and manual covering it by grabbing his paw lol

I hope this ends before he gets too big and his waste becomes less tolerable

 

One of my cats hardly ever buries her poo so the other always goes in and buries it for her because (I think) he is annoyed. Maybe that will happen if he never quite gets it.

 

Oh I am a new cat owner. Molly and Oscar are nearly 12 weeks. I thought stinky poo was just par for the course, but you have just made me see the light. It's because Oscar doesn't bury his poo!!! no wonder it's so stinky. So you think maybe I can encourage him to cover it up???! It would make such a big difference!!

 

I've got a bit of an update. (sorry, it's kind of graphic)

I took both cats to the vet because they were sneezing pretty bad and both had slightly runny noses. I didn't want to take a chance having lost a kitten Sully's age less than a month ago since the waste he wasn't burying was lighter in color and definitely softer. I wouldn't say diahrrhea, but the typical harder and blackish in color deposits he usually has he has no problem in covering with litter, but this stuff? He runs from it as soon as he's finished!

I gave them a waste sample, which tested positive for a bug. The Doc didn't seem to concerned about it. Basically I have to give him a pill a day for a week, clean all the litterboxes twice times a day, and wash my hands a lot since it can be passed between both cats and humans as a stomach bug. Doesn't sound too fun. I replaced my ScoopFree for the time being for an old fashioned. I sanitized all the boxes yesterday and will do it again in 6 days after all the medicine is gone.

I'm hoping this is the reason he has been selective about it. It's definitely the softer stuff he avoids like the plague, but his usual waste is more of a solid black because of his diet.

If you're noticing a softer waste that's not being buried, then maybe get it checked out. Your cat might sense that there's a microbe in it that it doesn't want to touch.

 

Vapid, I was thinking about this thread this morning. (How sad is that?!)

So glad you found an answer, and please update the thread to let us know how things work out with the medicine.

@ Luce-Loo, some people find that a cat's diet affects litterbox odour. Of course, if there's a health issue like Vapid discovered, changing diet won't help much.

I'd been miffed at SFK for going beside the box, and thought it was because the box was too small. Turns out she goes in/over the box like a very good little girl, but it doesn't pinch off properly! So she has to scoot a bit to remove it. She went this morning while I was in the bathroom and was able to observe in real time. So I put it back in the box and tried to use her paw to cover it up. All this did was annoy her.

 

Vapid, I was thinking about this thread this morning. (How sad is that?!)

So glad you found an answer, and please update the thread to let us know how things work out with the medicine.

Haha it's not sad, promise!

Last night Sully was given a whole pill to take (which he ate like a champ!), and the rest of the week he gets a half of one for the next 6 days.

I'm not sure if it was the pill or coincidence, but this morning he buried no problem (and it seems normal as far as waste).

So I'm hopeful that he won't have a problem with this once the medical issue goes away. Especially after seeing how eager he seems to be to please me. Hopefully this keeps working!

 

Well the medicine appears to be working because this morning he had his first solid deposit since he was first diagnosed, and yes, he buried it no problem. I was so happy!

The Albon prescribed to treet the coccidia seems to be working enough that it's passing through his system. Thursday will be the last day of his medication, so I assume by then he'll have build a natural immunity to the bug by then and things will go back to normal (whatever that is).