[phisigjuliet269]

Hello Everyone!! My friend needs help with her 5 month old kitten. He is a short haired mixed breed cat with Asian characteristics (so says the vet due to his size, vocals, and he has a pouch on his belly meant for speed- not the cardiomyopathy kind). She adopted him from PetSmart. He looks like a very long and large Tuxedo with huge scoop ears and a short tail. He also doesnt shed very much. I dunno if any of that matters but fgured I would throw it out there.

Anyway her kitten keeps stepping in poop in the cat box and gets it all over his paws. He does try to bury the poop but she doesnt know if he steps on it first or if he gets it on his paws when he is trying to bury it.

She tried a matt in front of the door, taking the top off, and she bought the largest cat box she could find yet he still comes out with poop on his paws a lot. The cat is very messy he kicks litter EVERYWHERE when their is no lid.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

 

[OSCARSMOM]

You might want to make sure that their is room around ALL sides of the litter box. When we had Oscar's litterbox too close to the wall he would have to turn around to get out of the box (which is probably what your friend's cat has to do with a covered litterbox). Since he has always been clueless about covering "things" in the litter box, he would sometimes walk through stuff on his way out. Now most of the time he just walks in, does his thing, and walks out the opposite side of the box. For the other times, he just gets his paw(s) washed off in the sink.

Oscar also used to kick litter everywhere. We found a litterbox that had an attachment on the top that curved slightly in and found that it helped. Here's a picture of something like it:

 

[doodlebug]

Kittens can be messy, stepping in poop is pretty common. Cats are naturally clean animals because in the wild they are prey...so they try to leave very little scent around that can attract predators. He'll develop those instincts in due time. They usually become more fastidious as they get over 6 months or so. But kicking the litter out of the box may or may not stop. Kobi is too large for even the biggest boxes so I use large storage totes (18"w x 30"L x 15"H) with lids and cut a hole in the side with a hot knife. I never have litter kicked out of the boxes.