Why does my cat scratch the walls around her kitty litter instead of the kitty litter?

Question

She always does it, my 6yo cat scratches around the walls and edges of the kitty litter tray instead of in the kitty litter, why does she do this? amd how can i get her to scratch in the kitty litter instead of the walls?

She also doesnt bury her "buisness" whats up with that

Answer 1

This is a good question.

Funny little beasts these cats of ours.

Mine does the same thing, and she has a large tray, I have noticed though if she has done a real stinker, she scratches more on the walls.

Answer 2

My step daughter and her cats lived with us for a year. We had to seperate her cats at a time, so the older females' box was in my office where I do all my work. The food was on one side of the wall and the box was farther down by the other door. She would pee in the box, jump out and "cover" the carpet and then crap right there on the carpet while I watched her. After a month of this, I was infuriated! I don't have cats, nor do I want cat puke (the other would eat all the food and puke on the floor) and crap all over my house. My guest bedroom still smells of litter box and they've been gone for a couple of months now. (Yes, they shampooed the carpets)

Answer 3

I have three cats, and they all do this. I researched a bit, and learned that they are "marking" with scent glans on the bottoms of their feet. As for leaving the poo uncovered, that is also a dominance issue. Is her litter box in a high traffic area? If so, I would move it out of the way.
My cats go around marking everything with their feet. If I put a treat on the floor, they will each mark an entire circle around it if they don't eat it right away. It's really funny, but it can be annoying as well.

Answer 4

Yeah, what gives?!?!?! I don't have the answer, but I'm curious to see what everyone else has to say. Both of my cats do that too and I thought it was that the litter pan was too small (my cats are kinda big) so I got them a HUGE litter box (which is actually a rubbermaid storage container) and I make sure it is always clean, and still with the wall scratching???? Thanks for asking the question I always wondered about, hope you don't mind me "tagging along" lol

Answer 5

From personal experience, I found that the box was too small and that she preferred soft clumping cat litter, and no box lid. She had been declawed and was an outside cat before that. She was use to using the soft dirt around bushes.

Answer 6

My cat does that, too. I think they're just following instinct when they do that, sort of an autopilot. In the wild, there would be no boundary of box sides, just dirt. So they're on autopilot, I think.

Answer 7

my ***** cat does this too, but not only does she do this on in ther litter box, she does it where she is eating...... she whipes the floor and walls around her dish,,, maybe my kitty is just strange!

Answer 8

I THINK THAT SHE DOES NOT LIKE THE LITTER UNDER IN HER TOES OR UNDER HER CLAWS.. THAT MIGHT BE WHY SHE DOESNT SCRATCH IT AND THAT MIGHT BE WHY SHE SCRATCHES THE WALL.. TO GET THE LITTER OUT FROM HER TOES.. THAT IS WHAT ONE OF MY OLD CATS DID..

Answer 9

Ours use to do it (they have now passed) and our new one does it perfectly.

I spoke to the vet about it and he said that when they don't do it properly, it is because they weren't taught properly by their mother. That makes sense as our first two were dumped and hand raised from 2 weeks of age.

Answer 10

I wish I knew - my 13 yr old Sylvie always does this and she is the only one of five that does.