Litter tray training help

[Millys Mum]

Thats good you have no liners, they put off alot of cats so i would have said remove them. The one per cat plus one is a behaviourial rule for multicat homes and its applied to all essential items, beds, trays, hidey holes, feeding areas etc but i admit i dont have to do this with my 6, phew!
I dont know what Benevo is but if its like sand and kept deep then it would be your best bet to encourage digging

[Leanne]

We use Catsan clumping litter which is really fine litter and is like by us all. We have one covered and one uncovered tray, both prefer the uncovered tray for wees but the covered for poos.

Only Milo covers up his toilets though, Jess leaves everything uncovered, sometimes Milo goes and does his house keeping but not always.

I always thought uncovered poos were the cat showing who is the dominant one.

(We used liners but then stopped when the behaviourist pointed out that cats don't actually like the feeling and the noise it can make)

[Rachel_East_London]

We started with Cats Best - that wasn't much liked - and then switched to Benevo (a fine litter). Then I decided to try Tact (wood pellets) which they'd had previously. I think we'll go back to Benevo, they actually seemed to like that most esp. Paddock (kitten). And it's a lot cheaper than Cats Best.

MillysMum - three trays?! The rescue said one would be okay (although I was a little sceptical about that). I guess we will stick with two (although OH will be disappointed I think!) Maybe we can slowly try and introduce them to a second covered one instead of the uncovered one...

We've ordered a screen to separate off their litter area from the rest of the kitchen, anyway. I think that will be more pleasant.

thanks for all advice 

PS re: liners - no, haven't used liners - what do you recommend?

[Mark]

Same here - I just take it out with a wad of loo roll and flush it 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

definately do not take away the tray that is liked or you will have new problems.

out of four cats  i only have one covererer!

[Millys Mum]

For 2 cats there should technically be 3 trays so i wouldnt take 1 away. What litter do you use? And are there liners in the trays? A nice fine litter would encourage her to cover over but you may then have problems with litter everywhere 

[Rachel_East_London]

We do have a covered tray...but even that gets a bit smelly with poo left uncovered in it! [edit - not that we do leave it there once we know it's there, but we're not in ALL the time]

Maybe thinking about it we aren't helping, we have two litter trays (one covered, one not) which is maybe confusing them? The uncovered one is like the one they had in the rescue - OH wants to take it away and just leave them the covered one, but I'm a bit worried that Paddock might not like that (she's still using the old one).

Thanks for the tips and suggestions 

[Topsy Turvey]

Skye digs for England, Summer always covers and Smartie rarely.  Covered tray could be the way forward.  At least she's depositing in the tray 

[Bryony84]

Both of my girls will generally scratch at the edges of the box and the mat/carpet around it but never the actual litter! It makes me wonder whether they only remembered the scratching part when mum was teaching them, but not the purpose of it!

[pappilon]

My Boy always start scratching and covering everything around the tray , that includes the wall, the floor , the poppy training pad under the tray but never the poo Like Stuart said he leaves me to deal with it And Phoebe after using the tray just runs like a bullet and again i do the cleaning
But i think a covered tray helps with the smell, also there are some litters which are better than others , i am sure some one here will be able to help. 

[blackcat]

she may just be training the kitten - by leaving it uncovered, it gives the kitten the hint that this is the right place to use. Or she may just be a cat who doesn't cover up. BTW, uncovered cat poo in the garden is much better than covered poo - you can spot it more easily and don't get it under your fingernails when digging around ...

[Stuart]

My Misty is an old boy and for ages, he has stopped bothering to cover it

Now He just runs away   

and leaves me to deal with it   

[Kay and Penny]

she may be deliberately leaving her faeces uncovered as a marker

one remedy is to use the deepest tray you can find - usually the bottom of a giant covered tray - so you can keep the litter really deep - this may encourage her to dig, and if she still doesn't, you can just tip up a corner of the tray yourself and the litter will do its  job

[Rachel_East_London]

Well my first behaviour query...hope someone can help. Our kitten, Paddock, is fine with the litter tray - but her Mum, Malkin, is having problems. She doesn't cover her poo (okay, there's no delicate way to say it !)

So far at least I've been around most of the time but things are going to get seriously smelly if she doesn't learn soon. But how to do it? Initially she seemed to be trying to use newspaper to cover. I hoped things would get better when we switched to the brand of litter they'd had in the rescue, but no dice. It's like having a dog 

How can we train her to cover? Part of me's thinking "oh it'll get easier when they're going out" but then part of me's thinking... do I want uncovered cat poo in my garden? Hmm. Any advice greatly appreciated!