Kitten can't cover properly in the litter tray

[terraphoto]

We have two kittens one male and one female. When they use the tray the male can spend ten minutes fiddling about with the litter until he's happy, but the female can't cover using the litter and ends up scratching the carpet! Then the her brother comes along and covers it for her! Hopefully when they go out she will 'do it herself' but this seems odd. Any ideas?

[tigwig]

I think some cats just have their own strange ways of doing things! My kitten was so obssessed with his litter tray he went in it around 20 times a day not to go to the toilet but to scratch around and throw all the litter on the floor! He always did it after I had just spent ages cleaning too which was really annoying, that annoying in fact we spent �200 having a cat flap put into our glass door so we could get rid of it!! (the litter tray not the cat by the way!)

[wolf63]

There is nothing worse than going to bed and finding cat litter there. My long haired cat usually has some dangling from one bit or other of her anatomy.

My little moronic tom cat spends ages wiping his paws after being at the 'bathroom' - he isn't too fussy what he uses. I usually leave an old towel out so that he can clean his little paws.

Don't try to understand them - it will drive you insane.

[dolly pond]

bless, thats soooo cute, leaving out a towel xxxx i love u already nice cat person x

[bensmum]

I agree with wolf - cats will drive you insane! I had a cat who insisted on using a litter tray - she would come inside from the garden to use it - and she usually missed when trying to cover. Like yours she used to scratch the carpet next to the box and it was usually me who went out and covered it for her. (I excused her this behaviour as she was very arthritic and may have had trouble scratching)
You may find that once your kitten goes outside she will have no need for the tray.

[smudge]

I feel quite fortunate - so far!

We've only had our 11 week old kitten Milly since the 16th & she was already toilet trained. She goes into her litter tray & covers up after herself, leaving hardly any debris on the kitchen floor. However, I'll give it a few weeks, then let her outside.

P.S. We're avid bird watchers, so will have to buy her a little collar with bell.

[pedantic]

I have an old female cat who drove me bonkers with her constant scratching around the litter box. Then she started missing it and peed on the floor. Eventually, after cleaning up puddles many times a day, I got a large,deep plastic storage box and used that as a litter tray. No problems since.