Cat behavior question - Democratic Underground

libnnc

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Sat Mar-12-05 04:42 PM
Original message

Cat behavior question

My long haired orange tabby "Patsy" has a habit of scratching the side of her litter box for like 10 minutes after she's pooped.

Is she trying to shake the litter off her paws or is she just trying to drive me batty? The sound of her claws on her litter box makes me nuts.

It's kind of a kitty-OCD, no?

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mr_hat

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Sat Mar-12-05 04:50 PM
Response to Original message

1. Yep. "Moot" used to do that, but she

was too dainty to even poop inside the box. She'd stand IN the box, poop outside, and then spend countless minutes "air burying" the outside-the-box poop.

It prepared me for children, believe me...

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mike_c

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Sat Mar-12-05 04:55 PM
Response to Original message

2. it's instinctive feces hiding behavior....

Edited on Sat Mar-12-05 04:59 PM by mike_c

Cats are small, territorial predators with a finely honed understanding of the advantages of intentional territory marking, and the dangers of leaving unintentional evidence regarding your location and habits. Hiding their feces is one way of being secretive. Some cats do this more than others. One of mine also paws the linoleum floor around the food bowl for several minutes after he finishes eating, "hiding" the remainder of his "kill" so he can return to it later.

on edit-- this instinct is one of the things that makes cats such good pets-- it's the reason they keep themselves so clean.

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