Ragdoll Scratching Sides of Litter Box | Ragdoll Cat Behavior | Ragdoll Cat Forum

We have the same issue with one 8 month old in particular.  Gets nowhere near the litter.  It's like he knows he's supposed to be doing something, just isn't clear on the details.  His brother is a little better.  He starts with the litter, but then moves to the box (or the bathtub, or the wall, anything but the litter).  Our breeder said some cats just never learn.  Great – but they sure are persistent with doing it wrong!  LOL

Yes my two both have quite a little ritual after they've done their business. It doesn't have to be scratching the sides of the litter tray, they will scratch the wall and the floor next to it too for a good 5 minutes. I will often hear them scratching and come out to clear up, then have to wait for ages whilst one of them gets out, then gets back in and has another little scratch around, then out, then in etc! Sookie also does the same scratch the floor thing after she's eaten, I think it's her way of saying 'I'm finished!'

OH MY GOSH!!!! You are in the same boat as me!!! Tyco's stool has been a little soft the last week or so and since he does the "scratch the sides" instead of COVERING his … poop… not surprisingly, he steps in it. And smooshes it around. And all over himself somehow. Which results in me either having to give him a bath if my husband is home to help me, or I just end up having to cut off as much fur as I can. Then he looks absurd because I've butchered his coat. I really don't know what to do. After days of cutting off his fur and washing him, I'm a bit frustrated. Not to mention when he wants to walk around on my pillow and sit on my head. (Not a pleasant smell to wake up to). He's lucky he's darned cute. Today, we reached in to the litterbox when he had finished and covered his poo with the scoop, before he had a chance to step in it. Disaster averted but really, that's not something we can do every single time. I'm at a loss for what to do. At least he goes IN the litterbox, I'm thankful for that but… I'm with you on this one – I need to teach him how to cover it properly.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Your FEMALE cats are meticulous and obsessive. We are all complaining about our frustration with our MALE kittens/cats. Granted some are dealing with digestive problems, mine is. But I still think the behavior would be the same. I am the mother of a 16 year-old son, same behavior here.

Damn. I do clean their box very often! At least twice a day, but more often I'm scooping away 4 times. LOL what a risk it would be… not to scoop for a day and see if they figure it out to cover their poop themselves. I fear they would just step in it as if to say "Fine. Don't clean the box. I'll show you." At least the girls go in sometimes and if there's anything uncovered, they'll cover it up.

Speaking of, I hear scratching now… *sigh*

@angiedsmith – not sure I can help with the nail trimming, but about cleaning up messes: I don't think you're doing anything wrong, it's just natural for them not to like it… I'm pretty sure we'd react the same way faced with the same circumstance!! Darcy and Sookie both hate me going anywhere near their backsides. It has to be done though so now I just try and make it as quick as possible for them to reduce any upset.

To clean my raggie I pick him up and put him in a seated position on my knee so that he's are supported and has his front paws hooked over my arm as if I'm giving him a cuddle. Then I make eye contact and talk to distract him whilst I quickly do what needs to be done! If I'm quick he's hardly got any time to react, then I set him down and give a treat – distraction works wonders!

I've never had to cut out any fur, I just comb the fur on his hind legs regularly which also helps get out any clumps.

If my cats get in a REAL mess, I tend to pop them in the shower cubicle and use the shower attachment to give them a very quick rinse, only in the area that needs it. Again, neither cat likes it, but it takes 2 or 3 minutes in total and by the time I've towel dried them they've pretty much forgotten what they were upset about.

Darcy also used to suffer from the runs quite badly. He was on good high quality dry pet food and I tried switching brands brands which had no effect. Eventually I switched Darcy to a 'sensitive' dry food from the same brand as he was previously on: http://www.proplan-plan.co.uk/…..yRice.aspx

The description for it is:

"Optimised food for cats with sensitive skin and/or digestion, and fussy appetites. With OPTIRENAL™ for support of kidney function. For the comfort of the most sensitive cats, Delicate turkey and rice is highly palatable and contains a restricted number of protein sources to help improve food tolerance."

I'm in the UK so not sure if they do this in the USA, but if not maybe you could look for something similar? It has definitely helped with Darcy. I think he just had a sensitive stomach.

Hope some of this helps.

LauraC said:

@angiedsmith – not sure I can help with the nail trimming, but about cleaning up messes: I don't think you're doing anything wrong, it's just natural for them not to like it… I'm pretty sure we'd react the same way faced with the same circumstance!! Darcy and Sookie both hate me going anywhere near their backsides. It has to be done though so now I just try and make it as quick as possible for them to reduce any upset.

To clean my raggie I pick him up and put him in a seated position on my knee so that he's are supported and has his front paws hooked over my arm as if I'm giving him a cuddle. Then I make eye contact and talk to distract him whilst I quickly do what needs to be done! If I'm quick he's hardly got any time to react, then I set him down and give a treat – distraction works wonders!

I've never had to cut out any fur, I just comb the fur on his hind legs regularly which also helps get out any clumps.

If my cats get in a REAL mess, I tend to pop them in the shower cubicle and use the shower attachment to give them a very quick rinse, only in the area that needs it. Again, neither cat likes it, but it takes 2 or 3 minutes in total and by the time I've towel dried them they've pretty much forgotten what they were upset about.

Darcy also used to suffer from the runs quite badly. He was on good high quality dry pet food and I tried switching brands brands which had no effect. Eventually I switched Darcy to a 'sensitive' dry food from the same brand as he was previously on: http://www.proplan-plan.co.uk/…..yRice.aspx

The description for it is:

"Optimised food for cats with sensitive skin and/or digestion, and fussy appetites. With OPTIRENAL™ for support of kidney function. For the comfort of the most sensitive cats, Delicate turkey and rice is highly palatable and contains a restricted number of protein sources to help improve food tolerance."

I'm in the UK so not sure if they do this in the USA, but if not maybe you could look for something similar? It has definitely helped with Darcy. I think he just had a sensitive stomach.

Hope some of this helps.

 

 

I just read this post about Proplan food.  I don't like the food this company makes and their deceptive advertising.  Looking at the product you mentioned in your post.

ProPlan AdultDelicateOPTIRENAL™Turkey& Rice

Turkey (18%), rice (18%), maize gluten meal, dehydrated turkey protein, rice gluten meal, maize, animal fat (protected by mixed tocopherols), dried whole egg, digest, beet pulp, fish oil, yeast, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, minerals, choline chloride, L-arginine, L-lysine, sodium chloride, DL-methionine.

Nutritional Additives: IU/kg: Vit A: 23000; Vit D3: 1700. mg/kg: Vit E: 550; Vit C: 70; B group Vit: 230; Taurine: 1500. Beta-carotene, Tocopherol rich extracts of natural origin, Ortho phosphoric acid.

 

Analysis: Protein 40.0%; Fat Content 18.0%; Ash 7.0%; Fibre 1.0%; B Vitamins mg/kg 220; Omega 6 fatty acids 6%; Omega fatty acids 0.02%. Phosphorous 1.0%; Magnesium 0.1%; Linoleic Acid 2.0%; Copper (as copper sulphate) 22 mg/kg.

 

Maize is corn.  Corn gluten meal is corn protein which causes kidney damage and predisposes urinary tract issues.  Turkey as opposed to turkey meal is turkey before the water is removed which accounts for about 75 percent, so how much turkey is really in this.  So both corn and rice glutens, and lots of corn included third and sixth in list, wrong fat, should be chicken fat, or specified fat not junk fat, who knows what remnant type animal fat is in there.  Phosphoric acid is horrid stuff added to make the plant protein more acidic and it does not make up for feeding the cat plants instead of meat.  

ANY protein from plants is not appropriate for cats, who need the
great majority if not all their protein, to be from meat, in order to
have long-term health of their internal organs – especially their
"achilles heel" – which based on their leading medical cause of death
- is the kidneys and urinary system – and which is damaged by plant
protein.

Gluten of any kind – or ANY concentrated plant protein – makes nonsense of "turkey" as first ingredient, as gluten meal it is concentrated and thus a much higher percentage of (plant) protein than the ingredients list is designed to let on.

Gluten is not okay.
(Also – the gluten ingredients are the commonest place to hide toxins
involved in food recall such as melamine.)

I would not purchase a cat food where more than one grain is included or there was ingredient splitting (corn, corn gluten meal, rice, rice gluten meal).  Cats are obligate carnivores and if the primary protein source is not meat, then it is NOT a good food.  Obligate by definition means that all ESSENTIAL nutrients need to be from a meat/animal source.  If meat is NOT the primary ingredient(and one cannot assume that to be the case simply because it is listed first, ingredients are listed by weight and ingredient splitting means that more grains may be in the food then meat)then it is NOT a good food IMO.   I really don't like these ingredients.

Please, please don't take this personally.  I just get upset when a company tries to be tricky and slick with their promotion of a very inappropriate cat food. 

I think this is obviously something in the Ragdoll DNA.  The next time our   Merlin or Magic do the  scratching on the side "ritual"  I will go over and scratch the side WITH THEM!  Maybe Ragdolls understand SARCASM!!  LOL.

This is not soley a ragdoll behavior.  My female Maine Coon cat has been doing this since she was a tiny kitten and she's 12 years old now.  Occasionally, she will scratch the floor outside the litter boxes, which are high sided storage boxes, but not that often.  Her two other housemales (males) are the "dump and run" types.  So, I used to put her behavior up as cleaning up after the untidy boys.

Then I brought my female ragdoll kitten, Angel Mae, home last September.  I immediately noticed she has very fastideous  personal habits and that she is just as tidy in her litter box manners as well.  From almost the very beginning I saw where Angel Mae scratched at the sides of her litter box, not as often or as excessively as our Maine Coon "queen" but certainly more than our two boys!

Now I find myself wondering, if this might be a sex linked behavior?  Your little box scratchers, are they male or female?

B^!!^J