Cat pooing next to the litter tray but not in it?

[googoodolly]

We have two cats, male and female - from the same litter. They're two and a half and both neutered.

We have three litter trays - one each and a spare, in different rooms of the flat. The girl is fine, goes in the litter tray all the time, no problems. The boy, however, pees in the litter tray fine, but poops right next to it. As in, he sits IN the litter tray but goes on the floor. This happens regardless of what litter we use and whether it's been changed recently or not.

Any ideas on how we can stop this happening? At the moment, we're just cleaning the poo up and cleaning the floor.

Do you have an open tray or is it hooded? A hooded one with a flap may help.

Alternatively, it may be that he doesn't want to poo in the same place as he wees. You may need to put a second tray next to it.

It's an open one. He sits in the box and hangs his bum over the edge to poo (weirdo) so a hooded tray would definitely help with that!

Is it big enough for him?

It's the biggest one we could find!

We had a cat who did this too.. stood in the litter and pooed over the edge! We got a hooded one and this did help, but she sometimes still pooed out of the front edge so I'm afraid we just put newpapers under and around!

She was a bit thick, but a dear cat!

Yeah, I have to say boycat isn't that intelligent - he ran into a doorframe four times yesterday!

If it was really four times, I think I'd have his eyesight/general health checked. That's too many for a cat who is able.

He's checked by the vet regularly and he's fine, he just charges down the hallway and doesn't stop in time! If he's walking at a sensible pace he's fine, he just has mad moments where he bolts around and doesn't stop.

I could well be too ready to go to the vet on things, I confess. I know only that Seniorboy - who has practically no vision left as far as I can tell - has only bumped into something twice in the last 9 months or so: once when he was having a giddy moment and hit the newel post a glancing blow when he misjudged a turn on his run up the stairs and once when he was heading - for the first time in 10 months - to his sunshine patch in the front room and banged into a chair in the bay window.

(That second was a moved object as well and not a fixed position.)

I think I'd keep an eye on him if I were you. Has he ever used the litter tray correctly?

This might be interesting reading even though he's a young cat.

One of mine does the standing in the tray but pooing over the side thing. Then turns around and around and waves his paw in thin air as if covering it over with imaginary soil... . I think he's just a bit thick

Running into things isn't a good thing.. I would be concerned about that.

The tray.. Mine did that, just hovered her arse over the edge.. A one with a lid sorted that out.

Yeah the covering the crap with air royally does my swede in. Bury it properly the way people say they do ffs.