Kitten not covering poo

[SunnySellsShells]

Our 16-week rescue has totally settled in our 3 weeks with us. She’s beautiful and has the sweetest temperament. However, she has the (annoying) habit of not burying her poos. She does the invisible digging afterwards, once outside the litter tray. Litter is cat’s best, litter tray is covered, no other issues I can think of (she was with mum until we got her from the rescue).

Any ideas/suggestions? Is this normal? Will she grow out of it? I can live with it but just wondering as previous kitties had always been thorough in covering everything up afterwards.

She may have been taken away from her mom too early. Best that they stay with mom until they're 13 wks do that they can learn everything. Or.. she may be displaying her dominance or she may not like the litter. Lots of reasons.. try using different litter. She may or may not cover it as she gets older. Mine are all hit & miss as to whether of not they cover. Sometimes I think it just depends on if they can be arsed.

Mine can’t be bothered to cover. Also uses Cats Best in covered tray.
She likes to share the waft of shit with her family at 4am. It shows she cares...

I'm sure I read somewhere that bold, confident cats don't cover, whereas timid cats do as a way of not drawing attention to their presence. I've no idea if it's true.

Mine doesn’t cover and he’s 12! When he’s in the garden he digs a hole, stands in the hole and goes on the edge...

Mine don't bother. They occasionally scatter litter all over the utility to show willing but normally just crap'n'go.

Lol at your confused hole-digger, Pink. That's the kind of dumb-ass stunt my boys would pull.

Bold confident cats don't cover Not true of mine! They're scared of everything and they've never figured out how to cover it. They usually perch on the edge of the litter tray and scratch the door, sometimes for up to 5 minutes. It's hilarious.

Who are we to question what makes a cat tick
That invisible digging is hilarious/annoying.

Mine don't either, but they do still manage to kick huge quantities out of their trays (not covered but hidden away in the understairs cupboard).

Thanks everyone for the answers, it’s so helpful to hear what other cats are like!

Thecatneurerer What you say actually makes a lot of sense to me. Previous (keen digger) cats were of the timid/nervous kind whereas kitten is by far the most affectionate and chilled cat I’ve ever owned. We have young children and she’s just perfect, so patient! Happy to put up with whiffs of cat poo once a day in return ;)

Does she dig a hole first?

There is a bit of digging but nothing like the vigorous work of previous cats...

Mine used to stand in his while trying to cover it... had to chase him round the kitchen to clean his paws. Luckily he grew out of it

Mine doesn't cover. Too thick to be dominant. Has daytime access to a large garden although for years he's belted into the house, curled out a stinky and belted back out again.

This month at the ripe old age of six he's just realised he can poo outside.

Garden now has a turd centrepiece.

Mine never do. The baby used to at first but as soon as she saw the sister doesn’t she now can’t be arsed either. I don’t mind as it’s easy to just put in straight in the loo.

Neither of my Orientals do/did, they just informed you of its presence and supervised its removal. They left the breeder at 13wks.

Derpy rescue covers hers but she'd spent time living rough so probably cats better than the pedigrees.

I wonder if you could train her... Pop her in the box a few times and actually show her what to do with her paw. She might be lazy or rude, but equally she's likely just not been socialised well enough.

I have 2 serious diggers. So, vigorous they often fling poo out of the box, then panic when the floor won't bury it...

She might be lazy or rude,

Isn't that just being a cat though?

Good point MaidenMotherCrone 😜

I’ll see if I can encourage her but I suspect I’ll have to learn to live with it! Totally smitten with her so not too hard to do ❤️

@WellWhoKnew that did make me laugh!

Mine covers it about 30% of the time.

He does a lot of frantic digging on the plastic edge of the litter tray, the air, the wall and also in the litter but not always covering the poo.

He likes a really good dig before the poo too.

Mine comes in from the garden to use his litter tray then goes back out to play. Silly cat.