Litter tray use issues

[Madratlady]

Fluffycat is a 6m old long haired breed cat. She’s using the litter tray to poo a few times a day but then spending ages digging and scraping at the litter and the tray, which often results in dirty paws. We had a covered tray initially, we’ve bought a stupidly expensive self cleaning one as I was cleaning the old one several times a day to make sure there was nothing in it she could stand in accidentally. Her poo is soft and absolutely stinks, I read that the problem could be her food. Does anyone have any advice on how to discourage the excessive digging or otherwise solve this problem? Our other cats have never done this.

If her food contains cereals it can make their stools very loose, obligate carnivores need meat not dried maize meal. You wouldn’t feed a herbivore meat but it’s ok to feed a carnivore maize 🙄.

Butchers do a cat food that’s cereal free or most pouches are cereal free, you need to check.

Thanks, I’m planning on switching to a grain free dried food, the stuff we use has a reasonable meat content but looking at the ingredients it does have maize. Also looking at high quality wet foods to supplement the dry.

I always think it’s cost saving.

Look what happened when they fed cows food made with scrapey infected sheep carcasses. It didn’t end well.

Yes, get her the best quality food you can afford.
Some cats love to scrape, scrape, scrape after they go. The only solution is to keep on top of the litter tray. My long haired girl also goes to the groomer and gets a hygiene trim, and they also trim the fur on the paws.