What to make of my cat's behaviour?

[SweetRascal]

We've had our cat for two and a half years. She was a rescue who had had at least 1 litter, maybe two. She's now around 4 years ago.

Since we moved house over a year ago, she has been really odd about going to the toilet. She'll just poo on the grass with no attempt to cover it up. It's like having a dog. I have young children and I'm very aware that I need to be so vigilant to spot any mess when they're playing outside.

She's in good health and I even asked the vet about this behaviour not long ago, who didn't seem concerned at all.

Any advice on this one?

I feel like she might just be incredibly lazy but I don't know what I can do?

Get a raised bed at the back of your garden and make it inaccessible to the children. Half fill it with compost. Either have DCat use a compost able litter indoors and put it in the raised bed or move the faeces from the grass into it so it smells like her. Hopefully she'll start to use it and then you can top it up with fresh compost on top to contain the smell.

Cut your grass, ours does this when the grass is long enough.

My cat doesn't cover hers up in her litter tray either. But she spends ages scraping the sides of the tray instead. I think she'd just thick!

Not all cats cover their poo.

Are there a lot of cats in the neighbourhood? It could be her way of showing that the garden is hers (our old cat's nemesis used to do this in our garden - think it was the cat equivalent of giving him the finger 😂). But our different cats have all covered theirs to varying degrees anyway. Current boy cat digs to the centre of the earth yet still manages not to cover it properly.

I’ve had a number of cats over the years and some did it in the soil borders and covered it, some did it in the soil borders and didn’t cover it and some did it openly on the grass! It depends on the cat but certainly doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with them.

Our cat used the lawn if the grass got long. Current moggy girl sometimes covers it up but not always.

Not all cats cover their poo, ours doesnt but it means its easy to remove as it just sits on top

Sometimes it's a way of asserting their ownership of the territory by not covering their scent.

Mine poops in a litter tray, doesn't cover it, gets out and digs at the rug and laminate floor instead. It's the thought that counts I suppose!