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While I understand cats and their desire to bury their waste when they are finished, my cat often sits in the litter box and digs against the plastic side of the litter box, not actually in the litter itself, so much so that he is actually wearing down the sides in places.

Why is he doing this? Is it a problem (other than the destruction of the litter box)?

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  • Is there more than one cat in this situation or just one?
    – sulfureous
    Oct 22 '13 at 2:54
  • Just the one. :)
    – Ash
    Oct 22 '13 at 3:03
  • I don't think this is worthy of a complete answer, but this most likely has to do with marking territory, as you know big cats do this by scratching trees and stuff in the wild, so I'm assuming it might have to do with a territorial thing.
    – sulfureous
    Oct 22 '13 at 3:13
  • My indoor cat uses her declawed front paws to rub the side of the box. Probably similar behavior.
    – Andrew Barber
    Oct 22 '13 at 19:16
  • Your cat's just some kind of crazy :)
    – grumpasaurus
    Oct 23 '13 at 15:47
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It is most likely a combination of marking his territory (aka the litter box), and also possibly cleaning off his paws from the litter that gets in-between the pads. It's not really a problem, because trying to stop it could give the cat an aversion to the litter box, which results in the cat using anything else as a litter box.

It could also be that the cat is entertaining himself by digging in the litter.

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