Ragdoll Cat Forums

Do any of your cats go in the litter box and scratch away in there for nearly 2 or 3 minutes straight, then you go to clean up but find that nothing is in there?

Solo is regularly going pee and poo... but he goes in there sometimes and does not do anything.

Last night was really strange. My BF and I decided to camp out in the living room, and we stayed up pretty late. Around 1am we started to worry because over the course of maybe 10 minutes Solo was in and out of his box about 3 times. He doesn't dig in the litter or bury his messes, but he scratches the heck out of the plastic sides of his box which is VERY noisy. When we sleep upstairs and he uses the box downstairs, it usually wakes us up because it is so loud. After agreeing he was going in there very exessively, we went to clean up whatever messes he had made but discovered the box was clean.

To be honest, it was driving us mad last night with him going in and out of his box so often so we locked him upstairs so we could finally get some sleep. He did not complain at all so he was fine up there (he doesn't try to meow at closed doors or scratch them anymore ). We were relieved that he successfully used the upstairs box at least. He only seems to go in his box without doing business in the downstairs one. The downstairs one is a covered box, and the upstairs one is not.

So Solo seems to be going ok and eating ok (I checked this morning, he is a little piggy as usual), and he is playful and normal. I am not sure to be worried he has a bathroom problem or not, because I know he CAN go just fine. And I just realized that he only does this strange behavior at night. During the day if he goes in the box, there is definitely a mess to clean up in there. At night however seems to be when he is going in there without doing business.

Maybe he is just marking his territory? I don't know. I'd probably call the vet's office to ask someone if he needs to be seen.

I wonder if he saw something in his box, like a little bug or spider? I suppose we can all get little annoying insects in our houses at times, no matter how clean we keep it, and cats love to play with them so much. LOL.....this is obviously just a wild guess of course. I thought of this cuz you mentioned he was scratching at the sides of his litter box & kept going back to it.....like something was quite interesting to him.

Merlin is out little "cleaner" helper! He sometimes goes in the box and scratches around, not because he has to go but because he can still smell the other cats and he's trying to clean it up. He'll cover someone else's business if they forgot to do it. He'll even scratch around the box if there's litter pellets on the floor! Maybe he just likes the feeling of digging too. If Solo isn't straining or making noises in the box, it may just be behavioural, but if he keeps doing this maybe he's trying to tell you something. Lancelot is a very clean kitty and will scratch around the box if there's even a *minute* piece of mess, and as soon as I change the litter completely he's in there doing his business! I don't know what Solo's case is but I know our boys do these funny little things around the litter box.

Personally, I would take him to the vet ASAP. It sounds like he could have a UTI and a vet visit is never wasted.
Hope all works out and please keep us posted.

Coco, does this as well all the time, and I have noticed that she stays in there longer if the litter is fresh and clean. She has a covered box too and is constantly scratching the sides. The only thing I would say is that she doesn't keep going back to it and doing it for no reason, so in your case I probably would have the vet check him out if your worried.

I hope he's just checking out his box and it's not a uti!

It kind of sounds like Smoke when he had the UTI. He would go and dig and dig and then squat then get up and dig and dig and squat but never went. He acted like he couldn't get a comfortable spot to go. Those were the symptoms he displayed that sent me to the vet with him. Thankfully he wasn't blocked, just a nasty UTI

Would it be a UTI if he is going pee regularly? He does not cry when he goes, and only does the strange digging in the box without going behavior very late at night/early morning.

I just truly have no idea. You know him best and if it concerns you, then take him to the vet, if it doesn't concern you then you can write it off as a strange quirk.