Poop misses the litter box

by Katie
(St. Charles, MO)

I have two Bengal cats. They pee in the litter box just fine, but their poop lands just outside of the box on the mat. They have a large litter box so I don’t understand how the pee goes in but the poop doesn’t. Any ideas or suggestions on what I can do?

My thoughts: I'm sorry to hear your cats are missing the box. I'm assuming your cats are perfectly healthy, and you've observed them doing this.

Sometimes cats like to pee in one box and poop in another, so adding a box may fix this. Usually when this is the case, though, the cat will not get into the box and poop outside of it, they'll simply avoid the box and go directly on the floor.

It's possible your cats would prefer a larger box (longer and/or wider), or the box is placed too close to a wall and they don't feel like they have enough room.

If that's the case, one option is to get a larger, high sided box where they can't do this. To get high enough sides and have four inches of litter, you may have to give up on a litter box. Instead, you can buy a plastic storage container and cut out an area for entry and exit.

You might also try increasing the frequency with which you scoop the litter and see if the behavior changes. If you're not using litter that can be scooped, that may explain some things as some cats can be unpredictable when using certain other litter types.

I hope that helps. Please let us know how things progress.
-Kurt