Why Do Cats Bury Their Poop – 6 Reasons & Factors!

Cats burying their poop might be a convenient habit for their owners, but it can also be a puzzling one. After all, cats seem to know what a litterbox is for almost as soon as they can waddle their way over the edge. It’s still intriguing to many cat owners, and leaves many wondering; Why do cats bury their poop?

Cats bury their poop due to mark their territory. Burying poop is a social behavior designed to make it easier for cats to live near one another without conflict. Cats also bury poop to conceal their location from predators.

Of course, not all cats are as good at burying their poop as others, and some hardly seem to bother at all. That’s all about the social hierarchy cats would generally have in the wild and how it influences social behavior. We’ll talk about the main reasons cats bury their poop, as well as why this instinct developed in the first place.

Reasons Cats Bury Their Poop

There are many theories about why cats bury their poop, and there are a lot of good plausible reasons for the behavior. Most likely, cats bury their poop for a combination of these reasons, though the exact reasons may vary from situation to situation and cat to cat. Many cats might not even know why they bury their poop, only that it feels like the right thing to do.

Cats Bury Their Poop To Avoid Social Conflict

One of the primary uses of waste for predatory mammals is to mark territory. Cats can smell the unique scent markers of an individual in their feces and urine, which means it’s an excellent way to create a space that smells specifically like them.

Wild big cats don’t tend to bury their poop because they are territorial. Having scent markers around helps establish their social space and alert other animals when they’re trespassing on that territory.

But for domesticated cats, it’s a little different. Even feral domesticated cats tend to live in groups and cat pods, with many individuals sharing the same territories and hunting grounds.

Usually, only the most dominant members of a group will leave their waste around to mark the territory, and even they may bury their poop part of the time.

Less dominant members of a cat group bury their poop to reduce the scent in the area, reducing their claim on the territory. Helping prevent too much of their scent from being in the territory can help prevent fights and make social interactions easier in the group.

Burying Their Poop Helps Avoid Predators

Another big reason domesticated cats and other types of small cats bury their poop is to avoid notice from larger predators in the area.

Wolves, coyotes, cougars, and other large predators are all potential threats to smaller cats, which means that small domesticated cat-sized animals tend to work hard to go unnoticed by those predators.

That means burying their poop, leaving fewer scent markers, and not leaving many signs that they’re around.

Even if there aren’t any signs of a predator nearby, cats can’t be sure there isn’t some risk. So most cats will bury their poop most of the time, just in case.

Cats Bury Their Poop To Protect Their Home And Kittens

Much like cats prefer to bury their poop to avoid predators, they also make it harder to find their homes and kittens. Cat scent can spread pretty far from waste piles.

Burying poop and urine in dirt, sand, leaves, or any other cover can help reduce the spread of that scent.

When a cat is going to the bathroom near their home or kittens, it’s even more critical to prevent the spread of that scent since it might lure predators to their area and put them at risk.

That’s also part of why adult cats may bury kittens’ poop for them. The kittens’ scent can tell predators that there are more vulnerable cats nearby. Plus, kittens are potentially vulnerable to a much more comprehensive range of predators than adult cats since they don’t have the same defenses.

They May Bury Their Poop To Prevent Disease

There are some theories that burying poop might also be an instinct that helps protect your cat’s health, as the instinct to drink from water sources far away from food sources to avoid contaminated water.

Poop contains pathogens, everything from viruses and bacteria to fungi and parasites. Plenty of those pathogens can pass from poop to a new cat host if they’re exposed.

Burying poop helps reduce the chance of exposure and helps dry out poop and urine and any potential pathogens in that waste.

Burying in dirt can also help introduce other bacteria that may out-compete the pathogens, further lowering the risk of future infections or spreading infections through a population.

Cats Bury Their Poop To Hide

Cats may also bury their poop simply because they don’t want to be found, even by other cats.

Sometimes cats want to be on their own for a while, and some cats will go off on their own if they’re very sick or old and may want to hide their scent to help protect their pod. Cats will usually bury their poop more carefully when they are anxious or nervous or in a new situation.

Cats Bury Their Poop Because Their Mothers Buried Their Poop

Another common theory is that cats don’t know why they bury their poop anymore; they see their mothers do it when they are kittens and develop the habit young.

Since habits are hard to break, many poop burying behavior may be cats just doing what they were taught when they grew up, without a ton of thought or instinct telling them to do it.

However, that doesn’t entirely answer why mother cats would bury their poop if there wasn’t also a pre-existing instinct that tells them it’s necessary. Likely one or more of the other explanations also has a role to play in poop burying behavior, and kittenhood reinforcement makes the habit stronger.

Do Cats Always Bury Their Poop

Cats bury their poop most of the time, but not always. A very comfortable cat in a situation that is in a hurry or wants to establish a territory for themselves may not always bury their poop.

Cats abandoned when they were young or separated from other cats as kittens may also be worse about burying their poop or not burying it.

Even cats that are usually very good about burying their poop won’t always get the job done. We’ve even had cats that will follow one another to the litterbox to bury poop for them since the first cat doesn’t do a good enough job.

Some cats may get worse about burying their poop if they start having medical problems or as they get older. Cats with painful joints may also be worse about burying their poop since it takes more effort and may cause discomfort.

How Do Cats Know To Cover Their Poop

Cats probably learn how to cover their poop from their mothers and other adult cats around them when they are kittens. There are two reasons we think this is true.

For one, kittens usually first start to show burying behavior after watching other cats bury their poop for them and then bury poop for themselves. Also, cats separated from their mothers and other adult cats at a young age often have a more challenging time with litter box training and may not always bury their poop.

That doesn’t entirely explain how the poop burying behavior got started, but that’s partially because cats alive today are the descendants of cats that have probably been burying their poop for millennia. Some instincts may help explain the behavior, but it’s also social, and cats learn from one another.

As an aside, teaching things like poop burying is one good reason animal shelters often try to foster orphaned kittens in homes with older cats that can teach the kittens the ropes.

It’s even possible that burying poop is just part of being a polite adult cat.

Do Cats Bury Their Poop Outside

Yes, and no. Cats that live outside full time are sometimes fastidious about burying their poop, just like well-trained indoor cats. However, other outdoor cats rarely bury their poop or have a poop area where they poop on hard surfaces like rocks or gravel over and over without burying.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Burying is potentially less critical in some habitats outside, both because there are more cats and other animals around and because there’s a lot more space and territory around.

Poop might not be as big an indicator to predators and other animals your cat wants to avoid if your cat can go anywhere to poop.

Not burying poop but having a designated poop area can also work just as well as burying for hiding. After all, the scent is always there, so there’s nothing very notable about a little fresh poop in the same spot.

Of course, cats worried about predators or that live somewhere they’re less comfortable are a little more likely to bury their poop than cats that are comfortable in their surroundings and haven’t met a predator.

Do Cats Like Privacy When They Poop

Yep! While your feline friends might like to follow you into the bathroom, that doesn’t mean they want you staring at them while they do their business.

That doesn’t mean your cat wants to be alone, though. Going to the bathroom is pretty vulnerable stuff, and many cats appreciate having a friend nearby to help keep them safe and scout out possible dangers. Politely pretend that you don’t know they’re going to the bathroom if your cat decides to use the litterbox next to you.

Why Does My Cat Not Bury His Poop

There are a few reasons one of your cats might be particularly bad at burying their poop.

Sadly, one of the main reasons house cats fail to bury their poop is that they were separated from their mothers a little too early, before poop burying and other adult-cat habits can be taught to them. These cats may or may not struggle with other feline behaviors like bathing themselves.

Another common reason cats might not bury their poop is because they are fighting for territory with another cat.

This is also why cats might refuse to bury their poop when they are mad at you; they’re trying to assert ownership over a part of your shared space.

If you have several cats, you might also have a dominant cat that routinely doesn’t bury their poop; it’s a way of establishing and maintaining their place at the top of your cat’s hierarchy.

Things To Consider

Cats burying or not burying their poop can make a big difference to the scent of your home and may even be necessary for preserving your carpet and other flooring.

Unfortunately, cats that aren’t good at burying their poop can be hard to train to bury. Litter training your cat is pretty simple, but actual burying can be hard to teach unless you have another cat that can model the behavior for a younger one.

Remember that your cat not burying their poop isn’t their fault. It’s an instinct they either have or don’t have.

If your cat doesn’t have this behavior, it might be better to accept that they don’t and find other ways to deal with the scent of their poop.

Litter scent absorbers, litter box mats, and other cat accessories can be used to keep both you and your feline friend happy, no matter what their poop burying habits are.