Cats Not Using Litter Box All the Time

Did you recently move to a differeent home? Is your house in an uproar due to the new baby coming. Any changes in their normal enviroment would cause them to have these accidents. If this is not the case I would have them checked out by your vet. Good Luck.. We had a cat like that and we had to put him down because it was a physical issue from being neutered.

Maybe call the vet and see what they say? If they are peeing outside of the box, sometimes they can have urinary tract infections. But not sure about pooping outside the box. Good luck.

L.-
I had the same problem with my two cats except that the problem kept increasing and it was urine instead of poop. My vet recommended trying other types of cat litters. Also, depending on when this problem started, one of your cats could be having a problem with the soon-to-be new addition to your family. My youngest (7 years) developed his problem over the last year and I finally figured out it was because he had issues with my one year old. He was trying to get my attention back. Unfortunately, after trying everything my vet suggested I wound up having to put him to sleep due to his behavioral problems. Age was the problem with my other cat. He was 14 and just started not caring to use the cat litter all the time. He picked one spot behind the sofa that he used as well as the litter. I was able to put things in the way that he didn't like for awhile but eventually he just started going the bathroom on top of the items I tried to block the area with. Once he started having some other health issues I realized it was time for him to go to heaven also. If the litterboxes are all next to each other try moving them to different places. Try putting different litter in one box. One recommendation I had was to put the cat and the litter box in a small room together until he went in the box all the time and then gradually bring him back into the house. Unfortunately I couldn't try that one because my house isn't that big. Good luck -
J.

our vet told us that you need 2 litter boxes per cat and they need to not be right next to each other or it is like having one giant litter box and the cats will rebel. Good luck.

is it next to the litter box? we had one that would stand in the box but her bottom would hang over the side and she would miss entirely. we got an enclosed litter box and the solved that problem.

i have heard that with cats once they go outside of their litter box it is over. they'll continue with it always. i'm not much of a cat expert though!

oh, and i hope you are not the one doing the litter box clean up while you are pregnant! :)

congrats on you upcoming arrival!

We have been dealing with the same issues. We have 2 cats. I was thinking it was because they were missing their litter box...the messes were RIGHT next to the cat box. I have some fat cats, so I thought the litter box was too small. We purchased a new box and it seemed to help. There have only been 2 accidents as opposed to MANY. THe box I got was from Menards...with the cement/concrete mixes. It works well as a litter box! It is 2-3 times the size of a regular box! Good luck!

Could it be possible that it is a hairball. They seem to look a lot like poop. I would probably check with the vet to see if it is possible that one of them are old enough to have some sort of constipation problem also. At least they are doing it downstairs.

Did you change the litter or their food?

You should have one more litter box then you do cats and you are supposed to have one on every level of your house (we do not either, but thats what I have always been told and maybe it would help).

Try Putting there litter boxes over the spots they are pooping, maybe they smell somethign there???

You may also try putting them in a smaller room for a few days with the litter boxes and gradually introduce them to the rest of the house again. Thats what we had to do with our cat that was peeing outside the box (not sure if it helps with pooping).

Rubbing their nose in it and yelling does nothing for cats at all from what I have been told.

Yelling and rubbing their noses in it might work for dogs, but will NOT work for cats. They know how to use the boxes, they chose not to, these are not "accidents". This is a very hard habit to break once it has started. You will need to completely get rid of the smell on the floor and animals have a better sense of smell than we do. Check a pet supply store or website for something to spray on the spots after cleaning them. Then you might try covering the areas with rugs or something.

We had this going on in an unfinished basement. When we finished the basement the problem was reduced but mostly because we had a door to close into the main room and their litter boxes were in a small unfinished store room. The only thing that completely stopped the problem was when we lost those two cats to old age. Sorry.

P.S. The potential danger of toxoplasmosis to pregnant women from cleaning a litter box is greatly overblown. It is based on one study done in the UK where people regularly eat raw beef (a much greater danger source for the disease). If you have been around cats for years before pregnancy, you have likely already developed an immunity to it besides.

In the future, if you have 3 cats, you'll need 4 litter boxes. Really.

However, once they poop/pee outside the box, it's over. Repeat- it's over!!! They'll continue to do so until they die. There is no way to get odor out of the carpet unless you replace the carpet. Those enzyme products (Super Anti-Icky Poo) work fine, but if you miss treating even one molecule of urine, the smell comes back. And Super Anti-Icky Poo is expensive!

If there's a veterinary problem,the only way to figure that out is to get a bunch of expensive tests, so use your judgement. But most of the time, it's just the way cats are!

You have 3 choices: 1- Kennel the cat all the time, 2) Let the offending cat live outside. Even declawed cats tend to do ok. I've had 2 cats that lived to be over 17 years old living outside--they were declawed; 3) put the cat to sleep.

If you don't do one of the above, you and hubby will just end up hating and resenting your cats even more (yelling and rubbing their noses in it actually makes matters worse), so take stock of your emotions and figure out how you want to handle this.

Sorry- not the news you wanted to hear, but that's the sad truth about cats and vets won't tell you this.

Cats are so crazy with behavior, it's almost impossible to change. But 2 things - do the litter boxes have high sides? the cat could be just missing the box.

The other thing, and I have no idea if this will work but is worth a try, is to separate the boxes. Move them to 3 individual areas. We have 3 cats and our cats DO NOT like eating next to each other so their bowls are separated around the kitchen. Maybe one of your cats resents using the litter box so close to the others.

You'll probably have to devote a day to following them downstairs to see which one it is to figure out the real problem.

Try adding at least one more litter box and spreading them around the house. One of our cats tends to like pooping in one box and peeing in the other - one upstairs and one in the basement.

Also, if you haven't already, very thoroughly clean all litter boxes. Get rid of all current litter, scrub out the boxes and put new litter in.

I would try to see if you can figure out which cat is doing it & take it to the vet. Ours was doing that & it turned out she had a UTI. Som meds & different food cleared up the problem & she hasn't done it since. Good luck!