We have a new Kitten. At first I placed her liiter box in our kitchen's side bathroom but recently moved her into my unpstairs bath closet where I will soon be placing a cat door. I put in her litter box multiple times to make her aware of her new location. Moved her food there and when I have been at work the past few days lock her in my bedroom with the bath door open for her to have access. My bedroom and bathroom are quit large so she has plenty of room to play. Last night I noticed she had urinated on the bath rug in the bathroom off the kitchen. I ABOUT DIED! She has used the litter box plenty of times since the move. I live in a box, 2 beds/1bath up, living room/kitchen/1/2 bath down. We spend the majority of time downstairs where she plays when we are at home. What to do? Is she too lazy to go up to use the litter box now upstairs?!? Do I place another litter box back in the 1/2 bath down. I don't want to do that since her litter box will be up. The reason i origionally placed it down stairs because I wanted to keep her confined until she got used to her new surroundings. She is about 9 weeks now. I washed the rug last night after i noticed she peed on it. You know cat urine, she'll still be able to smell it. I'm afraid she'll do it again. FYI: Since the move I've tried to keep the 1/2 bath door closed, but with a 5 year old it's left open often. HELP?
Hi there,
I'm a vet. I don't have much to add to your previous answers though- I second everything JustOne said, and I agree with A.C. that your kitten's food shouldn't really be near the litter box. Bobbi's idea to hang the bath mat was a good one too. The only thing I'd add is to be sure to use a special cleaner for the urine spot (Nature's Miracle or a similar enzymatic cleaner)
:)
I agree with adding another litter box. The norm is one for each cat plus an extra and they should be on each floor of your home. Best of luck to you, cat urine is impossible! Nature's Miracle is the best option I found but it still has limits.
Get rid of the rubber-backed bath mat ASAP so that the kitten can establish good habits with the litterbox. They definitely attract cats and even if the litterbox is right next to the mat, the cat will go on the mat instead. Try a plain mat and hang it over the side of the tub when not in use.
Bath mats actually have a smell that attracts cats and they think it's a place to urinate. I've had the problem myself with an older cat recently. I just have to remember to hang the bath mats up every day. I also have a little dog who likes to piddle on rugs. I have basically no rugs or bath mats in my house. Sometimes pets suck.
They (the experts) say to have one litter box for every cat you have plus and extra and one litter box on every floor of the house your cat has access to. So in your case that would mean having one in the downstairs bathroom. Don't keep her food near the litter box either.
She's just a baby, was probably playing and then had to go badly. She ran to the place she remembered the box being but it wasn't there and she didn't have the time to get to the other. If it keeps up though she needs to go to the vet to rule out a bladder infection.
Bath mats are famous for attracting cats. In fact, if you google cats urinate bath mats, you will find that even cats that have no problems in the rest of the house will often urinate on bath mats! If you HAVE to have a bathmat, choose one without any rubber or plastic on the bottom of it, because the theory is that the rubber smells like cat urine to cats, but in general, I would avoid them if you can (or always keep the door closed).
Cats also don't like to eat near their litterboxes, so you might consider moving your kitten's food to another room. If you ever do have serious problems with your cat, I highly recommend the Cat Behavior Hotline. http://www.catsinternational.org/ They are completely free, and really great about answering questions that you might have about solving cat behavioral problems.
