Why has my cat stopped using the litter box?
Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at
11:48 am
My cat is roughly two years old and has recently stopped using the litter box, only when it, "poops." It does this only around the litter box and the three other cats in the household use it properly and regularly. There are other litter boxes through out the house and those are used regularly, also. I change the litter on a regular basis and I am dumbfounded as to why he would be doing this. And suggestions, any one?
Filed under: Cat Litter
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are all cats neutered as if not might be reason,or you could try a covered litter box
maybe it has to be cleaned….maybe get a new place to put it in…..?
Your cats litter box is to small. i learned that when i was training my cat to use the litter box.
because she might be in heat and that is when they are looking for someone to have babies with or the litter box is getting old or your cats kidneys are failing
There are many reasons this could be happening and how to fix this. If you have a too small of a litter pan get a bigger one. If he is in the litter box and sticks his butt over the edge you can get one with a higher wall or enclosed. It might even be something as simple as the litter box isn’t cleaned often enough to suit him. If he goes beside the box and doesn’t even get in the box try putting foil around the edges to discourage that behavior. If it something more of him using something beside the box instead of the box you might have to relocate the litter box and discourage the use of whatever he was using before. ( IE: the bathtub if the litter pan was next to the tub )
The most common reasons can be summed up as follows:
The cat is suffering from a medical problem involving the urinary tract or a bout of geriatric constipation.
The owner changed the brand or type of litter.
The owner changed the location of the litter box, or replaced the old one with a new litter box.
The caretaker does not keep the litter box as clean as the cat wants it to be, or the owner uses too harsh a cleaning product.
The location of the litter box is too busy or not private enough for the cat.
The home is too large for just one litter box.
The cat cannot access the litter box (the door to the room where the litter box is was inadvertently closed).
The cat is prevented from using the litter box by another animal in the house.
The cat experienced some sort of trauma while in the litter box and now associates elimination in the box with that trauma.
There are too many cats and not enough territory or litter boxes.
Stray cats can be seen/smelled near the cat’s territory.
The unaltered male cat has come of age and is marking his territory.
The unspayed female is in heat and advertising for suitors.
Over time, the cat has developed an aversion to the texture of the litter.
The cat was not properly trained to use the litter box in the first place.
The cat is stressed by a change in routine or environment, such as a new baby, new furniture, work schedule changes, vacations, overnight guests, or a move.
First and foremost, you MUST NOT PUNISH the cat for inappropriate elimination behavior. Hitting him (even gently), squirting water at him when he’s urinating in the wrong place, clapping your hands or otherwise scaring him, or picking him up and dropping him into the litterbox will NOT work. More than likely, punishment will escalate the problem.
To resolve the problem, you need to:
Figure out why he is avoiding the litter box
Reduce the cat’s stress / eliminate medical problems
Make the litter box desirable, and
Make the inappropriate locations undesirable for eliminating
good Luck!
My cat did that too. I started putting baking soda in her box and changing it more often and she stopped. It might be the smell of it that irritates her. I’m sure you change it regularly, but the smells do get absorbed into the box. If the cat has been doing it right for two years, there may be something about the box that has changed that kitty doesn’t like. Good luck.
Difficult to say. He may be very fussy and only wish to use his own. Vets describe this behavior as a "message" that all is not right in the urinary area. If you have three cats, I would suggest you have six litter trays with different types of litter to see if he favours one.
My own female started to use the litter for "pooh" and she sat on the edge of the tray to let her urine run over the edge. This made a mess so I had to provide a large plastic tray to place under the litter tray. In the meantime, she has been found to have glucose in her urine and is now being tested for diabetes which has come as quite a shock. Cats somethings become diabetic and they it goes away, if one is lucky. I think you have to try all types of litter and perhaps consider testing the wee with Bayer Multistix GP to see how his wee rates as against the examples given on the bottle.
buy a bigger litter box for more space
bottom line, cats do what they want. especially males. i’m going through the same thing right now. i have three males, and the youngest one is going through a phase where even if all the litter boxes are clean, he doesn’t WANT to pee in it, he only wants to poop in it. he prefers to pee everywhere else in the house. no matter how much scolding and nose-flicking he gets, he doesn’t care. i’ve went through this with all my boys, it’s normally just a phase. but it is EXTREMELY annoying and extremely smelly.