Not using the litterbox...

Greetings,

I've had my cat, Norman, for about a year now and he's roughly the same age. Just very recently, he's started defecating on the floor in our living room, for no apparent reason. He has two litterboxes, one upstairs and one downstairs and both are clean. Yet, he'll use them and then hours later decide that the floor in the corner of the living room seems like a fantastic place to take a nice crap. He has had a slight change in diet, going from strictly hard food twice a day to a mix twice a day. He's had canned wet food before in the past and hasn't had any issues with popping on the floor, so I don't know what he's suddenly developed now that he figures he can't make it to the 'box.

I'm at a loss. I'm tired of cleaning it up and I want to give Norman a good smack and ask him why he does such things, but I guess there isn't one, since he's a cat

Anyway, help would be appreciated. I want Norman to stop and I'm not sure if it's feasible to put a box out in the open where he usually does it at the moment.

Thanks

Well, I'm no where near an expert, but the first thing that came to mind other than maybe taking him to the vet to get him checked out was to ask what you were cleaning up his messes with? Once an animal goes in a certain spot, they'll continue going in that same place because it now smells like a bathroom If you haven't already, I'd invest in a good enzyme cleaner, that's the only way to get rid of -all- the scent from his 'going outside the box'.

Other than that, welcome to TCS! and soon enough you'll have the experts here giving you the real good advice

I'm so glad you found TCS! Having had a kitty that had peeing outside the box problems, I relate to your frustration.

Peeing or pooping out of the litterbox is a medical problem about 85% of the time, so the first thing to do is see the vet and find out if it is a medical condition. Make sure to get blood work done and a full check-up.

In the meantime, as Shiraz pointed out, you MUST use an enzyme cleaner to clean where he pooped. Nature's Miracle is sold in most pet stores and many supermarkets, but we found the produce called NokOut to work even better: http://www.nokout.com. You can also put aluminum foil down over the area to discourage him using it. There's a suggestion in the thread I provide a link to below to obtain Oil of Olbas from a health food store, drop a few drops on a wet teabag, set that on a plate where he's been going (after cleaning it). Apparently cats hate the smell and will avoid that area.

If, however, there is a medical problem, he'll just find somewhere else to go. If it's not a medical problem, he may need to be litterbox retrained, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Also, you may want to read up on inappropriate pooping behavior here: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=19767

Also, any time you see Norman USE the litterbox, praise him to high heaven and give him a treat. Kitties respond far better to positive reinforcement than to negative responses. So continue to vent here instead of kicking Norman! Reinforce the good behavior - he doesn't understand what he's doing is wrong.



Laurie

Indeed, thanks for the answers. What we usually clean-up with is a carpet cleaner we happen to have, I'm not sure if that gets the smell out, but we'll have to use some of the suggestions. I haven't yet read through the two threads linked, but thanks. I'm hoping to get this solved very soon, as it's starting to get quite annoying.

I totally agree with taking him to the vet, but first clean that spot with a good enzyme cleaner. If you can't smell it doesn't mean the cat can't!