Is it possible to stop Lizzie from using Elliotts litter box?

graciecat

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This is going to be long, so bear with me.

When we had Maggie she always used a covered litter box...that box was huge and I've never been able to find another anywhere near that big.
I bought it at a department store called "Ames" they are out of business now.

We got Gracie and Lizzie two days after Maggie died so we still had her litter box.
Gracie and Lizzie were scared to death of the lid, they would sit there are cry...they wanted to get in, but they were afraid...so I took the lid off.

When they were about 6 months old off to Ames I went and bought a new huge covered litter box.
Gracie had no problem with it, but Lizzie couldn't fit in.
I have to explain that Lizzie has the longest legs of any cat I've ever seen...have you ever seen a newborn colt?...you know how they're legs are 6 times to big for their bodies?...well that's Lizzie.
She had to almost bend in half to use the box so off came the lid.

When Annabelle came to live here I bought her, her own litter box.
Everything was fine...Gracie and Lizzie shared a box, Annabelle had her own and nobody used each others.

Enter Elliott, bought him an uncovered box and he had great fun digging to China and throwing the litter all over the place...half the litter would be out fo the box and on the floor.

I bought a covered box and he's happy with it.
It's a small box, but Elliott has very stubby legs so he fits in just right.
Lately Lizzie has decided that she should use his box too.
Not a problem, but she didn't fit into the big covered box and she REALLY doesn't fit into his small one.

Everytime she uses his box I have to wipe her feet, the back of her legs, her butt and her tail because she has to get hunch over so far that when she pees she's about a millimeter out of the litter and the litter sticks to her.

Does anyone know of a way I can keep her out of his box, or am I just going to have to be on butt partrol forever??
 

missymotus

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Unless you put the box where only Elliot can get to it, then no. Cat's don't understand ownership.
 
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graciecat

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I understand that she doesn't see it as Elliott's box, but it just seems so odd to me that she would go in a box where she has to almost bend in half to even get in it.

There's nowhere I could put it that Elliott would be the only one who could have access to it because all four of them have free run of the house.

After I posted this I realized how silly my question was...of course there's no way to stop her from using his box...so I think I'm going to get one of those rubbermaid totes and see if he'll use that....if he will, I'll pitch the covered one or keep it in case of an emergency...like if I'm forced to catnap a cat from down the street...that's a whole other post!

Since the totes are so deep he might not throw 2 pounds of litter out of it everytime he uses it.

Then if she feels compelled to use it too at least it will be big enough.
 

larke

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Take the cover off her box, it probably smells from odors being confined in there. You should always have one box per cat.
 
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graciecat

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There is no cover on her box.
She would never use a covered litter box in the almost 7 years I've had her, first because she seemed scared of it and then when she got older she was just simply to tall to fit in it.

The covered box was bought for Elliott and he likes the cover, so I can't take it off.

She just decided one day that she was going to start using Elliott's covered box as well as the uncovered one her and Gracie has shared since they were kittens.

At one time ...before I brought Elliott in I did have a third litter box...but it sat there for almost a week and nobody used it.
Gracie and Lizzie have always used the same box and Annabelle has always used just her own....she won't get in their's and they won't get in her's

The boxes are cleaned at least three times a day if not more, so they don't smell.

Like I said I guess I'm either going to have to get one of those big rubbermaid totes and see if Elliott will use that instead of the covered box that he likes , just have to keep checking Lizzie's butt for the rest of my life, or find a way to keep her out of the covered box.
 

persi & alley

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When I brought Alley home I gave her her own litter box. As time went by, I kept moving her's closer to Persi's and then put them side by side and then just simply removed Alley's altogether. So, now they use the same litterbox. It sounds though that you do not want this to happen. In the case of Alley and Persi, I can tell who is doing what in the litter box, so I can track which one of them, if any, is having any kind of problem. I keep about six inches of litter in the box and Alley goes for the bottom and Persi simply uses the top so in my case it is easy to know who is doing what. So, in my case I can think of no reason I would want to use more than one litter box.
 
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graciecat

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I wouldn't mind at all if they shared a litter box...as long as it's not the covered one that Lizzie is to big for, but still insists on using.

I went and got a rubbermaid tote today and put it next to the covered box.
So far I've had lots of inspectors but nobody has used it so far.
I'm hopeing that Elliott will, that way I can get rid of the covered one.
I'm sick of cleaning Miss Lizzie butt!
 
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