litterbox usuage (or failure to do so)

I'm new to this forum, i have three cats, an agressive orange tabby, and two siblings that do not like to be separated. the female sibling will not deficate (poop) in the litterbox, however we do beleive she is urinating in the litterbox.
as you know yelling and spanking is out of the question since our feline freinds do not respond to it so... does anyone have any advice that does not require thousands of dollars?

How many litterboxes do you have?

Has she been checked for a UTI?

she has not been checked, i have confirmed she will pee in the box but she will not go no.2 in there, we just have one and it is a covered box, we have tried uncovered but all 3 cats will crap all over the side of the thing.

also, sometimes she will use it others she wont...it is baffling me

I have some regular ideas that might help. For one I'm a huge fan of Feliway spray and diffuser for all problems. You probably need at least two litter boxes (most people reccomend 4 boxes for 3 cats) and scoop the litter often like you're going to use it yourself. I bought a very highsided opentop box at petsmart that has solved lots of problems for me (no more squirting over the edge, no extra litter on the floor). Your cat is trying to tell you something, just don't know what. Has it always been like this?

You should have at least 3 boxes if you have 3 cats, one box per cat. Some cats even like to use one box for poop and another for pee. How often do you clean out the current box? Many cats require a clean box, cleaned at least once daily, in order for them to use it. They hate a dirty bathroom, and I can't blame them for that. I don't think this problem is unusual when having only one litterbox for 3 cats, so hopefully adding more litter, cat attact litter, cleaning boxes daily, and running Feliway will be an easy cure for your issue.

Originally Posted by ogre

I'm new to this forum, i have three cats, an agressive orange tabby, and two siblings that do not like to be separated. the female sibling will not deficate (poop) in the litterbox, however we do beleive she is urinating in the litterbox.
as you know yelling and spanking is out of the question since our feline freinds do not respond to it so... does anyone have any advice that does not require thousands of dollars?

Click to expand...

Exactly what litter are you using? When she defecates is it near the box? If so, I think that plus that she urinates in the box shows that she *wants* to use the box but there is something she doesn't like about it.

When one of mine urinated in the box but wouldn't defecate in it it was because she didn't like the litter. I don't know why she thought the old litter was good enough to pee in but not to poop in. Anyway, I changed litters and she immediately started using the box for everything. That was weeks ago and she hasn't gone outside the box once where before she was pooping on the floor next to the box about every other day.

I was using Feline Pine pellets and switched to World's Best.

Also, with 3 cats you probably need at least 2 large litter boxes and you need to scoop them out at least twice a day.