Sick and tired of my second cat

mustangfreak

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First off, I dont know if this is in the right section, if it isnt, sorry.

Second, I know the title sounds horrible, but I can explain.

I have had my first cat for 15 months. Hes not my actual first cat, but the first cat I've had since I've been on my own, which has been 7 years now (I'm 25). I love him to death and every day when I come home from work, hes sitting on the couch arm waiting there to greet me.


I got a second cat, for my first to be buds with. The 2nd is a kitten, but they have grown to be friends.

Now the reason I say I'm sick of the 2nd cat, is because every day when I come home from work, I look at him and ask him what he destroyed today. I do this because he constantly pees or poops somewhere. Even though I've seen him use the litter box. He tears up my furniture, even though I have a scratching post. He does bother my older cat sometimes, but the older one will eventually get fed up with and whoop his ass in a play fight.



I'm just sick of having a smelly apartment. If I could get him to use the litter box every time it wouldn't be a big deal.

I know most of you are going to say hes doing this because hes a kitten. But my first didnt do this, and I know every cat is different. But a part of me thinks he may not be the type of cat I need or want.

There are a couple of nice things about him. He is very affectionate. Every night, after chasing my older cat and being chase by him, which btw keeps me up. VERY aggravating. Anyways, after doing the Indy 500 in my house, he will crall up in bed with me and purr his butt off. Unfortunately he insists on doing this by my face, with his rear facing me. I'll move him and he will come right back and do the same or start pawing me and dig his claws into my back. Again, which is very aggravating.


Advice for the problems would help. Though typing this out did help me rant a little I suppose.
 

pami

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When a cat is peeing and pooping other places other than the litter box, it is a a signal that something is not right. It is the nature of the cat to cover his pee/poo and hide it.

I will give you a list of things to look for and hopefully someone else can add to the list of anything I have forgotten.

Has the kitten been declawed?
Has he been to the vet to rule out any helathy problem that would cause him to pee (urinary tract infection) or poo outside of the box.
How many litter boxes do you have? As a general rule, you want 1 for every cat, plus one. Some cats do not like to share a box and some like to have one to poo in and one to pee in.
Are you keeping the litter boxes clean? They must always be clean, not just for sanitary purposes and the health of a cat, but also because some cats will not use it, if its not clean.
 

katachtig

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I'll move this to the behavior section.

Some questions though.

How old is the kitten? Has he seen a vet recently to make sure he is in good health?

It takes some time to redirect him to scratching posts. Clipping his nails or using soft paws helps reduce the damage done while he is learning.
 
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mustangfreak

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Originally Posted by Pami

When a cat is peeing and pooping other places other than the litter box, it is a a signal that something is not right. It is the nature of the cat to cover his pee/poo and hide it.

I will give you a list of things to look for and hopefully someone else can add to the list of anything I have forgotten.

Has the kitten been declawed?
Has he been to the vet to rule out any helathy problem that would cause him to pee (urinary tract infection) or poo outside of the box.
How many litter boxes do you have? As a general rule, you want 1 for every cat, plus one. Some cats do not like to share a box and some like to have one to poo in and one to pee in.
Are you keeping the litter boxes clean? They must always be clean, not just for sanitary purposes and the health of a cat, but also because some cats will not use it, if its not clean.
kitten is not declawed, though sometimes I wish he was lol. But I wont do that.

I only have 1 litter box. I barley have room for the one, so a second is out of the question.

I scoop it out every 2-3 days.
 
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mustangfreak

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Originally Posted by katachtig

I'll move this to the behavior section.

Some questions though.

How old is the kitten? Has he seen a vet recently to make sure he is in good health?

It takes some time to redirect him to scratching posts. Clipping his nails or using soft paws helps reduce the damage done while he is learning.
He is roughly 2.5 months.

I do clip his nails.
 

mrblanche

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Originally Posted by Mustangfreak

I scoop it out every 2-3 days.
Bingo. Problem found.

Twice a day, if you only have one box, please.
 

sarahp

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Do take your kitty to a vet to rule out urinary tract infections, if you haven't already.


Originally Posted by Mustangfreak

kitten is not declawed, though sometimes I wish he was lol. But I wont do that.

I only have 1 litter box. I barley have room for the one, so a second is out of the question.

I scoop it out every 2-3 days.
Ok, there's your first and second problem.

1. If you can only have one litter box, make it a big one. I have 2 large, deep litter boxes for my 3 kitties, and have the litter nice and deep and they are fine.

2. Scoop every day. They don't like the smell of old urine and feces, and I'm sure that will also help your place smell better too!

You'll also need to get an enzymatic cleaner. If you go to a pet store, there will be a section for enzyme cleaners - use that to clean any place the kitten has peed or pooped. The smell stays long after you clean it up, and you need an enzyme cleaner to get the smell out for your benefit, and so the kitten doesn't keep going back to that same spot to pee.

As for your furniture - get some double sided tape, and put it on wherever on your furniture the kitten is scratching. The sticky surface will discourage him from scratching there. If you see him scratching on the furniture, place him on the cat tree, then put tape where he was scratching.

He annoys you at night because he's a baby, wants the warmth, so wants to be close to you, and when he was with his mum and siblings, he could play when he wanted. When my girls were young, if they drove me nuts at night, I would lock them all out of the bedroom only when they started annoying me. I'd get up in the morning and they would all be sleeping by the door
They learned pretty fast that to stay in the bedroom they had to sleep quietly on the bed.

Please just be patient and give him a chance. He sounds a sweet boy who will be a wonderful companion.
 

jack31

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I'll admit that I too struggle with remembering to scoop--my two boxes are in the basement--since hubby does laundry I don't frequent the basement.

I found the best way to remember to scoop was to connect scooping to something I do every day without fail. Like perhaps feeding cats--I do it everyday, so as soon as I feed them I go down and scoop. If that time of the day isn't good for you--connect it to something else. Perhaps brushing your teeth or making dinner.

I now always remember after feeding that its scooping time--has saved me lots of stress and the boys probably are much happier!

Leslie
 

mews2much

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My sisters cat started doing that a few months ago so I said go to the vet and see if he has a bladder.
She went and he did.
In fact he just had surgery on thurs and the found 20 nstones in him.
You need to find out if he has a uri.
I know alot about because I have a cat that gets alot.
Also I had some male cats that would never use the pan no matter what we tried.
My Yoshi did that to the day he was pts even though we tried everything.
My girls have never done it except when coco had a uri.
She would squat because she had presure to go.
 

rosiemac

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Originally Posted by Mustangfreak

I'll do my best to remember to do it every day then I guess.

Also the litter box is a fairly large box.
Like Jack31 said, get into a routine like you brush your teeth every day. I scoup
after i've brushed my teeth, and i scoup as soon as i get in from work at night before i do anything else.

My litterboxes are huge also, but i still scoup twice a day. Cats are known for being clean, so the litterbox has answered a question to what could be part of the problem. Imagine if you never flushed your toilet for 2-3 days
 

white cat lover

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He's being a kitten.

You need to be sure you are scooping the box probably 2x a day & probably changing the litter out complete & cleaning the box 1x a week. If bad litterbox habits start now - the longer they go the harder they are to break. Keep in mind cats can live 15+ years - so you want to "break" these bad habits now rather than waiting.

As for the scratching - have you looked into Soft Paws while you work on scratching post training?
 

zane's pal

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If scooping every day is inconvenient--in my case the box is in the basement and I don't go down there more than a couple of times/week--you might look into an automatic litter box.
 

megra

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I'm so pleased you've said you won't have a cat declawed. It's a monstrous thing to do. My vet won't even allow claws to be clipped unless they are posing a health problem for the animal. I've read other people suggesting things to cover a cat's claws but I don't see how the animal is supposed to clean its claws (which my cat does every day) if it can't get at them.

My only suggestion, if the problem is purely behavioural and it sounds like it probably may be, is that your two cats are incompatible. It may be that you will be forced to rehome the second one and it might settle down and thrive as an only cat.
 

GoldyCat

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Don't blame just the new kitten. It's likely that both of them are peeing and pooping outside the box once it gets too dirty for them. With only one litter box you should definitely be scooping at least twice a day. You and your kitties will all be happier and it will probably take less time than searching the house and cleaning up poop off the floor every day.

I would not recommend getting rid of the kitten just because of litter box issues. If your other cat has bonded with him it could stress the poor cat and cause more behavioral problems.
 

twstychik

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Originally Posted by Mustangfreak

I'll do my best to remember to do it every day then I guess.

Also the litter box is a fairly large box.
Originally Posted by Jack31

I'll admit that I too struggle with remembering to scoop--my two boxes are in the basement--since hubby does laundry I don't frequent the basement.

I found the best way to remember to scoop was to connect scooping to something I do every day without fail. Like perhaps feeding cats--I do it everyday, so as soon as I feed them I go down and scoop. If that time of the day isn't good for you--connect it to something else. Perhaps brushing your teeth or making dinner.

I now always remember after feeding that its scooping time--has saved me lots of stress and the boys probably are much happier!

Leslie
Take it from someone who knows... I hate scooping the litter box and have a terrible memory. But, I now scoop EVERY night before I go to bed. Frankie has been having "out-of-box" experiences for years now (something like 7+ years). She is a VERY picky cat that shares a litter box. It's actually a huge storage tote with a hole cut out for them. I do have 2 boxes but they both prefer this one. If I forget for even one night she reminds me by peeing on the kitchen floor. It is fixable but remember that we expect cats to adjust to living with us, the least we can do is make it as easy and pleasant for them as possible. How would you feel having to use the same toilet for 3 days before flushing it?!
 

threecatowner

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Twenty years ago I moved into my first apartment with two kittens - brother and sister, whom I'd known since their birth. At the time I was a young, single, working-out-of-the-house person, and these 2 drove me nuts when I was home. The female - Annie - would climb in bed and bite my nose constantly. They would play chase-chase and once the male - Orf - ran up my back as I washed dishes at the sink. I SWORE I would never, ever have two kittens at the same time again. They drove me nuts.

But then they grew up, and were the most wonderful kitties in the world. Orf lived to be 12, then died of some unknown infection. Annie was with me until she was 19 years old, and died last year. I had her longer than my husband, kids and house. My point is, kittens can drive you crazy - especially at night, especially when no one is home all day.

I, too, had a problem remembering to change the litter. I've learned my lesson, mostly. I believe a year from now, if you make sure the kitten has no health problems, and scoop that box regularly, you will be thrilled you have them both. I was.
 

yosemite

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I'd agree that your problem is probably lack of scooping.

With our former cats, the litter was in the basement and my husband was supposed to be scooping since he was down there doing something in the workshop every night. Well, needless to say he was not good at scooping and the poor cat started peeing everywhere but the litter box.

When we got Simba (kitty before Bijou), I put the litter box right in our bedroom in the corner. Hubby didn't like it but I knew if it were there it would get scooped at least once a day if not more. We now have a smaller house and the 2 litter boxes are still in our bedrooms (Bijou in ours, Mika's in Jen's) where they are scooped every night before bed and sometimes twice a day on the weekends. The only time there is any odour is immediately after either one of them uses the litter.
 

shanynne

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I just want to add to the wonderful advice you have already been given that at 2.5 months your kitten is still a baby and probably quite small. With that in mind, it's very important to make sure he has a size appropriate box that he can easily climb in and out of and also that he can get to it easily. He may be having difficulty climbing in and out of the current one.

Scooping twice daily will definitely help improve the situation. Scooping is not the most pleasant of tasks but your cats will love you for keeping their toilet nice and clean. Cats are very clean animals and as a general rule won't use a dirty litter box. I know my Rascal won't, he will stand in front of it until I come and clean it for him first, that is, if I haven't already scooped


It could also be possible that your older cat is preventing the kitten from using the box, domination issues so you need to watch out for that when you are home.

Also you should be able to tell by the size of the poops whether they belong to the older cat or the kitten


It could be too that the kitten needs some extra potty training. When I first got Samson, my 2nd kitty, he was pooping and peeing all over too. With a bit of patience that is a problem that is easily fixed.

About the "he's putting my butt in my face thing"
cats recognize each other by smell. Your kitten is telling you "it's me! it's me! smell me, I love you!"
Not much can be done to break that habit.

If you like I can give you potty training tips later as right now I have to run!

Hopes this helps and so glad to hear you won't be doing the "declawing" thing!!
 

sakura

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Doing your best to remember to scoop every day probably won't be enough and won't solve the problem. It has to be scooped at least 2x a day.

Ditto on all the enzyme cleaner tips. You can't smell it but the cat can and will see those spots as an open invitation to pee/poop there. Buy a black light to see if you missed any spots. You can also buy a Feliway diffuser to see if that would help.

For the claws...keeping them trimmed will make a difference. Put catnip on the scratching post and every time you catch the cat scratching elsewhere, just pick them up and put them on the post and praise the cat. (Only works if you catch them in the act). Also, you could try Soft Paws.

Sorry if I missed this, but are both cats spayed/neutered?
 
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