Older male cat has decided to poop on floor

Hello All,

I searched the 'Behavior' forum and couldn't find any similar posting, so here's my problem: I have a 12 year old male cat (neutered, of course) who has decided that he no longer wants to poop in the cat box. The cat box (2 of them, actually) are located in our basement and this cat has been in this house for 11 years, so it's not like he doesn't know where they are. We are fastidious about cleaning the boxes, so that's not why he's decided not to use them (actually, he uses them to pee in, but not to poop). We tried a different type of cat litter (scoopable), which was when he decided to stop using it for pooping. So we changed back to the old kind of cat litter that we empty out every week, but he still hasn't reverted back to using it for No. 2. I am at whit's end: I can never catch him in the act, so I can't yell at him for doing something naughty. And I am totally fed up with cleaning up the floor after him. What can I do??

Doug

Originally Posted by dvroberts

The cat box (2 of them, actually) are located in our basement and this cat has been in this house for 11 years, so it's not like he doesn't know where they are.

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I think this might be your problem. He may have some other problems, too, but he may just find it easier not to go down in the basement. Put a litter box upstairs.

It wouldn't hurt to have him checked over by the vet, if he hasn't been in lately, just to be sure nothing else is going on.

At his age he may be having some bowel incontinence. I agree with Mike (mrblanche), put a pan upstairs for him. Try adding a little Cat Attract litter to "entice" him to do his business there. And yes, I would take him to a vet for a once-over.