Please help :( [pooping issue]

Hello to all fellow cat lovers. Unfortunately I am brought to your wonderful web site with a somewhat gross issue. I have a female cat named Donna. We found her in the city so I don't really know how old she is. She is an all grey cat with 7 toes. We've had her for about a year and there have been no problems. She has always been able to use her litter box just fine. I have 2 sons (6 & 7 years old) that I love dearly. They like the cat for the most part and have done well her. This is the part where it gets really gross and I apologize in advance. One of my sons pooped in the litter box. I don't know why, other than they like to cause mischief. The first time I didn't realize it, even though such a large waste product caught my attention. One week later he did it again. This time I found out. Needless to say the consequences have been quite severe. I have made it clear to him that this is an unacceptable behavior. I'm worried about how the cat responded to this. She has been pooping in the house now instead of using her litter box. She does sometimes still use it, but I would say about half of the time she poops elsewhere in the house. What is going on here ?? I'm so worried because I don't want to have to get rid of her. Can anyone help explain to me how cats feel about their poop and or litter box? I think the only way to solve this problem is to find out as much as I can about cats and poop behavior. thank you for any help or insight you can give me.

signed a concerned but hopeful cat owner

Wow, I have never heard of that problem. I'm sure the cat was not happy, probably very confused. Cats normally do not like dirty litter boxes, and I can't imagine how a cat would react to a large volume of human waste in her box.

I'm assuming the litter box was thoroughly cleaned and washed to remove any scent from your son's waste and completely new litter added? You could also try to use something like Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter to get her to use it regularly. You might try a new litter box. I'm hoping there will be some other suggestions to try and that you find something that will work. I would hate for you to get rid of her for something not her fault.

Yeah, the first thing I would do is dump all the litter, clean the box thoroughly, put in clean litter, and then quarantine the cat in one room and keep the kids away from her for a while. She may have seen this as a play for dominance.

Thank you for the replies. I put in fresh litter, but I didn't clean out the box thoroughly. That was pretty stupid of me. I am going to do this now as it sounds like a great idea. How do cats view solid waste and dominance? Is it like a dog and going on a hydrant to mark his territory? Also why do cats bury their waste?

The theory is that the cats our domestic cats are descended from buried their waste to hide their presence, but the dominant cat in the area might not do so, in order to advertise his presence and scare away other cats.

concernedforcat said:

Thank you for the replies. I put in fresh litter, but I didn't clean out the box thoroughly. That was pretty stupid of me. I am going to do this now as it sounds like a great idea. How do cats view solid waste and dominance? Is it like a dog and going on a hydrant to mark his territory? Also why do cats bury their waste?

Click to expand...

Excellent questions.

Cats use feces and urine to mark their territories, even female cats.  I am not sure how dominance comes in, but remember their sense of smell includes almost tasting odors and all the information that is present in that odor.  It may be that they saw the human poop as a threat.  What would you think if you saw an elephant-sized poop in your toilet?

Cats bury their waste to deny any other animal from being able to detect them.

Yes, it is like a dog going on a hydrant.