Kitten just started peeing outside of the litter box

I have 4 kittens, two I'm who are pretty sure are 14 weeks and the other two are closer to 16 weeks, either way 5lbs or more. We've had them for a month and a couple weeks now. Through various trials and errors we've finally gotten to the point where they were all behaving pretty well. There is one in the bunch though that has some issues. He steps in his poop and shakes his paw off everywhere. He didn't do this in our one covered litter box, so that's all we have now. He had a tendency to poop outside of the smaller uncovered litter box, so we got rid of that. Both boys had issues with keeping the poop in the litter boxes, so we had to switch to high sides, which then the poop flinging begin with the one cat, so covered only. So now we have two covered litter boxes. We live in a smaller 1 floor house. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and quasi connected living room-kitchen. One litter box is in the bathroom, the other is in the kitchen. (That's not where they were originally but have been for a while now).

Anyway so 3 out of the 4 use the litter boxes fine. They aren't experts in burring anything, but they use both covered litter boxes without issue. One is cleaned out every day at the same time around 2pm. The other I'm very sure is cleaned out everyday, that one is our roommate's. Yesterday there was pee on the rubber mat next to the litter box in the kitchen. We didn't know which cat did it. The mat was cleaned, no issue. Today we saw the one cat who has had issues pee on the bathmat, which very close to the litter box in the bathroom. Then he left the bathroom and pooped in the one in the kitchen.

This cat isn't the dominate cat, but he's not the one picked on the most either. He's not a very bright cat and ends up getting his head stuck or gets the better end of our frustration because well, he's kind of jerk and not that smart at the same time. However he's been pretty good and we haven't been too frustrated with him lately. He obviously pees more than once a day, so he's only doing this around 11:00am-12pm.

So basically my question is... even though nothing has changed, why pee near the litter box once a day? Why pee in one spot, then run all the way to a different litter box and poop in it? Why pee near both litter boxes two different days, but only once? No change in litter, no change at all in the last week. The only change is they haven't been allowed in one of the bedrooms for 3 days because we got our new bed at we are letting it air out. So there is actually one less room (no litter box or food are in this room). That's it. Any help would be awesome! The cat with the issues is named Mulder, the other boy cat is Comet. The 2 girls are perfect lol

Well I think I discovered the culprit. I cleaned out the litter box in the kitchen and it smells. We originally bought this litter which wasn't from clay, thinking it would be good idea. Well the kittens would not (and I repeat  would not touch or be in it). So we got the litter they had at the shelter (and thus continued on to different litters). Meanwhile we've been stuck with this stuff. It's not very good with helping the smell of the litter box and makes it end up smelling worse. In trying not to waste our money we've been slowly using it. I have already gone through my bag. My roommate hasn't. So he now has the smelly box. Which is likely why Mulder has been acting the way he has. He's an odd duck, so guess it makes sense he would act strangely.

I hope getting rid of the "smelly" litter does the trick. Keep an eye on your kitten, though. Sometimes sudden peeing outside the box indicates a urinary tract infection. You want to keep an eye for increased frequency of reduced amounts, straining and/or blood in the urine. Not to scare you - just to let you know if it happens again, this might be something to check out.

The other thing that comes to mind is the kitten might be reacting to being shut out of the bedroom but since that's only temporary, that should be self-correcting.

One final thought - some cats like to pee in one box and poop in another which might explain why your little guy ran to the other box to poop. Hopefully though, you have figured out the problem with respect to the litter and won't have any more problems.

There may be several issues at work here. You're quite right that a smelly box could put a cat off using it. Peeing just outside the box can be a way of marking out that box as belonging to that cat - something that is often seen in territorial/dominance issues. Peeing outside the box can also be a sign of discomfort (usually stemming from a UTI or crystals blockage). For this reason, it's always advisable to take a cat that consistently pees outside the box to a vet - just to be sure there are no physical causes at work.

With peeing in one box and pooping in another - some cats just prefer to do things that way. It's nothing to worry about.

It sounds like you have 2 boxes and 4 cats. The recommended number of boxes to have is one per cat plus one extra. In your case, that would be 5 boxes in total. The reason for this is to make sure that each cat will always have access to a box.

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Today we have been issue free. The bedroom is open again and the second litter box was changed out.

We honestly don't have the floor space for that many litter boxes, that's more boxes than we have rooms, which seems excessive. Both are large covered boxes, due to the poop fling-er. Our issues seem to be off and on and correlated to size of the litter boxes (previous ones were too small) and stress/change. And since they are going to the bathroom near the litter box it's not that they aren't making it, they are choosing to not go it. Which makes me feel the issues are due to the litter box itself.

Tracking down who is peeing outside the litter box is tough, we only know one who has done it for sure. It could the others. I've talk to the vet about crystals in my boy cat, because he was peeing excessively when we first got him. And it was made very clear between her and from what I could find that they are far to young for crystals. A UTI seems plausible but without other symptoms I feel it's a big jump.

I don't mind cleaning out the litter boxes more than once a day in order to keep two. I guess it depends as time goes on. They barely bury so the smell is kind of strong. The litter and the cover helps a lot. We could probably work in a third litter box some where but that's the probably the most we could do. The rest of the apartment is carpet and with limited floor space it might be near impossible to do. A lot can happen in a year so we might end up with more floor space by the time they reach adulthood.

Don't think I'm dismissing advice, just trying to find the more likely causes. Seeing as things have been going back to normal I don't think it's UTI or the amount of litter boxes. I think it's the change, stress, and smell. It's hard to watch them on the days I work, because I'm not home for 9 or so hours. I'm more thankful they are peeing on mats, or near the litter box and not on the carpet. For that I'm insanely grateful. I just want to make sure they are getting the best out of us even the house is on the smaller side.

I really do appreciate how hard it can be to find space for boxes. All you can do is your best. I actually have two cats and one (very frequently cleaned) box - I used to have more, but they both chose to only use one of them. I couldn't see the point in having extra boxes out that no one was using :lol3: My girl is very sweet though - in the mornings she'll call out before using the box to make sure it's free! :heart3:

My instinct is that stress/territory issues are the root cause. Working on de-stressing everyone may be enough to fix this problem permanently. I think that trying to squeeze in a third box might well help, so do try it if you can. Other than that, be sure to get a vet check if the problem resurfaces or worsens (or if there's any trace of blood in the urine).

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I wanted to update that the issues were intermediate and were definitely from the one cat. The one litter box was switched to an even bigger one, and the litter has been changed out to normal stuff. I've also taken to cleaning the one in the bathroom twice a day. So far we have been issue free. However to not tempt fate we don't keep any mats or anything on the floor. The final straw was when I discovered pee and poop (neatly next to each other mind you) on my dog's bed in his crate. So far with nothing but the tile and normal carpet, more up keep on cleaning, there has been no "accidents". I definitely walked away from this learning that they just need to be clean and to set them up for success.

Great news that all are using the boxes again. :cross: that you have no further problems.