Help!

sniemi

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Kitten
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Aug 28, 2016
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Hello All,

We just adopted a new kitty to add to our family! We have one kitty already. This kitty was found in an abandoned apartment, pregnant. She went into a foster home, had her kittens, and then came to us!

We brought her home and the first few days were stressed for her. She was having a hard time finding her spot. After a few days we noticed that she had pooped in our finished basement. We figured the stress was just too much. We isolated her into a bedroom, with her own food dishes, litter box, and she did great.

We gave her a bunch of love, so she didn't get lonely.. She ate, drank and used her box appropriately. We then started letting her out a few hours at a time. We found that she kept trying to pee in the same corner she originally had. We cleaned it with Nature's Miracle (dowsed, put a fan on it). We thought maybe she smelt another animal or something that had been in the house previously so we put down tin foil to have her avoid the area and she did. However now she has picked other spots to pee/poop. We've caught her each time and put her in her room where she could use her box.

She doesn't do it in the other two levels of our house. We can't figure out why she's doing it only in the basement, and we can't figure out how to break her of the habit. I don't think she has a litter box issue (She uses it appropriately in her room). We do have another box for the other cat.

I need to solve this issue as soon as possible as my husband is getting very angry and wants to give the kitty up. I'm just not ready for that yet. I haven't tried everything!

What suggestions do you have???I want to keep and love this little fur baby.

The facts:
She's about 8 months old
Spayed, Chipped
Has had one litter of kittens
Lived in a small enclosure, etc, when she had her kittens.
 

kirathecat

TCS Member
Adult Cat
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Jun 1, 2016
Messages
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Location
Texas
Hi, welcome to TCS.

Two solutions come to mind: a)) put litter boxes in the spots where she's trying to pee in the basement/ or at least one litter box in the basement or b) don't let her go to the basement.

There's a general guideline to have a litter box per cat + 1 extra in the multi cat household. Also recommended to have at least one litter box per level of the house.

Has she been checked out by a vet to rule out any underlying health problems that could be causing it?

Does she try to use the basement as her bathroom every chance she gets? I mean, if she is avoiding using the litter box when she has the chance, that could mean she doesn't like her litter or the box itself. Are you using the same kind of litter she used at the foster home? It's better to use the same litter the kitty is already used to or trying Precious Cat Attract litter or litter additive to encourage kitty going into the box. 

How was her litter box habits/behavior when she was fostered? Were there any problems?

I think she might still be stressed out and overwhelmed by the change in her life and maybe intimidated by your other cat... Have they been properly introduced? How are they behaving towards each other? You might want to check out this article on cat introduction: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-successfully-introduce-cats-the-ultimate-guide
 
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