New Poopy Problem

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I've been around, but little Orion has been doing pretty well. He's stopped being so sassy at night, and he can be so lovey and friendly to new people that you can forget he ever was a little feral kitty for the first couple months of his life.

He has never had a problem going outside his litter box. From day one he used it, even after we changed the brand a few times, with no problems.

Here's a little layout to get an idea. We have a small cape cod style house. His litter box is upstairs in our bathroom. He only has the one, and it has never seemed like a problem. He often seems like he's holding it til the last second, like a little kid, before he tears up the stairs, but that's all.

He has pretty much free reign of the basement, which is by no means a nice converted rec room. It's got an open dirt floor crawlspace, spiderwebs, and it's damp and dirty. He looooves to play down there.

Today, we found poopies just sitting by the floor drain. He's the kind of cat that digs halfway to China before he'll take a poopie, so it was pretty suprising.

I'm not entirely sure what to do about it. I don't want to deny him access to one of his fave playgrounds, but he can't go down there to poopie, either, and I'm noot bout to follow him around and wait for him to try to tell him so. =)

I've thought maybe we should put another litter box down there, but my hubby is afraid this will confuse him. He comes upstairs to the bedroom at night, and is locked up here with us on the 2nd floor often. He has his litter up here to use, but if he develops a preference to the basement box, I'm afraid he'll start going all over up here.

There is no option to allow him free roam of the entire house at night, and other varying times. Sometimes he just has to be locked upstairs. So I need a solution, or suggestions that will co-exist with the necessity of using the upstairs litter box at night, and other odd times.

We started using a new brand of litter, the Tidy Cat Crystal kind, but that was at least 1-2 weeks ago, and he's seemed to have no problems with the litter at all.

Any help would be great! Thanks! =)

Spring

He sees dirt, he thinks potty, it is a natural reaction for him born from his wild ancestors. You have a few choices, you can not allow him access to the room, because he WILL eliminate in the dirt, that is his natural instinct. You can tarp the floor so he has no access to the dirt, or lay down boards or something. You cannot expect him to not use the dirt for what he knows it is intended to be used for. You can also try and put several litter boxes in the space where he has pooped, but I can almost bet he will go for the dirt everytime.

I agree with Hissy. The reason most cats easily accept either the scoopable or the clay litter is because it most resembles dirt or sand. You can try putting a large box down there to see if he uses it, but I would use either the clay or clumping and put enough in there so that he can bury it with ease. If he shows no interest at all, then yes, I would close off the basement.