Cat pooping on carpet

Dear everyone,

I'm new here on the cat site. I'm hoping someone can help. I've had Dylan for almost 2 years. Lately he's been pooping regularly on the carpet. I took him to the vet, and he has a clean bill of health. I scoop his litter box daily, and he'll go a week of goodness, and then poop on the carpet daily for a 4 or 5 days. He is treated great (actually, better than the husband!! LOL) Are there any tricks I can use to get him to use the litter box which is a mere 2 feet away from his "favorite piece of carpet"?

Thanks.

Beck

Maybe he doesn't like the litter? Or the box? I would throw out the litterbox you have and buy a new one, in fact, buy two to put in seperate parts of the house. Also, is he declawed? Many declawed cats develop behavioral problems after awhile.

Does sound like a behavioral issue.

I have tried all different litters and 3 different litter boxes. I haven't tried them simultaniously, though. I'll give that a try. He is declawed. I do agree with both of you, it seems to be behavioral. Is there any trick to changing his behavior?

My be he is pissed his nails are gone.

I'd put two litter boxes in two different areas of the house.

Do you use clay litter? There are a lot of different types if you haven't tried them.. unfortunately they can be more expensive.

Where is the litter box currently located?

There could be lots of reasons for him doing this. I'm glad you got him checked out, and he was healthy! So it sounds like it's just a preference thing.

Some things that should help...

Sometimes kitties get very finicky about exactly how their litterbox is set up, and where. Sounds like that's the problem here.

Our boy, Hobbes, did the same thing, and it turned out he wanted one litterbox to poop in and one to pee in, he didn't like hooded litterboxes, and he liked it pristinely clean. I found a couple websites that helped me understand exactly what it was that I could try that would help, and it really did. One good thing is the fact that he's now outgrown his pickiness about wanting two and wanting them in such perfect condition, now that he's about two! Hopefully yours will do the same!

Here are a couple websites that should help:

http://www.larimerhumane.org/services/litterboxinfo.cfm

http://www.thepetprofessor.com/secA...es_and_cats.asp

http://www.heartlandhumane.org/pub/petcare_litterbox

A couple tips:

Cats don't usually like the plastic liners some people use in litterboxes.

Some cats don't like the hooded boxes.

Cats at times don't like the box to be anywhere that they also have to eat and drink.

Sometimes the problem is just that the box isn't somewhere private enough. They only like to "go" somewhere that is low-traffic, quiet, and very private.

Also, try putting the litterbox in the place that he's been pooping so he gets the idea. Also be sure to put the poop that didn't make it in the litterbox, so he gets the reminder.

Hope all that helps!

Let us know how it goes!