My cat had surgery to remove a small growth from his neck and repair a broken claw on Friday. The vet instructed me to remove the grainy hard litter from his box and use something softer like shredded newspaper since his back paw would be bandaged up. I don't have a shredder so for now we are using the fluffy paper bedding for rodents that the vet ok'd. My cat used his litter box normally on Friday night, I scooped out the urine and poop right away. Saturday, Sunday and Monday I found urine but no poop and cleaned it out.
This morning I saw him awkwardly sitting in his fleece catnip bed which is in my living room and realized that he was peeing, so I went into my bedroom to see if maybe the litter box smelled too bad and it seemed wet so I changed out all the fluffy bedding instead of just scooping out the wettest parts but I thought maybe adding a bit of catnip would attract him back to it so I sprinkled some in. When I came back out he was pooping on his bed but then he went to explore his litter box and he decided to try and lick up the catnip which I now see was a bad idea because he ate a bit of the paper bedding that I'm using as litter.
I think just scooping was my mistake the past few days as there seemed to be a whole wet layer underneath the dry clean bedding (litter) I didn't take into account that it would absorb differently and he must have not wanted to use it, but he has never ever gone outside his box not even when he first got trained. So now I'm worried this will become a habit and he will start to urinate where he smells his scent, I cleaned the carpet as best I could with pet odor removing spray because the urine on bed seemed to soak through but it was under the piano and hard to get in there. Also is it very bad that he ate a tiny bit of the paper? I moved him away and told him not too eat it so I worry he will see that as negative and not want to go near the litter box again. Should I change the "litter" again to remove the catnip?
This morning I saw him awkwardly sitting in his fleece catnip bed which is in my living room and realized that he was peeing, so I went into my bedroom to see if maybe the litter box smelled too bad and it seemed wet so I changed out all the fluffy bedding instead of just scooping out the wettest parts but I thought maybe adding a bit of catnip would attract him back to it so I sprinkled some in. When I came back out he was pooping on his bed but then he went to explore his litter box and he decided to try and lick up the catnip which I now see was a bad idea because he ate a bit of the paper bedding that I'm using as litter.
I think just scooping was my mistake the past few days as there seemed to be a whole wet layer underneath the dry clean bedding (litter) I didn't take into account that it would absorb differently and he must have not wanted to use it, but he has never ever gone outside his box not even when he first got trained. So now I'm worried this will become a habit and he will start to urinate where he smells his scent, I cleaned the carpet as best I could with pet odor removing spray because the urine on bed seemed to soak through but it was under the piano and hard to get in there. Also is it very bad that he ate a tiny bit of the paper? I moved him away and told him not too eat it so I worry he will see that as negative and not want to go near the litter box again. Should I change the "litter" again to remove the catnip?
