Cat Peeing Oddity

[adering]

Rescued a cat on my porch. She was so friendly, clearly she'd been someone's pet. Checked EVERYWHERE. No postings, no signs, no anything.Put her inside in my bedroom. At first, she was using the box. Then she stopped.

This is where it gets bizarre.

IF I pick her up, and put her in the box -- it must be a high-sided box -- she will sit for a moment, begin to paw at the wall furiously for about 10 seconds, and then she'll do her dirty little business. Then she'll paw at the wall furiously for about 10 more seconds. THEN she'll jump out and dash off. Doesn't matter if I'm standing right there "monitoring" her or back a distance, she'll use the box if put INTO the box, but she won't jump into the box herself, and she won't use a low-walled box.

I'm staying as calm as I can with this because I realize scolding won't work. I'm feeding her IMMEDIATELY after she uses the box so that she will (I hope) associate "Ohh, when I use my box, he opens up a can of food. Ooooh. I love food. Nom, nom, nom." the behavior with a reward.

Is there something obvious I'm missing? It's not the type of litter. I've tried three kinds. She'll use ANY of them, IF she's put into the box.

She has been to the vet at least three times (got her bad teeth pulled, a general checkup, shots, urine tests) and this cat has NOT ONE THING wrong with her. This is NOT diabetes, infection, or anything else like that. She isn't in pain and expressing it in this fashion. She isn't near the other two cats (they're two levels away).

Clearly she understands that the box is for elimination because, as mentioned, she uses it when placed there.

Any help would really be appreciated.

 

[Columbine]

Hi, and welcome to TCS

I'm so sorry for the delayed response - I can see that a number of people have read your post, but no one's replied. I think that's because it's an unusual and puzzling problem.

All I can think of is that she must have been badly startled at some point when entering or leaving her box, and it's created a lasting negative association.

Rather than feeding her straight after, I wonder about doing a little clicker training with her. All clicker training starts by 'loading' the clicker (sit with a pile of mini treats, and click - treat repeatedly until the cat look at you between clicks instead of the food), so the cat learns that a click means something good is coming. The advantage of this is that you can reward her as she's performing the action , instead of afterwards. This will create a stronger positive association than simply feeding afterwards. You could even go a stage further, and teach her to follow a pointer. Once that's established, you can use that to train her to walk into the box of her own accord. It won't be easy, but it's the only way I can think of to break this cycle.

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[Norachan]

What happens if you're not there to put her in the box? Does she go somewhere else or does she hold on until you're there?

I have a male cat who will only pee standing up (Had to switch to all covered litter boxes) He paws at the wall of the litter box before and after he uses it too, I think because he can smell himself on the box walls. Does she spray inside the box or squat to pee? 

 

[adering]

Update:

The cat has returned to using the box, as normal. I think that the regular putting her in there twice a day helped to condition her back toward the box being nothing alarming. Especially as it became associated with something that happened right before a feeding.

 

[Norachan]

That's good. Maybe it just took her  awhile to adjust to her new home? She probably knows there are other cats in the house and doesn't want to get caught messing up their litter boxes.

 

[betsygee]

 
Update:

The cat has returned to using the box, as normal. I think that the regular putting her in there twice a day helped to condition her back toward the box being nothing alarming. Especially as it became associated with something that happened right before a feeding.

That's good news.  Always nice when the fur-kids are doing well.  

 

[Columbine]

That's great news Always good to hear about issues resolving :nod: