Help... Toilet Training Issues/accidents

[acramer503]

My cat (7 year old male) had been training for a couple months with the Litter Kwitter and he was doing awesome. When we got to the green stage (he did the fully closed red insert and amber colored inserts one with a small hole and the second with slightly bigger hole wonderfully) he refused to use it. After a couple days of never using the green one once, he finally went poop but on the downstairs large area rug, we then lifted the rug up to check underneath it only to see he had 3 different spots on it that he was urinating at. I cut away the affected areas on the underneath pad as that would be difficult to truly clean and cleaned the area rug thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner and used it on the hardwood (then mopped). I ended up giving him his cat box back. He went back to using his box for several days with no problem but just caught him pooping on the rug again (in a different spot), despite his box being kept clean. In the 7 years we have had him we've never had an accident and while thats to be expected during this training process, I would think having a familiar cat box available would have corrected this behavior. I'm willing to work with him some but I know my husband is less forgiving on this matter. He even said "if he's got an available litter box there's no excuse". I haven't told him about today's incident yet but if this problem persists I'm not sure we can keep him. I'm not one to just get rid of a family member but with small kids in the house and a new baby on the way I can't worry about them getting into urine or feces let alone the smell and cleanliness issue in general. Looking for advice, my kids and I would be devastated if we had to get rid of our loving cat!

 

[acramer503]

this most recent incident happened about an hour ago and as of right now he's shut in the bathroom with his food, water, cat box, and bed until I can figure out a plan of attack. Really hoping to find some solid advice and kind words, no lectures on toilet training or rehoming please.

 

[ArtNJ]

Area rugs & bath mats are a frequent location for problems. At this point, the area rug itself is likely a problem independent of the transition back to a litter box, and even after enzyme cleaner. Roll it up, store it, and try again once the problem has sorted itself out. You may want to add another litter box as well, preferably in the same room where the rug was. If its a huge area rug and storing it temporarily is not viable, add another litter box in that room and hope for the best. If another litter box in that room is not palatable to you, I get that, but at least do it temporarily until the cat is back on track.

 

[acramer503]

Thanks ArtNJ, I was actually having this exact conversation with my mother a little bit ago. The room with the affected rug is unfortunetly right at our front door so I hope to avoid putting a cat box there but I was saying to my mom that maybe rolling the rug up and pushing it to the side of the room for a while would do the trick, that way he can't run to it to go. We do have the exact same rug in our second family room/TV room on the same level of the house so i hope he doesn't see that as an option after this. I don't think he will though as this specific rug seems to be the only place he has gone. Hopefully this does the trick, it's a little reassuring to see someone else has the same thought process! Thanks again!

 

[danteshuman]

I'm all for ditching the rug (at least for a couple of months.) We had a dog that would pee in front of a bedroom door if there was carpet there. We removed the carpet, the peeing stopped. People stuck a rug in front of the door, the peeing started. Sometimes it really isn't worth having a rug/carpet.