Help!

[sibbell]

Sasha has decided that she does not want to use her litter boxes any more. No health issues, boxes spotlessly clean. There is a box on each floor of the house. The main problem area is my bedroom, she has always been a bit naughty there - we started with the box in the bathroom which was fine until she stopped using it and wee'd by the side of my bed. Moved the box to the side of the bed and all was well for a while. Then she started wee'ing by the side of the box! A couple of days ago, she sniffed around her box, poked at it, walked into the bathroom and wee'd on the floor! I picked her up and put her in the box, she jumped right out. She tried to do the same yesterday but I got to her in time and put her in the box - no wee - she waited till we went downstairs and she went into the garden for a wee. I changed the litter to a new brand and also put another box in the bathroom. (I am surrounded by litter boxes!) She doesn't always come up to the bedroom when I go to bed, most times she comes up around 4am. I am wondering if I should take her upstairs when I go up and put her in the bathroom with her bed, toys and stuff and keep her there through the night until she gets the hang of using the box in there again?
I don't really want to lock her up 24/7 as right now I am not working and she has the run of the house plus a little bit of garden time. But I'd like to stop her current box problems.
Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks

 

[sibbell]

I suppose I could just close the bedroom door and not let her come up there at night???

 

[aswient]

since it seems behavorial you could try a Feliway Diffuser. That calms them down. I know I have a boy that marks because doesn't like the cats outside his house. The Feliway Diffuser really calmed him down. Good Luck.

 

[sibbell]

I have several Feliway difusers, but they don't help!

 

[ducman69]

Are they all the same hooded or unhooded? If so, you could try the opposite. People also always seem to praise Cat Attract litter for problem cats.

And for now, yes, definitely keep her out of the bedroom. If there is even a faint smell of a bathroom, she may keep associating it as such.

Personally, I have a low tolerance level for inappropriate elimination, and would confine my kitties to a single room when unsupervised until I saw normal litterbox use again.

 

[kattenyajen]

how big is the box? could it be she's just decided it's too small?

 

[poohandwendy]

Unless you have had her recently examined by a vet for this reason you cannot rule out a health issue, so that is where I would start. I hate to say that because it's not what anyone wants to hear (expense, etc). But it really is sound advice and your efforts will be futile if it is a health issue and you keep trying other things.

After health issues ruled out, moving the litter boxes, changing the litter...these are all things that can CAUSE litter box problems. Some cats just balk at any subtle changes in their litter box so you need to pick a place and litter and stick with it.

I would keep your room totally off limits for now. I agree with Ducman that she needs to be quarantined to one small room with her box until she consistently uses the box without a problem. Then I would only move the box slowly to another place (a few feet per day) so that she doesn't just start repeating this pattern again.

Yes locking her up is a pain, but it really might be the only way to stop this behavior. It's unlikely it will change unless she is retrained. And almost impossible to retrain when they have the run of the house.

Obviously, it's absolutely necessary that you make sure any area that she urinated on is spotless (very hard to do because they can smell the odor even after we think it is gone) You need a really good enzyme cat urine remover used to the point of overkill. If she urinated on carpet, this is especially important because carpet is especially hard to clean totally.

Good luck, litter box problems are SO frustrating!

 

[sibbell]

Thanks. She went to the vet a couple of months ago, when this first started. I think that I will try keeping her out of my room at night and see how that goes. When I go back to work then I will try keeping her in the bathroom and see if I can retrain her. It's my own fault as I didn't train her when I first got her, I just showed her the box on the ground floor and then let her have the run of the house!:

My bad!

 

[white cat lover]

I would consider having her urine specifically tested to rule out a UTI anyways, just to be 100% sure. Squishy peed a few times outside of the box, I had him checked w/ nothing in the results. A few weeks later he was urinating red b/c there was so much blood in his urine, he had a massive infection.

Have you tried cat attract litter, also? That may help, too.

 

[tkaner]

Gosh I am hoping I am not asking this question over and over ot the same person. I have a litter box problem, but it seems very specific. For example, My five month old kitten has used the box for 16 days straight with no problems until today. I was clsaning the box and usually she runs up and wants to use the box whenever I clean it. Normally I quickly put the box back under the table and she uses it. This time, I hopedshe might wait for me to finish cleaning it. She did not and peed where the box normally sits.

She too had a peeing problem in my bedroom, my bed, next to the wall, etc... I have had her locked out for the 16 days and she even managed to run upstairs each time.

 

[lauren_miller]

I would get a black light and see if she's peeing in other spots too. You should get an enzymatic cleaner to completely get rid of the smell. If they can smell pee they will continue to pee over the smell. Also I would try the cat attract litter. I've heard it works wonders. Good luck.