My cat WILL NOT stop peeing immediately outside of the litter box.The previous owner said he never did it before we got him (and I know her well enough to know she isn't lying). We got him when he was about 3 months old. He was a cat she found in a litter, and all of the other cats found homes amongst our friends,and none of the other brothers or sisters have this problem. I don't know when he first started, but it was within the first month of us owning him. I found a spot by chance on a rug in our bathroom (which was right next to the box), and then on the rug in front of the toilet, and then on the living room rug. We got rid of all those rugs and then he started doing it only on the plastic rug that catches litter right outside the box. We tried buying a larger litter box (we have one other cat so we thought it might have been too much cat for one box) and that seemed to help for a while, but then he was back at it. We couldn't house a second litter box because we lived in an apartment that was just too small for that. We cleaned the box twice per day and it always seemed pretty clean but he did it anyway. He has been to the vet multiple times and he is fine. He is fixed (he did this both before AND after we got him fixed).
So then we moved. We bought a REALLY big house, enough space for 2 boxes (one small, one really big). We gradually introduced the cats to the house by opening one door at a time to not overwhelm them. They were fine. No accidents. The box gradually moved from the upstairs, to the downstairs, to the basement, no problem. Then it started again. Immediately outside the box. One box had a litter rug, one was bare cement, didn't matter. We bought rubber rugs for in front of them both, still peed. We completely separated the boxes (one on each side of the basement), still problems- would pee in front of both of them. Got rid of the small litter box and bought another HUGE box. Nope. Changed litter. Nope. Bought Cat Attract. Nope. Moved the litter boxes back together. Nope. Took the lids off. Nope. He has also defecated 3 different times outside the box too. Near it, but not in it. A few times, since we've been at the new house, he peed about 10 feet away, still in the basement on the cement. Sometimes we are home when he does it, sometimes we aren't. He has even done it while we were watching him. We've caught him in the act twice and it doesn't seem to matter.
We always show up what he has done wrong, say "bad', tap his nose, and then put him in the box. He has gotten to the point where as soon as we open the basement door he thinks he is in trouble and hides, or shakes when we pick him up and walk toward the basement. It breaks my heart, so we've stopped this semi-discipline completely. Any time he is good all day we spoil him and tell him how good he is.
He is the kindest, gentlest cat. He is so loving and so gentle; this is literally the ONLY thing he does wrong. He is such a laid back, sweet boy so I have a hard time believing that he is marking his territory. He and our other male cat are very kind and they love each other very much. They cuddle and play with us and each other all the time. Our other cat has no problems whatsoever. When we first got him we forgot to clean the box all the time so it went for days a few times and he never went outside the box. There were a few times when we first got cat #2 where we would go in the bathroom and they would both be in the litter box together, so it isn't that they don't like each other. I thought that maybe he was just so sensitive to the smell of the box that he didn't want to go in, but he always goes in to poop (except those 3 times that I mentioned before). AND we JUST got a brand new box yesterday and he already peed on outside the box by this afternoon, so it isn't that the box is holding in long standing odors.
Please, help. We love him so much, but it is ruining out relationship with the cat, and my husband and I are even starting to fight about it. And it is so time consuming and tedious to clean the rugs or floor or wherever he peed every single day.
Please don't recommend any of the things I've already tried. I've ready seemingly every blog on the internet about this issue and it seems like I've done everything. Please tell me I'm wrong and that there is something else I can try.
Thanks
P.S. The bathroom at our old apartment was right next to the living room. For a fleeting second I thought it might be because he didn't like being away from people, but he was very near to us and maybe only 3 feet away from our television, so I don't think that is it.
So then we moved. We bought a REALLY big house, enough space for 2 boxes (one small, one really big). We gradually introduced the cats to the house by opening one door at a time to not overwhelm them. They were fine. No accidents. The box gradually moved from the upstairs, to the downstairs, to the basement, no problem. Then it started again. Immediately outside the box. One box had a litter rug, one was bare cement, didn't matter. We bought rubber rugs for in front of them both, still peed. We completely separated the boxes (one on each side of the basement), still problems- would pee in front of both of them. Got rid of the small litter box and bought another HUGE box. Nope. Changed litter. Nope. Bought Cat Attract. Nope. Moved the litter boxes back together. Nope. Took the lids off. Nope. He has also defecated 3 different times outside the box too. Near it, but not in it. A few times, since we've been at the new house, he peed about 10 feet away, still in the basement on the cement. Sometimes we are home when he does it, sometimes we aren't. He has even done it while we were watching him. We've caught him in the act twice and it doesn't seem to matter.
We always show up what he has done wrong, say "bad', tap his nose, and then put him in the box. He has gotten to the point where as soon as we open the basement door he thinks he is in trouble and hides, or shakes when we pick him up and walk toward the basement. It breaks my heart, so we've stopped this semi-discipline completely. Any time he is good all day we spoil him and tell him how good he is.
He is the kindest, gentlest cat. He is so loving and so gentle; this is literally the ONLY thing he does wrong. He is such a laid back, sweet boy so I have a hard time believing that he is marking his territory. He and our other male cat are very kind and they love each other very much. They cuddle and play with us and each other all the time. Our other cat has no problems whatsoever. When we first got him we forgot to clean the box all the time so it went for days a few times and he never went outside the box. There were a few times when we first got cat #2 where we would go in the bathroom and they would both be in the litter box together, so it isn't that they don't like each other. I thought that maybe he was just so sensitive to the smell of the box that he didn't want to go in, but he always goes in to poop (except those 3 times that I mentioned before). AND we JUST got a brand new box yesterday and he already peed on outside the box by this afternoon, so it isn't that the box is holding in long standing odors.
Please, help. We love him so much, but it is ruining out relationship with the cat, and my husband and I are even starting to fight about it. And it is so time consuming and tedious to clean the rugs or floor or wherever he peed every single day.
Please don't recommend any of the things I've already tried. I've ready seemingly every blog on the internet about this issue and it seems like I've done everything. Please tell me I'm wrong and that there is something else I can try.
Thanks
P.S. The bathroom at our old apartment was right next to the living room. For a fleeting second I thought it might be because he didn't like being away from people, but he was very near to us and maybe only 3 feet away from our television, so I don't think that is it.
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