Kitty issues please help

[angelwings71]

Hi! I have a 6 month old Kitty Hope I adopted from humane society.I'm almost convinced she's bi polar but I love her. For the most part very sweet. I had her spayed about a month ago. I also rescued a motherless kitten that I had to bottle feed. Baby Faith is a joy at 8 weeks old and fits into family unit well also very sweet and lovable.
The issue I'm having is they are peeing in Hopes food bowl.. Even hope is doing this.why? And how do I stop it.. We are waisting a lot of food with this problem.

 

[siggymauw]

Hi angelwings71,I'm sorry to hear you're going through such an ordeal. I've never had this problem with my cats before so I can't give you any hands on advice. How far away are the food bowls from the litter box? Are they still using the litter box or have they started to shun it? Usually when cats pee in such weird placed it could be due to a urinary infection. Have you noticed the cats straining while peeing or meowing? If so I would get them checked to see if it isn't something medical instead of behavioral,

As for how to correct this behavior, I would get new bowls and start feeding them in a different location where nobody has peed before and remove the bowls as soon as you're done feeding. If you're free feeding and it's behavioral then maybe you can try to switch to meal planning. Ive read it's healthier and you're also not giving the cats a place to wee in.

I hope some of the more experienced members on this forum can help you out. Good luck!

 

[di and bob]

I would definitely get new bowls and change the location to get them started new. There are two possible reasons for this odd behavior, the first being they are each marking the bowl as 'theirs', maybe they should each have their own bowl. If they already do, then Hope is going to mark it as hers and to keep Faith away from it. This is what I think is going on.  You might want to pick the bowls up for a while and only feed them a little at a time., just until the habit is broken.

The second reason is that they don't like something about the litter box or the litter and are finding a better place to go. To a kitten, a 'thing' that holds litter like 'things' to cover their waste is just another place to go, like flower pots. I'm sure your kitten is going after Hope because the smell is there and why not?  But if this is the reason they will start going elsewhere too.

Hope is trying to preserve her seniority,  so make sure she doesn't feel left out and give her lots of extra attention to make her feel more secure. I agree with the 'bipolar' statement, I swear ALL kittens are like that, boundless energy and go, go go, and then sleeping so hard it can scare you. That will be taken care of with age. Thank you for taking these little ones in to your home and your heart, I wish you many years of happiness!

 

[jcat]

Are you absolutely certain both kittens are peeing in Hope's bowl? It sounds like something an 8-week-old would do, but not a 6-month-old.

Is the food bowl plastic? Young kittens learning how to use a litter box sometimes start using anything vaguely resembling one, i.e., anything low and plastic, to do their business in. Perhaps Faith is still a bit confused, though she has the general idea, and Hope is following suit to cover up the smell of Faith's urine.

If the food bowl is plastic, I'd switch to metal or glass and move it as far away from the litter box as possible.