Peeing over litterbox

[kjlcat]

Hi all!

I have 3 cats - 2 females and 1 male. My male cat, Blue, has a habit of peeing over the edge of the litterbox. He never used to do this until he started spraying in May and he is now on kitty Prozac with good results.

We have 4 litter boxes - 2 covered and 2 un-covered. Currently, we are using pee pads around the litterbox in case he pees over the top of the un-covered boxes but unfortunately, the pee pads end up leaking through to the wood floors.

We have tried using a Rubbermaid box but our other 2 cats ended up peeing outside of the box (they apparently didn't like that) so that will not be an option.

Any other recommendations besides pee pads or any recommendations on quality brands of pee pads?

Thanks!

 

[carolina]

Hi,
I am assuming they are all spayed and neutered, right?

 

[kjlcat]

Yes

Sorry I forgot to mention that.

I'm involved in rescue so that is a necessity. I adopted him about a year and a half ago from another rescue group in our area and he is 9 1/2 yrs old now (although he still acts like a kitten!).

 

[imissmycats]

I'll be interested in people ideas as well. I have an altered female coon that misses the box quite often as well. But we keep the kitty box in the tub, so it's easy clean up.

 

[fazmaster]

Hi all,

My cat has started doing this and I suspect that he wants attention when he wants to play with us but we can't at the time.

He is neutered and does this sporadicaly as most of the time he sits to pee. The other day I was near his litter box when I noticed he was on all "fours" and peeing against the wall where his litter box is.

Cheers,

 

[momofmany]

I'm sort of surprised that some of your cats had issues with the rubbermaid bins. When I switched to those types of containers, my entire household rejoiced. I use oversized sterilite bins here.

Some people here cut out an opening on one side of a rubbermaid or sterilite (those are cheaper btw) bins to allow their cats to get in and out without jumping. That has worked for some.

Another member got a kid's wading pool and put the litter box inside of that pool. I think she put pads or towels in the pool so that her cat wouldn't have to walk across the plastic pool material. No idea if that would work for you.

If the urine is going thru the pee pads, have you tried to put plastic under the pee pads? Some cats will pee on plastic, so you would not want to leave any of it exposed, so you would need to cover it completely with the pads.

 

[nekomania]

Would there be any issue in switching the other two boxes over to covered?

I had a problem with my boy pooping over the edge until I got him a covered box.

 

[kjlcat]

Momofmany/Nekomania - yes - I had read about the Rubbermaid bins and cut a hole in one and it worked for Blue immediately and it was great. Unfortunately, about 2 days later, one of my 2 female cats peed outside the box. We tried to give them about a week or 2 to get used to it but the female cat(s) kept peeing outside the box. As soon as we reverted back to an open litter box, they were fine. Ugh - very frustrating!

We have to have an open litter box for the 2 girls because they refuse to use a covered one, thus, the reason why we have 2 open and 2 covered ones.

I have seen the pool that you described but we just don't have a big enough space for that in our spare bedroom.

We have plastic runners down but it is not wide enough so we might be able to get a wider one. We have also thought about getting a "boot tray" so it would catch some of the pee as well. We will see! I appreciate all the help!

 

[grogs]

You might try getting a piece of linoleum to go under the litter box area. A lot of the time there is a pretty big chunk of excess material from a big job like a kitchen, so you could probably get a small piece really cheap if not completely free from a flooring store. It might or might not stop you from needing the pads (if the floor isn't level, the urine will probably run off) but it will prevent damage to the hardwood and you could wipe it off every day with a mop or a sponge.

 

[kjlcat]

Thanks! That is a great idea! We are definitely willing to try almost anything to protect our wood floors so this is a wonderful option.

 

[kit e cat]

Also, if theres a large amount that goes over the side, you might look into the plastic trays that go in the bottom of dog crates. They have a lip where the pee wil stay in and not roll off. Or anything flat with a slight lip would work, I just have lots of dog crates so I use those.