Six Indoor Cats Urinating Everywhere!

[tianajade]

Hi there,

I have six indoor cats, ranging from the ages 1 through to 8. Recently, they have ALL been urinating inside; near their food, on the kitchen counter, on their food containers, near windows, on cupboards, on curtains—generally everywhere, really; it's hard to keep track of all the areas. We don't always know who the exact culprit is, we've only caught a couple of them in the act a few times, but most of the time they do it while we're asleep or not home.

We've tried special deodorizers from the Vets to keep them away from the areas they choose to urinate, with no success. We've used anti-bacteria sprays and cleaning products, but the cats continue to do their business no matter what. Their kitty litter tray is always, always clean; we've tried legitimate kitty litter, but they've never liked it. Now we simply use your average garden dirt, which they have no issue with generally; they do their business in there no issues, but as soon as we're not looking, they also like to do it in random areas of the house.

They've all been to the Vets, and everything's been confirmed that they have no illnesses or infections or disorders, they're entirely healthy. Now, it seems to just be down to my cats' behaviours. How do I fix this issue? It is not a nice feeling having to clean pee up every day from 6 different cats. Please help! Advice, knowledge, anything will be appreciated!

Thank you,
Tiana.

 

[burkey]

For six cats, you would ideally have 7 litter boxes to keep them happy. Unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like perhaps you only have one box for all six of them to use? I'd start by adding more boxes. Even if you don't have places for 7 of them, get as close to that number as you possibly can, and put them in a few locations around the house...not all in the same room. And if you can't place 7 boxes, make sure the ones you do use are quite large. Plastic storage bins make great litter boxes. We use the 30 gallon high sided ones for ours, and cut a door way on one side, leaving the lid off.

When adding additional boxes, I would also introduce kitty litter to them again. For several weeks you can mix in a bit of what you are currently using, if needed. You can always keep one or two boxes with the garden dirt if you have a cat or two who just doesn't want to switch over. Regular litter may help keeping things clean (by the cat's perspective).

6 cats create a lot of urine in a 24 hour period. So unless you are totally cleaning out the one box every single day with new garden dirt, that box is going to be HIGHLY unattractive to them.  Cats are very sensitive to smells, and will frequently stop using a box that smells dirty to them, even if it smells fine to you.

I'm sure others will be along with more suggestions, but the lack of multiple boxes is a major issue with the number of cats you have.  Best of luck, not a fun problem to be having in the least. I hope you are able to find a solution!

 

[di and bob]

I would put several new boxes out with different litters to see which one they prefer, at least you wouldn't have to clean as much. Cats usually urinate outside the box when they don't like SOMETHING, either the box, the litter, or a 'bully' keeping them away. I really feel for you, I only have ONE that has occasional accidents, I can't even imagine 'multiple' culprits! Good luck and keep us posted if you find a solution.

 

[tianajade]

Thank you for responding.

Yes, I do have only one box for all six cats. It's a rather large box, but perhaps my cats aren't noticing the size like we do. Giving them each their own box is probably a good idea. The issue with that would be we don't have enough space around the house to place a few boxes in different areas. At the moment, their litter tray is in the laundry, and is probably the only area we can put it.

We definitely clean it out every day, because as you said, six cats going to the one toilet quickly becomes unattractive. We're going to try to the kitty litter again, even if we just place it beside their existing tray so that they have an option for either the dirt or the kitty litter. Hopefully a couple of them will decide to use it, and maybe that'll help the issue in some way.

Thanks for the advice! I'll see how it goes.