See this cat?
This adorable, seemingly harmless, cute little cutie of a cat, that’s cute? Sleeping peacefully in a sun beam?
Well he’s a fucker. I almost murdered him today, and I swear to jebus I will not be held responsible for my actions if he pees outside the litter box one. more. time. ARGH!
Knitters, does your cat(s) do this?!? I have 4 cats, and he’s the only one that ever does this. There’s no pattern to it, either. It’s sporadic, he doesn’t do this all the time. I can’t figure it out. First I thought the box might not be clean enough to his standards, so I made a point of scooping 2x a day. Then I started adding fresh litter every couple of days, instead of once a week. He poops in the box, no problem there. He loves the litter, and is always the first one in when it’s fresh out of the box, even if he doesn’t have to go he’s scratching around in there. I’m about to go buy a whole new litter box, maybe a bigger one. This is so irritating.
Today was the last straw. I went to get my flip flops from the other room, nowhere near the litter box, and they were wet. I though maybe I had a leaky water bottle in my purse, which was on a side table above them. Nope, no water bottle. *sniff* Cat pee. There’s only one cat that does this. Worse, he didn’t pee on my flip flops on the floor. He peed on the side table. 3 feet above the floor. Purse is soaked. Canvas draws of the table, soaked. Floor all wet with half dried pee. I’m pissed. Really pissed.
I clean up, wash the floor, remove everything from the draws, detatch and handwash them, and my purse. Still pissed. Worse? He peed in front of the little box too. Agian. ARGH.
Suggestions?
I think maybe I’ll switch back to decaf this week.
On a much, much brighter note, I’ve had a little project in the works all this last week. If all goes well today, I’ll be unveiling it tomorrow. Cheers.
oh man… that sucks! Maybe he has a UTI? My old cat did that when he got sick… maybe?
That suck…but imagine having that problem with poopy Diarrhea.
My cat has a thyroid problem that sometimes causes him to poop outside the box and he has chronic diarrhea due to his medication. This frequently causes a mess…he even pooped on my boyfriend when he was sleeping (ok that’s kinda funny)
I can understand that it is trying, maybe ask your vet if there is anything that might cause this behaviour.
Good luck
My cat pees outside of his box sometimes.
If it doesn’t meet his Ritz-level standards.
If there is a plastic bag/windbreaker/etc. nearby.
If he’s stressed out.
If he doesn’t like the litter.
Very frustrating and gross. His targets are the tub or floor if the litter is not fresh enough; vertical surfaces if he’s being a big bad boy kitty.
My suggestions…
If you have 4 cats and only one box, buy another box. Some cats are too territorial/too wimpy (pick one) to use a “used” box.
Check for uti.
Try felliway plugin. It’s a synthetic cat pheremone that *really* helped my cat when he started a pissing match (literally) with a grumpy human roommate. These are much cheaper online but can be purchased at Petco type places (where you can return it if it doesn’t work the first time).
neuter, if not already (#1 solution if he isn’t fixed yet)
My sympathies.
Delurking here…I have three cats and my oldest boy cat does this occasionally. It is a good chance it is dominant cat ego-based not health based, but you may want to check his urinary tract just to be sure. We added a 2nd litter box and that made a huge difference – we use one automatic litter maid and one regular, but giant sized and that seems to keep them all happy. Good luck! (Oh, and if he pees on carpet…Nature’s Miracle pet stain remover is amazing!)
Oh no!! I don’t have any wisdom to add, other than taking him to the vet to make sure there’s not something medical going on…
I had his problem too. I added a second box and it made a HUGE difference.
I am thinking a second box would help too. Either he is one of those kitties who just doesn’t like to share his box at all, and so it’s the dominance thing, or he’s doing it because he’s mad about something. My boyfriend’s cat acts out like that he’s irked about things.
i have three cats, and I had this problem with one of them. even though each cat had its own liter box and we were changing them
every other day, sometimes they would just not be up to his
standards and he would find other places to pee.
once he even climbed inside my (very large) purse and went there.
i got a littermaid, just one for all three cats and have not had a problem since. the cats love it so much that they steal my yarn and handkmit socks and leave them at the ramp to the litterbox, like offerings to the litter gods.
Eeew. I have no wisdom to add to the other comments, but you have my sympathy. This sounds like a total pia I hope you find a good solution. My partner keeps threatening our kitties with the barbeque if they get too far out of line!
Okay seriously. UTI. My cat did this one time and she had a bad UTI. If it’s more than just a one time occurence and happens a lot you could try a top entry one. That way he has to enter the box from the top and can’t spray outside the box. LOVE ours!
I just had this problem with my own male cat and I was ready to throw him out a window. I checked out a book about cat behavior and it turns out that male cats will occasionally ‘spray’ as a way to claim dominance in a household–HIS household, not yours. In my situation, it was an air conditioning unit that was sitting in the middle of my living room floor. If you have recently introduced a new piece of furniture, or rearranged existing furniture, you have disruped your cat’s environment, and he will let you know what he thinks of the rearrangement by spraying vertically on the problem. I removed the A/C unit and problem solved! His demenor has also COMPLETELY changed! He is warm and loving and friendly, and no longer a little @#*!. Hope this helps!
also delurking! the cat pee thing is such a bummer. i have had it be a problem with 2 different cats. for the first we tried everything, and it was simply a dominance issue, and she was female. go figure. fortunately she was able to go live in the country with my in-laws–outside. she seems to really prefer it and has a cozy spot in the garden shed on the water heater for winter. i try not to feel guilty.
our other kitty with this problem is moe. and he is the love of my life. honestly. for him it was a medical problem. actually diabetes. so as others recomended, the vet is always a good place to start. once his insulin was regulated, he has never had another mistake.
good luck.
ooohhh, I would be sooo mad too! Incredibly, horrifically mad! Maybe he has a UTI, or what Greeley said, he is territorial/wimpy. Good luck : )
My cat does not this too and had an UTI, but it cleared up. And he still does it. I have four cats, and that one goes quite often (especially on the bathroom rugs) and one of them goes sometimes… it is very frustrating. And apparently very common.
Cats are amazing pets, except for that unfortunate habit…
Dude, I could do an entire blog about cat pee….it would be like CSI: Cat Pee, because I for one can never figure out why Hoover (my bad cat) does this. About once a month he goes on the couch. And like you, I have done EVERYTHING. Two litter boxes that I clean twice a day. Treats. Playing. Loving. Outside time on the balcony. So after being angry enough to feed him to wolves, and having to cover my couch with a plastic pee-shield under the slipcover, I decided enough was enough. I broke down and bought FElIWAY, both the spray and the difuser. And it worked, no peeing and both my cats seemed more chill. You just spray the FELIWAY on problem areas and plug in the diffuser in the problem room. Now, I have to admit that last week, after I realized I was out of the diffuser, we had an incident. But what can you do? I’ll be damned if I know why cats do what they do. Hang in there, maybe he will sense your anger and be nicer? 😉
Oh, ick . . . I know how gross this is, and how frustrating, too.
And I can only echo what a couple of other people have said — it might be that he has a UTI or some other issue; you might consider taking him to the vet just in case. If nothing else, your vet might have some suggestions as to how to disencourage the out-of-box peeing!
I also had this problem with a cat who turned out to have lower urinary tract disease. I don’t want to be a scaremongerer though, there are certainly plenty of behavioural reasons for peeing that can have nothing to do with illness, but it’s definitely worth having him checked out to be on the safe side and to set your mind at ease. If it sometimes hurts to pee they begin to associate that pain with the litter box and don’t want to go there anymore. That said, some cats just don’t like to share, and he may just need a box all his own.
Hi there. I work in cat rescue and from personal
experience I can tell you that if the cat checks out healthy try the cat litter Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract. They have a money back gaurantee that if he pees outside the box that you get your money back….it costs a million dollars, but well worth it if it helps with the problem. Also if your litter box is covered try uncovering it….ours decided that they weren’t going to pee in there unless the roof was off.
If he’s always done this, I’d try the other litterbox suggestion that many people have said already.
If this is a new thing, though, given how much you are scooping I’d bet either a UTI or some other medical condition. Hope the situation reverses soon!
Cats! My son planted some cat grass stuff. It’s suppossed to be ok for the cat to eat and give it greens or nutrients if it doesn’t go outside. Well, I was smelling cat pee. Everyone knows that smell. I cleaned the litter boxes and sniffed all over. Well, the cat grass started dying and when I took it out the smell was so strong I just about died. I guess our cat thought it was another litterbox. Yuck! I hope you figure out your problem with that cute but naughty cat.
Well, on a happier note: can’t wait to see your project tomorrow!!!!
No advice at all, as we have no cats here (allergies). Just so sorry. And ewwwwwwwwww.
Sorry to hear this is happening. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps he is marking his territory.
Hope it all works out soon!
I didn’t read all of the comments, so if I am repeating I’m sorry. I have an almost 1 year old LARGE dog, who has been house broken for quite some time. About two months ago she started having accidents. Originally I thought she was growing, again. She was in heat at the time, for her first (and only) time, so I thought that might be it too. Turns out she had a bladder infection, which is fairly easy for animals to get, due to a desire to be clean and licking. If that is the case with your cat, it is fairly easy to clear up, if you concider trying to get your cat to willingly sollow an antiboitic twice a day easy. Either way, he should definatly get checked out.
Um, 4 cats, huh? Do you have more than one litter box? Sometimes it’s a matter of not enough facilities. Also some male cats just do that. Never had a female do it, but then I won’t have a male cat now either. Good luck getting rid of the smell, I hate to be a pessimist, but I think the only way to get rid of it, is to move.