One of our cats (we have four) has developed the annoying habit of pooping outside the litter box. His name is Denver, and he’s about four years old.
He has never done this until the last month or two. In fact, all our cats are very good about using the litter box, and to encourage that habit, we keep it clean for them. Thankfully, Denver still uses the box to urinate, but he gets out of the box after urinating and stands beside it to poop on the floor. And I mean stands; he looks a little like a cow or a horse dropping a load in the field.
There is nothing in his (or our) daily routine that has changed–we haven’t switched brands of food or moved the cat food bowls, we haven’t moved the litter box or the furniture; in fact, I can’t think of anything out of the ordinary that we have done that might upset or bother him. Certainly the other cats are acting the same as they always have been, and Denver is too–except for this recent problem.
Can anybody suggest anything that might make him use the box again?
I am so glad you brought this subject up - one of my cats is doing the same thing! He’s almost a year old - we have two other cats (one kitten, one older cat) - we maintain two clean litter boxes. Help!!
Check out this page for ideas. In my untrained opinion, his unusual behavior sounds like it might be a medical problem. Were I you, I’d call my veterinarian and see if a visit is in order.
Dorothy used to do that if the litter box wasn’t up to her Martha Stewart standards of cleanliness—a problem, as she would refuse to enter it if her sister Lillian had just used it. Dorothy would stand outside the litter box with a “I could have gotten to it in time had I wanted to” look on her face and crap on the floor.
I switched to scoopable litter and try to clean it out immediately after Lillian uses it, and that seems to work.
I have 2 cats and my older cat started doing this. I found it was because I wasn’t changing the litter often enough. Sure I was scopping but he wanted it to be pristine pooping grounds.
I have never ever had a problem with my cats doing this, but my neighbor’s cat (about 5 years old) down the street has done it pretty much from Day One. She’s had him checked out by the vet, the litterbox is in pristine condition,etc etc. It’s obviously some kind of behavioral quirk which probably makes all the sense in the world to the cat, but leaves his humans perplexed and perturbed.
One of my females does the same thing and has for years. It started when I tried to get her to use a hooded box and she’d just walk in about halfway, let 'er rip outside the box but still dig like she pooped inside. I removed the hood but she never stopped that habit. It’s helped that I buy BIG boxes now, but she still misses a lot of the time. I have that area ringed with newspaper now.
It’s one of those quirks that I’ve adapted to. I hope that Denver doesn’t force you to have to adapt!
He may have impacted anal glands, which require a visit to the vet. When my cat’s get plugged up, she howls (like it hurts) and we’ve gotta go get her butt squeezed. She’s also very picky about her box cleanliness.
I’m really glad you brought this up, too! My cat began peeing and pooping outside the litterbox in March, and still does it every once in a while. It’s really, really frustrating. I took both him and the youger cat to the vet (I wasn’t sure then who was doing it, but I caught him doing it later), and nothing is wrong with either one. I keep their boxes really, really clean, and the little one doesn’t do it, but for some reason then older one does. I moved one litter box to a quieter area and removed the hoods on both, but, just this morning, the darn cat climbed into a paper bag that was stuffed with plastic bags, and squatted and peed in front of me. Argh!!
Going to the vet is a good idea. And make sure the vet takes the issue seriously, too. If the only test he does is a Cat Scan - “Yep, it’s a cat!” - he’s not going to find the problem. You want blood work done, at a minimum, and the anal glands checked.
While you’re figuring it out, you might try putting the litter box inside a really big box, or on a sheet of linoleum or something, so you can clean more easily. Be sure that you use some kind of enzyme cleaner to get rid of all the smell (their noses are a lot more sensitive than ours).
