We were recently required to put down rugs by our landlord, and my cat thinks these are an excellent place to poop. First he pooped repeatedly on the bathroom rug, so we threw it out. Now he has moved to the living room rug. I tried moving the litter box to the living room rug (to slowly draw him away from that area) and last night left him with pristine fresh new litter, and he pooped on the rug right next to the litter box. :mad:
I have no idea what to do. I’m pretty sure he knows he isn’t supposed to poop on the rug, but he does it anyway because he knows he can get away with it. The last two times he did this, I picked up the poop, put it in his litter box, and then took him and the litter box into the bathroom and shut the door. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to make the connection, but I don’t know what else to do.
He is going to the vet soon so I plan to talk to the vet about it, but man, I am at my wit’s end here. (And for those familiar with my last cat-related complaint, he has mostly stopped the constant meowing. That Feliway stuff really calmed him down a lot.)
Very squeaky floors. Part of the lease agreement was we had to cover 80% of the hardwood floors with carpeting, which nobody ever did, so we didn’t either. But like 2 years later we got a noise complaint and now we have to put down carpet.
The carpet is small enough that I can roll it up at night. I guess that might be an option.
Don’t do this. Not only will he not make the connection, but you’re pretty much making him associate the litter box and the bathroom (which I’m assuming is a regular location of his litter box) with the unpleasantness of getting locked up. Needless to say, that’s not a good idea.
Much better to positively reinforce by giving him treats and petting him and words of encouragement when he *does *poop in the right place. But, yeah, that has to be immediately after he poops, so you have to keep an eye out for when he poops.
There’s also a special “attractant” litter (or litter additive) that I’ve never tried, but comes highly recommended from what I’ve read - it’s called Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract. I’d definitely try that as a first step.
My dog did this when we got new carpets. I think maybe she just hated the smell and was trying to fix it. If it still has “that new rug smell” you might try leaving it outside for a bit to off-gas before trying it again in the house.
When you find the poop on the rug, is the rug all bunched up like your cat was trying to bury it?
Most cats will actually try to dig a little “hole” *before *they poop, so if they dig at the rug and it’s able to move, that triggers the “Ok to commence pooping!” signal in their brain. So, if you were able to tape down the rug, or else weight it down with furniture or other objects so that it isn’t able to move and bunch up, that *might *be enough to prevent him from seeing it as an appropriate place to “bury” his poop.
There was a similar thread recently. LINK I posted there about a friend’s experience. She put one of those dog pee mats under the cat box, and the cat started pooping outside of the box. As soon as she removed the mat, the problem ceased. Apparently cats get confused by some odors. I’m not sure what you can do if the whole house is carpeted with a cat-confusing odor, but you might try putting some newspapers or a towel under the cat box to mask the smell there.
Confused by terminology: I assume “bathroom rug” means bathmat, i.e. that you step on after a shower, or is it a big rug? Also, by the part about the other rug, is under the box? Some cats just suck at pooping, and will perch with their legs on the edge and unintentionally miss. If it were a few feet away that’s a different story. I like voltaire’s advice on the bunching.
Open box or covered? Either could be disliked.
Throwing it out seems drastic, will it fit in a machine? Also, pick up some Nature’s Miracle or similar, saturate that bastard so that it no longer smells like poop. You can’t smell it anymore? He can.
By ‘‘bathroom rug’’ I mean like a green carpeted bathmat. Maybe 2’x3 in dimension. It wasn’t under his littler box but a few feet away, in front of the sink. I ran that thing through the washing machine and Nature’s Miracled the hell out of it, but he wouldn’t stop pooping on it, so we threw it out.
The other rug is a much larger rug, maybe 8’x7’ and it’s in the living room, just your standard rubber bottomed square of brown shaggy carpeting. As soon as the bath mat went out, he started pooping on the bigger one in the living room. It’s definitely too big to be laundered. When I put his litter box out on the larger rug, he pooped on the rug anyway. He only does it at night, when we aren’t watching. If he has to poop during the day, he generally poops in his litter box.
His litter box is a Clevercat one, picture a rubber bin with a lid that has a hole in the top for him to climb in from above.
I’m not sure if the litter box is the problem because he used it just fine until we had to put the rugs down. My next instinct would be to get a different litter box, but we’ve changed litter boxes in the past and don’t want to spring for a new one unless absolutely necessary.
I think he just has a preference for pooping on rugs. I have some of that Cat Attract stuff (maybe a different brand) - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, so I guess I’ll give it another shot. I also have Nature’s Miracle and that doesn’t seem to make much difference either.
Advice duly noted on not putting him in the bathroom. Thanks for your feedback.
Try putting some aluminum foil down here and there around the carpet to discourage him. I don’t mean cover the whole carpet - that would cost and arm and a leg in foil, but enough so that he can’t reach a carpeted area to poop without walking over the foil.
Another thought is to try and find a carpet that doesn’t have rubber backing. You can get some carpet non-skid tape stuff to keep the carpet from sliding on hard floors -sorry I don’t know what that stuff’s called though.
I wouldn’t hesitate to get a new box. Or maybe just try taking the cover off the Clevercat, if you can bare [sic] it. Here’s what my go-to internet cat expert/vet says about your box:
If possible, maybe take her advice and go with a storage container instead of a purpose made litter box. Just look for one with smooth sides - not just smooth as in the shape of the interior’s molding, but smooth as in the texture of the plastic’s surface. Walmart actually had some good ones for around $5 last I checked, so it shouldn’t break the bank to try.
ETA: If you really can’t stand having an uncovered litter box anywhere in your house, maybe take a look at someof the ideasover at Ikeahackers.
Thanks for your input. I didn’t realize it would be uncomfortable for him. I moved the litter box back into the bathroom last night and rolled up the rug. I thought he used the box but a couple of hours ago I found a piece of poop on the bathroom floor. This made me think maybe it really was the litter box. I will get a new one. Sr. Olives was discouraging getting a new one but he’s just going to have to suck it up.
We use a plastic sweater box - the kind you get at Target for like seven bucks. The lid doubles handily as a floor protector, and the whole shebang is cheap as shit.*
I can’t thank you enough for linking me to that site. It really helped me understand this problem a lot better.
I took her advice and cut a hole in one of my big storage containers. It took some elbow grease but I have a decent sized litter box now with a side entry, and I’m moving it from the bathroom to my big walk-in closet so he doesn’t feel as exposed.
So far he is just checking it out cautiously, so we’ll see how it goes.
