I’ve moved into a new place with 2 cats. They were both using the litterbox properly, but scattering a fair amount of litter as they dug, and carrying some out on their feet.
So a couple of weeks I was in a pet store and saw what looked like a reasonable solution, and I bought a plastic grate-and-pan thingie to sit on the floor outside the litterbox entrance. The box is hooded so they can only come and go through 1 side. The thingie is kind of like a little sewer grate that fits into a collection pan, and it seemed to work great for the first week. I was sweeping up a lot less as I cleaned the area every other day. That was also the cycle I was cleaning the box, which was a long-term schedule the cats are used to. I emptied, and pretty thoroughly cleaned, the thingie at the same schedule.
But a week ago I found urine in the thingie pan, and the amount has been increasing every day, because suddenly it needed cleaning pretty much every day. At least one of my two cats is doing it, but they are continuing to use the box as well, as I also collect clumped urine in the box. I tolerated this for 4 or 5 days, and then took away the thingie.
Now one of them is sometimes pissing on the floor where the thingie used to be. They never do this under my observation. I’ve seen them both jump into and use the box normally. And they only pee in the one place. And this has been daily for the last 3 days. And I’m cleaning daily with water or Orange 409 on the floor.
Ideas? I’d settle for getting them back 100% in the box, I’m beginning to believe that a 2 day cleaning schedule is just a distant dream.
I’m only semi-clear on the “thingie” but what I’m getting here is that it was an under the box, on the floor, sort of thing to catch litter so it wouldn’t track through the house? Like you could lift the grate and there’d be loose litter on the bottom of the outer pan?
If so, I have a handle on this. They saw litter in that pan-shaped thing under, and assumed it was OK to pee there - “We pee in litter. Look, litter!” As a bonus, the grate thing means they don’t have to cover it, since they can’t really reach it. You’ve done the right thing to stop it by taking the outer pan away, now you just have to stop them from peeing where they are now used to, which is outside the box, right? SO. First, be prepared to scoop the box daily for a couple weeks - the outside was “cleaner” to their finicky noses, so a nice place to go. Second, orange oil isn’t gonna cut it. Cat urine is very ammoniac, and the best way to remove their ammonia is to apply some of your own (NOT BLEACH - unless you want someone to pass out.) I’ve had success both removing cat urine smells and discouraging the cats from peeing there again by wetting a cloth with clear amoonia and wiping the area down.
White vinegar to clean up the spot where they were peeing might work too.
I’ve heard worse. I tried Yesterday’s News (litter made from recycled newspaper formed into pellets). Fatcat peed in it readily enough, but to poop, chose the floor next to the box. Had to switch back to sand.
On the subject of broken cats – One of my cats is broken too. sigh
For some reason, he’s an absolute slob when it comes to covering up after he’s done. Does some token scratching which doesn’t even come close to covering his waste, and then toddles off secure in his knowledge that he’s Done His Part.
This results in the following:
– Very stinky apartment, as my cats can put out some truly toxic waste
– Me coming in to clean up the box or kick some litter over it
OR
My other cat covering it up either at that moment, or later when she deigns to enter the box
Any ideas? At first I thought it might be due to ingrown claws (he’s a polydactyl kitty), but I managed to clip his front claws and that hasn’t changed his behavior much at all.
(And on a different note…)
Does this mean that penis ensues is going to become another… whatchamacallit, a trademark phrase of the SDMB? I read the original thread, and I don’t think I’ve laughed that much in a LONG time.
Is this recent behavior or has he always been a slob about covering? We have a retarded cat, and I sincerely mean “retarded” - if she was a people, she would be in a special class. She was taken too early from her momma, had some traumatic early life experiences and when we rescued her at nine weeks old, she was permanently wrong in the head. She is a nice, pretty cat, but she’s missing out on what we humans think are cat instincts, including covering her waste and cleaning herself. For the record, litterboxing is easy because it IS instinctive for cats to eliminate in one place, away from their food. Covering up, not so much - that’s a learned behavior.
Your kitty may never get the hang of covering up, but if you have a fastidious cat on the premises, she’ll just take responsibility for it. Out of curiosity, does she groom him? My two “normal” cats seem to know that the litte one is not all there, and they conspire to help keep her clean.
Buy “Nature’s Miracle” at the pet store and use that to clean the spots where the cat(s) peed outside the litter box.
Try removing the hood on the pan for awhile, so that the availability of the litter box is glaringly obvious. Also, some cats decide they don’t like these, and that may be part of the reason for the bad behavior.
I have one cat that doesn’t cover her pee. I always assumed she was just a diva and wanted the servants (her brother) to do it. Luckily, he not only covers it, but sniffs and recovers until he is satisfied that there is no odor. I am pretty sure that he would light scented candles if he could.
Our cats tend to scatter litter, too. Sometimes they leap exuberantly from the box, as though their work day is now done, and they can go and eat and sleep.
I bought a flat stainless steel drip pan from an auto supply place. It is about 30 by 36 inches, has slightly rolled sides to provide a barrier against escaping litter. It is easy to clean and the cats have no problem with it. Cost about six bucks.
My cat, Pepper, is like this. She buries her business but good, and there is never any odor here. I’m pretty anal about keeing the box clean, too - it’s cleaner than my room.
Hee. Yes. The entire litter is made up of polydactyl kitties… Daniel’s got at least seven toes on each front paw and five on the back, while Juliet has 20 total.
He’s always been kind of sloppy, but recently it’s gotten worse. I got him and his sister from the pound at a very early age - they were barely old enough to adopt, which from the sound of it didn’t do much to help fix them.
As for taking responsibility, Juliet does, thank Og. Sometimes she tries to groom him, but he usually protests and chews on her face before they chase each other all over the place.
So it sounds like I’ll just have to wait and see, or just live with keeling over every so often.
Your cat might think he’s the boss. On occassion, Boss Cats™ leave their faeces as a stinky indicator that they are around, and that they need not cover up. The other kitties often will cover these up later on, as they object to the mess!
We’re in this situation at the moment, as we foster kittens for the RSPCA. One of them always leaves nice stinky turds on the top of the tray. If we don’t sort it straight away (ie. don’t go in their room for a while) the others kind of work around them for as long as possible before covering the room in shitty litter in their attempts to hide everything!
Our cats are just the opposite; once they get in the litter box, they seem to go kind of trancelike and just scratch, and scratch, and scratch…
My cat tries to get litter from all around her - the walls, the edge of the litter box; Jim’s cat moves all the litter from one side of the box to the other. We also use a non-official litter box - I got a huge tupperware box (for storage, I think it was), which is nice and deep and keeps the litter (mostly) in.
My cat Rex treats the litter box like a playground first and a toilet second. He doesn’t even wait until he has business to do before getting in there and throwing litter around. Especially after it’s just been cleaned. His own private sandbox, or so he thinks.
Right- same here. We cut a scoop out of one side so that our Senior Citizencat can get in&out, but it’s great as it’s so deep they can’t throw litter everywhere. And, they seem to like it, also.
When I had a basement, I put the litterbox(es) inside a child’s wading pool with an opening cut on one side, because when we tried a walk-off mat they would just leap out of the box to avoid stepping on it. With the pool they have to walk a foot or so to get out, and the texture doesn’t upset them like the walk-off mat’s did.
I’m still holding my breath, but not because of the smell anymore. They’re on the 4th day without a mistake, so maybe thw last variation will work long-term.
Tried two new cat litters… didn’t work.
Tried new litter box in new location… didn’t work.
Cleaned old location with vinegar, and put new box there… didn’t work.
Took hood off new box… didn’t work.
Finally… retreived old box from basement, removed hoods from both old and new boxes and put them side by side. This is working. I don’t know why they decided they needed 2 boxes after 8 years, but I won’t begrudge them.
Sweeping up scattered relatively dry litter daily is WAY better than swabbing up a pool of urine 2-4 times a day.
