Intractable litter box problem

In My Humble Opinion
1

About six weeks ago we moved across the country for my new job and became first time homeowners. We brought with us our two cats, ages 7 and 8, and our 18 month old little boy. This is not the first big interstate move for these cats, but prior to this we’ve never had a litter box issue as bad as this one.

The younger of our two cats has always been a bit high maintenance, especially when it comes to food. He’s extremely whiny and anxious and is always very concerned that he might starve to death at any moment. We’d never had any major litter box issues with him, except for a couple of isolated poop-on-bed incidents about four or five years ago (two moves ago). But since we’ve moved to our new house he refuses to use the litter box to poop. The weird thing is that, as far as I can tell, he pees in it just fine.

Our new house has a big finished and carpeted basement, about 1200 sq ft. total. I imagined it being a fun family room when we found the house. There is one unfinished room in the back of the basement where the utility equipment are that I thought would be the perfect spot for the litter box when we first moved in.

We keep the cats confined to the basement part of the house at night, which includes the upstairs laundry room where the water dish and auto feeder are kept. This is because our high maintenance, food-motivated cat gets very yowly and desperate for food at about 3-4 am, and we have enough sleep troubles as it is. We’ve been confining them away from our bedroom at night for most of the time we’ve had this cat (six years), so this is not a new situation for them.

At first I thought everything was going well, but we were busy getting settled and it wasn’t until about a week after we’d been there that I found three piles of cat poop in a corner of one of the basement rooms. I immediately suspected Mr. High Maintenance Kitty, and later I confirmed this suspicion.

At first I thought that maybe he didn’t like the sounds that some of the utility equipment made, so I moved the litter box out into a nook in the main area, and kept the utility room door closed. I also closed the door to the room where I found the poop, a room I had intended to be a home office. But that didn’t stop him.

He started leaving turds on the carpet practically every day, often in a few “hotspots,” and nothing I’ve done had stopped it. So far, the following hypotheses have failed.

HYPOTHESIS: Cat doesn’t like where the litter box is located.
TEST: Move litter box to pooping hotspot.
RESULT: Cat poops on carpet approximately six inches away from the litter box.

HYPOTHESIS: Cat has suddenly decided it doesn’t want to share its litter box with other cat:
TEST: Use two litter boxes.
RESULT: No change.

HYPOTHESIS: Cat doesn’t like depth-of-litter.
TEST: Make one litter box a shallow litter box, and the other a deep litter box.
RESULT: No change

HYPOTHESIS: Cat keeps returning to hotspots because they are familiar pooping locales.
TEST: Pile up old junky college-era furniture that we were planning on getting rid of anyway onto poop hotspots.
RESULT: Not enough furniture to cover every square inch of carpet. Hotspot simply shifts locations to where furniture is not.

HYPOTHESIS: Cat is upset and extra anxious about something (toddler? move? house too big?).
TEST: Set up electric cat-soothing pheromone generators around basement and near litter boxes.
RESULT: No change.

HYPOTHESIS: Cat won’t poop where it eats.
TEST: Sprinkle kibble over hotspots every night.
RESULT: Cat is highly food-motivated and goes on a happy but desperate food treasure hunt before humans go to bed. Humans wake to find piles of poop where food once was.

I’m plum out of ideas. We’ve had this cat for six years, and I’m not sure we can just get rid of him, but we’re awfully tempted to. The finished basement romper room of our imagination has become a big smelly litter box with piles of junky furniture haphazardly strewn about. It’s becoming a morning ritual to come downstairs armed with carpet cleaner to pick up the daily turd piles. We’re coming up on almost two months of this problem, and there seems to be no way to fix it.

Anyone have any ideas?

2

Are you cleaning the hotspots with “Nature’s Miracle” or another enzyme cleaner made to destroy poop/pee smells at the molecular level? Tried a different textured litter (like Feline Pine if you are currently using clumping clay)?

Have you spoken to a vet? There is actually “kitty prozac” amitriptyline AKA elavil that can effective where other approaches fail. Usually a vet will not prescribe it before the client has tried many other things, but at this point you have actually tried many other things! The cat doesn’t necessarily take it for ever. Some go off it after just a few months.

3

Since you’re looking for advice, I’ll move this to our advice forum, IMHO.

twickster, MPSIMS moderator

4

Shit. (ha!) This is honestly the first cat-problem thread I’ve ever seen where I literally have not one shred or morsel of advice. So, posting to express my complete sympathy, because once I scrolled down and saw hypothesis after hypothesis … oh, man.

Post a pic so we can muster some sympathy for cute widdle kitteh?

5

Right now we’re just using regular carpet cleaner. I’m not sure what kind it is, but we started using it after we stopped being able to find “Kids 'n Pets” at Target. I can try an enzyme cleaner, but I don’t have high hopes for success, as every time I’ve physically blocked him from hotspots he just finds a new spot on the carpet to do his business.

My wife found a local mobile vet, so our next step is to have them come and see if they can figure out what’s wrong

This is him a couple of years ago after we tried growing some kitty grass in a pot in the house.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/bbposing.jpg/

He couldn’t handle the grass responsibly, so we had to stop growing it. We also put him on the auto feeder about two years ago because of the hours of incessant whining that lead up to feeding time every day. We had to go through three before we found one that he couldn’t destroy after a day. It is currently very thoroughly duct-taped to the floor to prevent a little maneuver he invented (bite-lift-drop) that lets him steal from his future meals, thereby putting him into an emotional meltdown when mealtime is skimpy.

6

Ok, then I would definitely try “Nature’s Miracle.” You can buy it at Petsmart or order it from Amazon. Even though you can’t smell anything, the smells of a marked spot are strong to a cat and they are screaming MARK ME AGAIN. So if you physically cover it he goes as near as he can. Regular carpet cleaner will do nothing to eliminate the smell to the point where your cat can’t smell it. (even “Resolve for pets” or whatever, it’s useless) .

7

Missed edit window:
Consider getting a black light - it will enable you to find previously marked spots, even if you have previously surface-cleaned them.

8

Okay, thanks. I’ll try that and the Nature’s Miracle.

9

Talking to a vet is a good idea, but it really does sound like this is behavioural - kitty’s not happy, and he’s letting you know. We just went through something similar with my 12 year old kitty - for the first time EVER, she started peeing outside the litter box (well, she’s always hung her butt outside the box and let fly, but this was upstairs, nowhere near her box). We did all the things you did, too, including getting a Feliway diffuser for her, putting a new box on the upstairs level in addition to the three boxes in the basement (four boxes for two cats now), cleaning them daily, checking her out with the vet, etc.

So far (fingers crossed), she’s only peed on things that could appear to be litter boxes if you squinted, not just peeing willy-nilly. She’s always been our needy kitty, too - we’ve had to devise a crumpled-up foil ball mat to keep her away from the bedroom door and thumping it all night.

I think your kitty might need kitty prozac, spacemandave; it sounds like the new move is just the last straw for him. He’s upset and unsettled and not happy at all (my armchair internet diagnosis, for what it’s worth :slight_smile: ).

10

One other possibility, is if you can confine him to one small area down there (utility room?) until he does start pooping in the box again. That was our vets suggestion.

11

I would try confining him to a small area (like a bathroom) at night. No carpet, just a bed and a litterbox, on linoleum, if possible. He won’t be happy about it. Once you’ve had visual confirmation that he’s made his daily poop in the box, he is allowed to rejoin the family, with praise and treats, but has to be returned to his cell at night, until box-pooping has become a habit again.

Sometimes cats have an underlying physical problem that makes pooping hurt. They poop in the box, it hurts. So they think (cat logic) I will poop somewhere else so that it doesn’t hurt. Then, years of box-training can be undone, and carpet-pooping becomes the new norm, even after whatever ailment that caused the poop pain is long gone.

12

Do you only have one litter box? When I had two cats I had to have two boxes; one pooped in one and the other in the other. Both peed equally in both. ?? But having 2 worked. Some experts suggest a box for each cat plus one, but I never had to go that far.

Good luck with the little devil. And I second the Nature’s Miracle.

13

He tried two boxes, Kay. He tried everything!

14

What was his previous living situation? Was he allowed to go outside or roam the house? I suspect you’ve probably tried this, but, JIC, mirroring his previous situation as far as possible would help.

15

Change litter type? I came home awhile back to find that I had an extra cat and that the cats had developed a peeing and pooping problem. I rarely caught them in the act so I can’t be sure. Sure another cat adds stress, but I think one problem is that a nasty non-clumping litter was bought when I was gone. It works for poop ok I guess, but pee just dissolves when you pick it up. At any rate, I think the cats hated this stuff.

They peed on some baggage, unfortunately. A turn in the shower and dousing with Nature’s Miracle and white vinegar helped. They’re still occasionally using the bathmat though.

16

Maybe you’ve already tried this but I typically leave my cats in one or two rooms for the first week or two if I move. You may try a room that is tiled/laminated if he insists on the carpet potty. Maybe he’ll respark the habit of the litter box when there isn’t a plethora of options, plus it gives him a quieter place to slowly adjust to his new environment. I did this in our recent move, and I had no problems with my two kitties, even with changing litterbox types.

I’d also second the suggestion to use the Feliway or similar spray - they can make a difference.

17

Do you have an enclosed pan?
I’ve heard of great success w/ the confinement method as well. Good luck, I understand your frustration; years of UTI’s have given our old girl very bad habits that only a round Booda pan have curbed.

18

Next I will try reading for comprehension. Sorry.

19

Damn, that’s always my first response too. :smack:

Ok, have you tried Feliway?

edit, yes, I suppose “Set up electric cat-soothing pheromone generators around basement and near litter boxes.” qualifies, but I like the actual spray and use it on the area after cleaning.

20

This is an update on the latest battle in the War on Poop. I bought a bottle of Nature’s Miracle Advanced Just for Cats and a black light kitty crime scene detector. My wife and I did the CSI Litter Box thing and searched the basement for odd stains. We soaked all the known hotspots in Nature’s Miracle. We also removed all the old junky furniture and set up a little tentative home entertainment center, making the main room in the basement more appealing for humans.

This morning I woke to find a pile of poop in a back corner of my basement office. This is a spot that he hasn’t attacked since our very first week here, and one in which I wasn’t as generous as I could have been with NM. This morning I soaked that whole area in NM, and plan to keep my office door shut until end of hostilities. I consider this progress.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. Yes we’re using both the Feliway electric diffusers, and Feliway spray for around the Official Litter Box Zone. We’ll give it another week or so, and if NM doesn’t work we’ll try the confinement method. I don’t like making too many changes at once with this cat.

Stay tuned…