We have two cats…one big (18 lbs), one little (7 lbs). The big one will eat until he bursts, and the little one is a nibbler, so we have to feed them seperately to prevent big guy from getting fat and little guy going hungry. During cold weather, we enclose big guy in the bathroom while little guy eats his food in the kitchen. This has worked fine for years…
But lately…
Big Guy has been pissing in the bathtub! (and occasionally pooing) Almost every morning when I go back into the bathroom, there’s an acrid/sweet ammonia smell, and a smattering of yellow drops in the tub. Not a full-on bladder evacuation. Just enough to stink up the place and vex me. Every few weeks he’ll leave a few steaming nuggets to go along with it!
At first I thought he was getting caught off guard in the morning before he’d had a chance to use his litter box (I get up early), and that getting fed was stimulating his “system,” so we tried feeding him later, after he’d used his box.
no luck.
Then we figured it was an act of protest over being stuck in the bathroom. But if we leave the in-bathroom linen closet open so that he can climb in and nest in the towels, he doesn’t do it. He’s still stuck in the bathroom (and conceivably still has to go if that’s the problem), but he doesn’t pee or poo.
So…it’s not a disaster, since he’s kind enough to pee/poo in the one completely non-porous easy to clean place in the apartment. But…geez…do I have to go into the bathroom and be confronted with cat pee smell every day for the next 8-10 years???
I should have mentioned that having him nest in the linens is not the greatest solution, because we have many cat-allergic friends/relatives, and we can’t feasibly wash every sheet and towel every time they come to stay just to wash Big Guy out of them.
He is telling you (quite politely, actually, since he is doing it in the tub) that he is Pissed Off. I have no idea how to change that behavior. But for the linen closet, would it be possible to throw a sheet over the linens when you open the closet for him? That way you would just have to wash the sheet. Or maybe get him a fleece throw or bed for the bathroom - rubbing a bit of catnip on it might entice him to use it.
But any ideas on why it should take years for this behavior to manifest? We’ve been feeding them this way for almost 8 years now, and he’s only started “protesting” (if that’s indeed what it is) for the last few months.
The problem with the linen closet is that, even if I open up a fluffy towel, blanket, or throw (which I’ve done), he burrows in and finds a nest he likes better. If we let him in, the whole closet is a cat bed - sheets, towels, place mats, christmas decorations (yeah - it’s a big closet)
I should also mention that big guy has always been a fussy cat. We rescued him at 5 weeks (weeks, not months - he was the size of two tennis balls at the most) starving in the woods, and he’s been high maintenance his whole life.
Why don’t you feed the little guy in the bathroom, locking Big Guy OUT. He won’t be confined, which seems to be upsetting him, and Little Guy gets to eat in peace.
We tried that too. But the cats are so conditioned to the current arrangement that the little guy won’t eat if you put him in the bathroom (not too bright). He thinks his food is in the kitchen.
Clearly we just have retarded cats. Love 'em, though…
My latest theory is that maybe there are traces of urine odor in the tub from the first few times he did it, and now he feels the need to mark over them.
I’m going to try scrubbing the tub with Nature’s Miracle.
I’d take him to the vet and have him checked for a bladder infection, or blocked urethra. The fact that he’s doing dribbles might suggest an infection, and the fact that he’s stopped using the tray is clue, as is the fact that it’s fairly recent behaviour.
Cats with bladder infections will often stop using litter trays because urinating is painful, but being cats, they associate the place where they experience pain as the cause of their discomfort, rather than the act.
At least, that’s the theory, and it seems as good as any other.
Anyway, a bladder infection in a male cat is potentially very serious, so I’d suggest you get him to the vet as soon as possible to make sure it’s not his health causing the problem.
To answer how to keep big cat thin and small cat fat.
In my house we use the room with my back door for feeding my cats. we have a shelf where we keep all their food.
Solution we put one bowl on the floor and one on the shelf
Our small cat will eat the food on the shelf because is forced away by the big cat. Our big cat can’t jump to the shelf so stays thin. Our thin cat has an option to eat from either bowl thus stays healthy although is the less dominant and more fragile cat so stays away from the bowl on the floor.
Solution 2.
Never shut a cat in the bathroom. Never was a good solution.
Somebody I know wees in her bath everyday, sure she is strange but she doesn’t smell. Some people/cultures may find it a gift to bathe in the very bath that their cat has used for a litter box. But leave that to the minority.
I wish I could figure out feeding two cats with different eating habits - my larger girl is a wolfer (she just eats till all the food is gone), and the smaller girl is a nibbler. We’ve started feeding them their daily allotment in three meals throughout the day instead of two so the smaller one has three cracks at the food instead of two, but the big one isn’t getting any smaller. The large one is also the jumper - she’d find the food anywhere and scarf it down. Oh well. They’re both happy and healthy - I just wish I could equal out their weights a little.
If you ever do figure it out, let me know, because we’ve tried everything except rigging up some kind of weight-sensitive trap door to prevent any cat over 10 lbs from getting at the food…and believe me I’ve thought of that too, but lack the tools and workspace to try it.
For a while we figured we wouldn’t restrict big guy’s eating at all, and just keep a food silo filled for them both to use. We thought that once the illicit thrill of gorging himself wore off, big guy might settle into a more balanced eating habit.
No luck. He ate a month’s worth of food in about 3 days, and I just couldn’t let it go on any more. He bloated up like a balloon and just sat on his back all day. It was sad.
I think a lot of this comes from having been abandoned as such a young kitten. My first introduction to him, in fact, was feeding him from a bottle (he was only 4 weeks) and then having him puke on my fleece because he ate too much.
He probably still has the “gotta eat everything before it’s gone and I starve” mentality.
Not a trap door, but something similar in concept. Some friends of mine built a box. It had a hinged front and bolt, and a doorway in the front. So you could close the box and there would be an opening in the front. The opening was too small for the fat cat. So, you feed the cats similar amounts of food - and then put extra in the box and lock the front. The fat cat can’t get in to get the food - the thinner cat can.