I love my cats, really i do, we have five right now.My cat Julia, Littlebastard and Vandamme,the black cats, our boy Tigger. and Oreo the kitten .
But some of them are getting on my last fucking nerve. The furry little bucketheaded creatures are pissing on my bed. Right now my sheets are in the wash, and the mattrress has beeen cleaned up as best i know how.
My cat keeps on taking its dumps by the front door, usually a few hours after the box was changed. I would surely like to know what is up with that! It is a fairly large amount of piss. which begs the question, how it is they all need to do this? and am i going to start having to take up all of the water at night? :eek: :rolleyes:
We try and change the litter box every other day, although nobody else seems to want to do it. And i do not understand it, we spoil them a fair bit, and try to keep them indoor kitties.
Goddamned if I am not running out of patience with my cats.
Any help from other cat owners would be appreciated…
I wasn’t sure from your post, but you do have multiple litter boxes yes?
For 5 cats I’d have at least 3.
My family has had about 2 main coons on and off for the last 12 years or so, granted that they are MUCH larger than average housecats, we needed to have two litter boxes and change them each day.
Cats will express their displeasure at their litter box’s state by using other locations in the house. Maybe increasing the frequency of cleaning could help too.
It could also be that one of them is sick… or if something was recently changed (like if you just got the 5th cat recently) that could be their problem.
From what I experienced, it seems some boy cats do have a tendency to mark even after being neutered (if annoyed by something, or just cause it feels good, I don’t know). Your only choice may be to physically keep the cats away from sensitive areas - for example, the door to our bedroom is always closed (Jim is allergic, so cat hair in the bed is not appreciated), and with a boy cat I used to have, the laundry hamper always had to be covered (stinky laundry, freshly-washed laundry, it was all good for peeing on). But do talk to vets and such as well, to rule out physical problems and get some good advice.
good advice here for you anya. As the former “mama” to 16 orphaned kitties, I can totally commiserate with you. I just wanted to jump in and add that, on top of those things already suggested, you should really get some anti-cat cleaner for your mattress, carpet by the door, or wherever else they seem to be frequenting. I was having the same problem in one of my closets, and it didn’t stop until I got special cleaner for the carpet in there. I’d plug the product if I could remember the name, but of course that would require more than 3 alert brain cells.
Anyway–check out your local pet store (I got mine at a feed and garden store) and ask a clerk. It neutralized the lingering odors or something along those lines. Basically, this meant that everytime a cat passed the “problem area”, said area was no longer screaming out to them (in a olfactory sense, of course) to piss all over it like a baby on a clean shirt. That, more frequent litter-box cleanings, and extra helpings of patience worked for me.
I have four cats and need two litter boxes, one upstairs, one downstairs.
Cats like some privacy when going and much prefer the closed litter boxes. or catloos.
I still have to clean out their boxes at least once a day and if they don’t go out during bad weather its twice a day. Cleaning out once every other day is not enough I think.
Your wording of this
Leads me to think that this chore is not the most popular in your household and as such it may fall to the unlucky person of the day, which means that there are times it probably does not get done.Forgive me if I am wrong in this conclusion but cleaning out the litter tray is an integral part of owning(or being owned by) house only cats.
It isn’t nice scooping out the most contaminated litter but emptying the boxes completely every time would cost a fortune in litter, so I generally dig out the worst and replace with fresh litter, and do a weekly clean and disinfection.
I wonder if the cats are all neutered, as this is a prime candidate for territorial pissing, and it appears to me that there might be a measure of this with at least one of them who wants to be incontrol of your bed.
I would not allow any of them into the bedroom no matter what the protestations, not for the time being.
Lastly, try post a question on this message board,
Definitely get a couple more litterboxes, and show the cats where they are at. Put them in a place where they can have privacy, BUT some cats, expecially with multiple cat households, they need a place where they won’t feel like they can be “ambushed” by other cats.
When my cat did this, I had to do a little bit of “retraining”. I would place her in the box a few times, maybe scratch her paws around in the litter, and praise the hell out of her…petting her like crazy, saying “oh that’s a good kitty yes you are! mama’s good kitty!” And when you see one of your cats use it, praise the hell out of 'em (might have to wait until they’ve done their business, but do it while they’re still in the box or immediately after they’ve left it).
The cat repellant thing on selected areas is a good idea. It never worked for me, but it’s gotta work on some cats or they wouldn’t make the stuff, right?
Oh, and i don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it yet, but I guess you don’t leave the door to your room closed? Maybe when you’re in the room, leave the door open so your cats can socialize with you, and where you can keep an eye on them. But when you’re not in the room, close the door. At least until they’re retrained to exclusively use the box.
You should also try to sprinkle … I can’t remember the bloody name of the stuff, its an order absorbing litter box powder. Basically it doesn’t make the litter box all stinky, that combined with a good order neutralizing litter should allow you keep the same batch of litter in the box until 1/2-2/3 of the litter has been removed…
That’s what we did with 3 main coons (you try keeping 2 litter boxes for 65 lbs of cat’s clean and smell free…) But even if you do this, you need to clean it almost every night. Cats don’t like using the litter box if they have to dig around to find an unused patch.
What kind of a fucking slob are you? Five cats and the box goes a full day without cleaning? I don’t blame them for peeing on your bed. Hell, I’d pee on your bed!
I’ve got four cats, and the box (yes, just one, we tried two but they never used the second one) is cleaned at least twice a day, sometimes more. And it’s a huge box (actually a DOG litter box) with 28 pounds of clumping litter.
Your local humane society should look into you.
Sheesh! Every other day!
Some people just should NOT have pets.
Woah postcards, overreact much?
The OP had a problem with her animals, and instead of ditching them, she’s looking for help and advice so that she can be a better pet owner. The bitch.
:rolleyes:
Anyone who’s gonna leave a litter box festering for 24 to 36 hours and then wonder why the cats are peeing and shitting all over the house is asking to have their asses handed to them!
She wants to be a better pet owner? CLEAN THE FUCKING BOX YOU MORON!! TWICE A DAY, NOT EVERY TWO DAYS!
Not only would I pee on her bed, I’d pee on her FOOD!
So, in other words, you’re giving her the exact same advice that everyone else has, only you’re throwing in some curse words and insults to belittle her since this is the pit? Wow. Someday, when all concept of polite social interaction has escaped me, maybe I can be just like you.
I’ll take this a step farther. All cat owners are bitches. I will never understand the appeal of this creatures. If you suddenly became 6 inches tall your dog would still sit if you asked him to. Your cat would torture and kill you.
postcards, of course you are free to respond any way you like in The Pit (within the boundaries of the rules here); most of us try to keep our responses in line with what’s going on in a thread. Yours seems extreme compared to the OP and the responses of other posters here. Kinda like someone coming up to you at work and politely asking for help with something, and you ripping them a new one while they stand there with their mouths hanging open, wondering what crawled up your ass and died. Just my opinion, of course.
Unless you’re in a very large house or they’re outside cats, five cats is probably too many cats for your home. I love cats too, but there’s a reasonable limit to the number of the same animal you should expect to occupy a household. They probably don’t have enough room or enough space or enough privacy, and territorial marking is going to be the norm with that many cats. Unfortunately, I suspect the best solution will be to find homes for one or two of your cats somewhere that isn’t overflowing with felines.
Ask yourself; would you want to occupy your household with the number of human beings equivalent to the number of humans+cats your cats are occupying it with now? That would be at least seven people, right? Would probably stress you out, right? Well, that’s how your cats feel. And cats don’t yell or throw dishes when they get stressed. They rip stuff up and piss on it.
At present we have three cats. That is the absolute maximum I would be compfortable with unless we moved into a very, very large house. As it is I notice a distinct increase in their aggressiveness and stress levels when all three are around, as opposed to when one is visiting Mrs. RickJay’s student apartment. And even with two around, I have two litter boxes and never fail to scoop them every night.
As to the litter box… well, I’m not going to be abusive. However, they certainly are not getting enough litter space. Five cats in one box is way too many. In my experience, one indoor cat needs a clean box of litter every 48 hours. (That can mean just scooping it, not necessarily a full empty-and-wash.) Unless you want to clean your litter box three times a day you need to add more boxes. I’d say for five cats, depending how big they are (are we talking seven-pounders, or huge Maine coon cats?) you will need 3-4 boxes at least, and every day at least 2-3 need to be scooped. Add a sprinkle of baking soda every day to every box. - really helps the smell, and the cats seem to like it.
Another suggestion to help out with the situation…
Invest in one of those ‘self-cleaning’ cat boxes. Dump in clumping litter. Cat goes in, does buisness, goes out. Cat-box waits a bit, then sifts out the solids and deposits it into container. Human just needs to empty container and add more litter (and perhaps baking powder if smell is a problem).
The mechanics of these things varies a bit, from what I’ve seen, and they can be pricy, but if it ensures that the litter box is kept fresh and clean enough so that your kitties aren’t tempted to go elsewhere, it’ll pay for itself in no time.
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:eek: :rolleyes: