Advice On A BIG Cat Problem

I'm sorry Bear...that is funny though. Made me laugh. I have no clue how to litter train a kitty...I thought they were born litter box trained. Apparently I was wrong - you may have a defective one. I have a cat - but he just liked the litter box...I never had to train him. Now he just goes to the door to tell us when he wants to go to the bathroom and I let him outside.

When you leave them alone and/or overnight I would confine both cats to the one room where the litter box is. Put some bedding, food, water in opposite corner from the box. Check to be sure kitty is using the box. Meanwhile, use a good deodorant to remove all even invisible traces of cat odor from the area kitty adopted as a litter box.

Once you are satisfied that kitty is using the proper facility--this shouldn't take more than a day or two--you can let them out and generally the problem is solved.

Foxfyre (raiser of Siamese cats for many decades)

my first thought is that she is one of those cats who REFUSE to use a used litter box.
Purchase one of those automatic ones.
if she was litter box trained when you got her, she may not use the box you provide because it 1) smells like another cat. 2) will be full of cat do. 3) dirty.

I have had cats before who are 'litter box trained' only when it is really clean.

The place where she's been pooping is gonna have the smell for a long time, even after you cover it up with chemicals. You need to make it so she can't poop there or she'll just start up again.

Uncover the litter box, of course, get her used to it, then creep the cover back on little by little.

we clean the box 3 times a week religiously.

Your new kitten is trying to establish her own territory. Many cats won't poop in the same little box another cat uses. If you get two cats at the same time, it usually is not a problem.

Since you didn't get your two cats at the same time, I suggest you provide two kitty boxes. This will allow the new kitten to establish her own poop territory. I bet it will work.

Just be sure to remove the poop smell from behind your TV.

BBB

I will go get a new litter box right now and put it in squinney's private bathroom

well I just got back from getting another litter box. Now to clean behind the tv. When I woke up this morning with a rare Saturday off (although I work tonight) I thought to myself "If only I could enjoy this time by getting my hands in cat ****, why it would be perfect." God answers prayers and has a plan.

Should I put a piece or two of **** in the new box so it smells like it to the kitty?

That might help. My previous suggestion has worked 100% for us when we introduced a new cat to the household, but if you want to try the two litter box solution I suggest you put the new box behind the TV for a day then gradually move it to the preferred location.

problem with confining both cats is that Big Puss will get his paws under the door and rip the carpet to shreds.... Little Puss too for that matter.

I put Little POuss in her new litter box by the tv... she got it , hung out a few seconds... got out... and went and pissed behind the tv. Anyone for Moo Goo Gai Kitty?

Is that with sweet and sour sauce?

Idle hands are the devils workshop.

Easily solved by simply putting down some plywood or something that covers the area he can reach. Trust me. I've been down this road many times. There is a best way to get it done with the least trauma to the cat and the cat owner.

(But if you don't want to confine them with the box, you do have to start that new litter box out behind the TV if you want kitty to use it. She has already been trained to go there.)

gotcha. the box is butt up against the tv, and I'm about to scrub the carpet with pet odor eliminator. We'll see. She's a cutie and we all really like her....but I can't and won't have an untrained cat in the house...so I'm really going to make an effort to correct this.

What's under the carpet? Concrete is porous, and will retain the smell even if you can't smell it.

You may have to paint the slab to seal in the odor so that cat won't smell it.

I had a cat some years ago that could be classified as 'genius'. He learned on his own how to turn doorknobs, turn the bathroom light on and how to turn the kitchen faucet on. When the cat box got too dirty for him he would take a small rug from the kitchen and put it over the cat box. But he never did learn how to speak.

Okay, the general litter box rules (seldom achieved, but good to aim for).

Number of litter box = number of cats plus one. Two cats, three boxes. Bare minimum is 2. Cats are territorial, and sometimes cats will guard their "own" litter box.

No covered boxes. A lot of cats don't like covered litter boxes. If you think about how unpleasant it is to be stuck in a small space with cat urine and then think about how unpleasant that would be to an animal with a much more sensitive sense of smell than we have...

No scented litter. Again, cats are very delicate critters when it comes to smell, and a lot of them hate the smell of the chemicals they put in scented litter.

No boxes in scary places. This includes appliances that come on suddenly, like the fridge or the furnace or the washer or a dryer. For a nervous cat, one instance of the furnace coming on next to the box can put them off that box location for life.

Ideally, boxes are one-and-a-half times the length of the biggest cat in the house (not including tail).

Boxes should be available on every floor of the house.

Cats are creatures of habit, and different cats may like different types of litter. Most will go for the sand variety, but if a cat gets accustomed to, say, Yesterday's News (recycled newspaper litter), they may start to demand that type of litter.

Scoop poop daily. Cats are only a little more inclined to stand around in their own and each other's poop than we are.



I'd guess that if you're only finding poop and not pee, the kitten really is box trained, but something (frequently one of the above issues) is amiss and it's solved the problem by finding a different place to poop. It could be a privacy issue, or it could be a fear of being caught by the other cat. Or it may be one of those cat superstition things that's totally irrational to anyone but the cat.

Regardless, get on top of things quick. The number one behavioral reason cats get euthanized at our shelter is litter box problems, and by a wide margin. What starts off as a management or health problem can become an intractable behavioral issue if it's allowed to go on for too long.



Good luck. You'll note that I am a dog person.

I love dogs as well patio. I love them so much I know that it would be cruel to have one since we're gone a lot and don't have a lot of space for them. when we were in a big house with a 2 acre yard in the county, we had three.