Cat litter box help

petepetey · ‎03-09-2010

We have a pair of sister cats, just over 1 years old. They have been great until

this week. One has opted to poo outside the litter box, 3 nights in a row now.

What has changed, we got a new covered box and the scent of our litter (same brand) is different.

I took the cover off the box to see if that was it, no difference. They have 2 boxes available.

Today I will go buy the same scent litter as before.

What else can I do?

Yuban3 · ‎03-10-2010

First, I would take them to the vet to make sure that they are okay physically.

If it hurts for them to go, they might associate the pain with the litterbox.

Second, are they declawed?

Cats who have been declawed will sometimes find the litter to be painful on their amputated toes.

Also, how do you clean the box?

Do you use scented cleaners to clean it?

Lastly, it just might be that they don't care for the new scent of the litter.

Was Yuban, then changed to Plaid Pants due to forum upgrade, and apparently, I'm back to being Yuban.

duffy2 · ‎10-06-2016

cats have a strong sense of smell and some litters are too strong especially with covered cat boxes. in my experience cats like no fancy smelling litter and large uncoverec boxes.. some cats don't like to be confined because they are afraid of being stuck inside especially when there are 2 cats. i have 2 giant litter boxes i got from booda box. and when i changed the litter to the lightweight kind everybody(4) decided to tell me they didnt like it. so i stick with arm&hammer double duty. i have a blind in one eye and deaf furbaby who poops outside the boxes but pees in them.

petepetey · ‎03-09-2010

They are Birman cats, not declawed.

We use a scoop litter which gets cleaned at least twice a day.

I am going back to the original scent they had all along today to see if that works.

A vet trip might happen too if they don't stop adjust back to normal.

GCR18 · ‎07-03-2013

I had a brother and sister and had litter box issues once we moved. Change everything back to the way it was, even the location. If you want to try the new litter box, add it to what you have. Put it away from the other boxes. If that doesn't work, clean the box an extra time a day. That worked for me.

sweetee2 · ‎06-21-2015

Being that your on the subject, what would make a cat stop using the litter box are start going in the house behind the couch?

Plaid Pants2 · ‎03-14-2015

By cleaning the box, I ment emptying the box entirely, and washing the box itself.

I'm sorry if there was any confusion on my part.

CatLoverDogsToo · ‎03-10-2010

I have 2 rescue himalayan cats that are 15 years old, not declawed. They both started going outside the litter box. I also had not changed the brand of litter, but the texture and fragrance seemed different to me. I pet sit and one of my clients who also has older kitties recently changed her litter to the Breeze system because her cats were urinating out of box. I liked what I saw and changed ours to that and it did seem to stop it. The system uses pellets and there is a tray that you put a pad in which collects the urine. You change the pad once or twice a week, and scoop the solid waste daily. I also have a rescue cat that is 10. He is a handful because someone tortured him, and threw him out of a moving car in front of us. I rehabilitated him, but could not adopt him out because he has "flashbacks" and gets very aggressive. He is picky about litter, but also seems to like the Breeze system. I have have 4 other rescue cats that I am considering switching to this as well. (I have so many cats because I was fostering orphan kittens for the Humane shelter, and if the cats had "issues" and couldn't be adopted out, I kept them. Four were from a feral cat colony that lost the mother cat when they were 4 days old. I am a "foster failure".

There are usually $7.00 coupons for Breeze system and sometimes Amazon sells it for $19.99 (usual price is $29.99.) If the vet clears them for any medical issues, maybe that might help. What is really nice about it: there is no dust!

With all of my cats, and all the kitty clients I have, going outside the litterbox seems to be a frequent problem, and the reasons are varied. Good luck to you and I hope the solution is easy to find.

“The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.”
– Arthur C. Nielsen

Tinkrbl44 · ‎08-23-2010

@petepetey wrote:
We have a pair of sister cats, just over 1 years old. They have been great until
this week. One has opted to poo outside the litter box, 3 nights in a row now.

What has changed, we got a new covered box and the scent of our litter (same brand) is different.
I took the cover off the box to see if that was it, no difference. They have 2 boxes available.

Today I will go buy the same scent litter as before.

What else can I do?

@petepetey

Yikes! Changing both the box AND the litter at the same time was way too much change! Go back to the old littler and the old box and get your baby back to normal.

If you're wanting to use a covered box, for the first several days you have to leave the lid off, until they get used to the high walls. Then you can add the lid. Wait to change the litter for at least a month.

When I got my Clever Cat covered litter box, the instructions said to give it a week or two to get acclimated. My kitty took 5 days. I placed a small stool the height of the box next to the litterbox so he could jump in and out. When I put the lid on, he could jump onto that and lower himself in. I love the covered box!

Let us know how things are going .....