We have a 12 yr old calico, indoor cat that we have had since she was a kitten. She is a great cat in all ways but 1. This cat outright refuses to poop in her box. She will go if the box has just been changed and thats it. This has been going on pretty much since age 3-4. And as far as we can tell there was no reason for it to start. Notthing changed. We didnt move her box, add a new animal, nothing. My husband recently spoke to someone that said they also had this issue and they reseached that a really big box, like a huge, under the bed storage box was the answer. So we went out bought the biggest damn box we could find and filled it with what seemed like 100 lbs of litter and it worked for all of 3 days. This morning I went down to scoop the box (its scooped 2X a day) and she crapped on the floor. She wil only poop on the floor in the laundry room where her box is but still. Im at my wits end with this behaviour. Does anyone have a clue why shes doing this and how to correct it?
Thanks in advance
How about trying a second clean box next to the original one? Clean both out 2 times a day and this way the odds are that she will usually have one clean box to poop in.
My one cat used to do that too. Even with fresh litter, she would poop next to the box. I tried one of those automatic scooping boxes but she freaked and wouldn't even pee in it. I put the cat box in the garage, accessible with a cat door from the house, and as long as she peed in the box and pooped no where but the garage, I left it be. You could lay some unscented puppy pads around the cat box, to simplify clean-up.
Sorry I don't have any better advice. Just be glad she's only pooping in the one spot.
Have you ever tried an electric litter box? They clean the litter right after the cat steps out of the box, so it's always clean. They're expensive, but you might need to make the investment if that's what it takes.
My Siamese cat started doing that a few years ago. We ended up buying 3 regular size litter boxes for her to use and it worked!!! I think sometimes they are just grossed out by a dirty box and prefer to poop on the ground.
Have you seen those kits where you can train your cat to use the toilet? It's almost like a potty chair for a toddler. It sits right on top of the toilet. At first there's a little kitty litter in it. Once the cat masters that, the next step is a little less kitty litter. Then finally the cat can just perch on the regular toilet seat. Anyway, if your cat is extremely finicky about the cleanliness of her litter box, maybe that's the way to go.
Is the litter box located near a window? I ask because sometimes animals will leave a poop near windows or doors to designate an area as theirs when they see or hear other animals outside. We humans know the outside animals don't see/smell/care about it, but the indoor pets don't think that deeply.
My mom had a similar situation, where her cat would stand in the litter box and go over the side. Gross. She took the lid of a large storage box and put a very thin layer of litter in that, then placed the regular litter box on the large lid. Worked well for her! Oh, she also used 2 different kinds of litter to differentiate between the two- the clumping kind in one and the little pellets in the other, I can't remember which order but I know that the "feel" was different.
Good luck!
Can't teach an old dog new tricks. I suspect it's the same with cats. Smile
