Hello,
I'm new to this, so please be patient with me. I'm running out of options and hitting a brick wall. Maybe someone can help
My cat is a Himalayan, He loves to sit on your lap and get all the attention and lovins that he can get. The problem is,
He won't poop in the litter box. He will go to his box pee, get out of his box and go somewhere else and poops.
Another problem I have is, He has 2 big play towers it even has scratching boards on them. He doesn't like catnip so I take a little bit of treats and scatter them on the towers. He'll jump on the towers and eat them then he'll get right back down run to the couch and start scratching on it. Ughhhh!!
How irritating with both he is.
I'm opened for suggestions.
Hi Shonna,
For the litterbox issue, sometimes cats that have a difficult time having a bowel movement may associate the box with it and go elsewhere to poop.You didn't mention if your kitty has any stool issues, but that would be one medical reason to consider. If present (either really firm/hard stool or loose stool), addressing an underlying stool issue with your vet may help.
Sometimes, older cats with arthritis (which may otherwise not be apparent or noticeable in many cats) may have trouble posturing to poop, and again will associate this pain issue with the litterbox and go elsewhere. Cats can mask arthritis well, but in recent years research has indicated that far more cats have arthritis than we used to believe. Again, this is something your vet can help diagnose, which does sometimes require x-rays to see.
True medical issues aside, I have found some success more specifically with cats that won't poop in the box with a product called Cat Attract litter. It has natural herb attractants to encourage litter box use and was designed by a veterinarian.
For the scratching issue, it's important to keep in mind that many cats will have a predilection for scratching either on vertical surfaces or horizontal/flat surfaces (some do both but prefer one over the other). If you're providing your cat with vertical surfaces like the towers and they have more of a horizontal fixation, you should provide flat scratching surfaces as well. You did not mention if scratching on the couch is a vertical or horizontal behavior. So if your kitty is scratching the back of the couch or the cushions in a horizontal manner, consider that option.
If your cat is fixated on scratching the corners of the couch in a vertical manner, like mine do, then there is a product I found that has significantly reduced couch damage called the Sofa-Scratcher Furniture Protector. It's essentially a scratching post that protects your couch corners! There are a couple different colors and both semicircular and right-angle designs to accomodate different couch shapes.
I hope those help!
I have no reasonable explanation for this but it has frequently been my experience with my cats that they just prefer one box for pee and another box for poop. Over many years with several different cats, this has been the case. Of course, I expect that once one cat does it the rest follow along and suddenly you find yourself with designated-use litter boxes. Cats are awesome. Maybe just try giving your fur baby a second box? Good luck. He sounds like a sweetie!
Hi @MARJORIE PARKER
One of my 3 cats is an older cat, we adopted her from a friend when she was 7 (now she's 20 years old) and she does a similar thing, she just loves to poop in the bath for some reason... We tried to close the door which helps sometimes but other times we just let her do it because she's so used to it lol
Here are few more helpful resources to check out:
- https://cats.com/cat-peeing-outside-litter-box
- https://cats.com/how-to-retrain-your-cat-to-use-the-litterbox
- https://cats.com/why-is-my-cat-not-using-the-litter-box