Pets
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Two cats one won't use litter box!!!!
OMG!!! I don't know what to do! My 9 yr old indoor cat won't use the littler box!!! She will poop in it but pees elsewhere....DH is in charge of cleaning it right now since I'm expecting so it doesn't get cleaned like I would do it but I don't know what to do! Tonight I found cat poop on my bathroom mat!!! I almost threw her out!!! What suggestions do you all have?! I've talked to vet no uti.......
Re: Two cats one won't use litter box!!!!
I know how frustrating that is. I have 5 cats, and one (or more) peed outside the box while I was pregnant, and it is continuing now that DS is here. But when they do that, they are trying to tell you something.
First, you said you talked to the vet. Did you take kitty in? They should do a test on her urine to see if there is an infection. If she has a UTI, she associates the pain when peeing with the box. One of my cats had one and her only symptom was peeing out of the box. She ended up getting dehydrated (it took us a couple days to figure out that it was her), and we had to take her to the emergency vet over the weekend. Even after it was cleared up, she needed to be retrained on the box because of the association.
If it is behavioral, let me share all the things we have tried. I know how annoying it is, but I ask for you to be patient while you try some of these.
- Nature's Miracle: the greatest cleaner of cat per ever. You need to clean the areas where she is peeing with this or she will think those areas are acceptable places to potty.
- Cat attract litter: it is a special litter that cats like, and it helps encourage litter box use. I think it comes with a money back guarantee. We have used their kitten version with over 40 foster kittens and it's definitely worth a try. In addition, the box needs to be kept clean. It should be scooped daily and cleaned frequently. You don't want to use a dirty bathroom, and neither does your cat. The same company also makes a litter attractant that you can add to your litter to encourage litter box use. It looks like oregano and is found in major pet stores.
- different kinds of boxes: some cats do not like covered boxes. I'm not sure what kind you have, but this is something to think about.
- "old" boxes: sometimes the box may need to be replaced. This is probably the cheapest and easiest option, along with trying new litter.
- Feliway: this is a calming cat pheromone. You can buy it in 2 forms: spray and diffuser. The diffusers look like glade plug-ins. The diffusers do take about a month to kick in, so you may want to try the spray while the diffuser takes effect. We have both. They are pricey, but the best place to find them is Amazon. The prices there are 50% less than what I have seen in pet stores if you buy 6 at a time. One of our cats was peeing on our bed while I was pregnant, so I totally understand your frustration. We sprayed our bed daily with Feliway and it really helped! We also drenched it in the NM I mentioned earlier.
- rescue remedy - all natural calming drops. We just started using these because 2 of our cats are anxious with DS around. They do seem to be helping! My MIL uses it for her dog who gets wayyyyyy too excited about DS and then gets wayyyyy to upset if DS laughs, cries, whatever. He doesn't know good noises from bad noises, lol.
I hope this helps! You could always try adding another box. The general rule is # of cats + 1 = boxes. I don't have space for 6 boxes! Since they share fine, it's not an issue here, but I wanted to let you know in case that's what your kitty needs.
I also recommend Cat vs Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett. She is a feline behaviorist and does a great job explaining cats!
5 cats. 1 baby.
You should have one more box than cats once you start having this problem. That is one of the things my vet told me to do. 2 cats should have 3 boxes spread out a bit from each other. I have 2 cats and they are good with 2 boxes but they do not like having just one.