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Free
ranging cats have the freedom to choose their preferred
elimination location. They would prefer to avoid eliminating in a
spot that another cat has used (unless they are marking it). Free
ranging cats will not urinate and defecate in the same area, and
they do not like to eliminate in public places or cave-like
settings. Few households are able to provide that level of choice
to their feline members. In spite of this, house cats are
surprisingly reliable in the use of the litter box. A breakdown of
in-appropriate litter box use may have many reasons:
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An aversion to the box, the location, or substrate (litter)
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A preference for a particular surface not provided by the
box,
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A preference for a particular location where there is no
box,
or a combination of all three.
To
complicate this, the reason that the litter box problem
initially started may not be the same reason that it is
continuing. For instance, the cat may have urinated outside of
the box due to a urinary tract infection. Subsequently, the cat
has associated the litter box with pain, developed a substrate
preference for carpet, and a location preference under the desk
in the guest bedroom - a secluded area in a room that you hardly
ever use. In this case, the successful treatment has to include
all three factors (the box aversion, the location preference,
and the substrate preference).
What can you do?
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Take your cat to your local veterinarian and make sure to
exclude any medical problem that may be causing the
behaviour
changes!
-
Punishment will not stop the
behaviour. Reprimanding the cat,
physical punishment, or approaches that involve rubbing the
cat's nose in urine or faeces will most likely make the
problem worse.
-
Scoop at least twice daily and change the litter completely
every week. This will vary according to how many cats are in
the household, how many litter boxes you have, and how large
the cats are that are using the box or boxes. If you can
smell the box, you can be sure that it is offensive to your
cat.
-
Make sure that the litter box is not near an appliance that
makes noise or in an area of the house that your cat doesn't
frequent.
-
Offer more than one exit from the litter box to keep the cat
from feeling trapped or ambushed.
-
Place the box away from food and water dishes
-
The ideal number of boxes equals the number of cats in the
house and one additional box (i.e. 3 cats require 4 boxes).
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Place one box on each floor of the house and locations that
have been soiled previously.
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Clean the soiled areas with an enzymatic cleaner.
Source: Dr. Petra Mertens
Edited by Heather George
www.petcare.umn.edu |
