Why is my cat not using the litter box?

Question

I have a 3 or 4 month old kitten named Linus. I love him...he is so cute and he is fitting well into my little menagerie...for the most part. When he first came home he wouldn't use the litter box. I assumed that it was because he was so little and the box had a cover and it was pretty big, so I went and bought him a smaller box with no cover. Well, he was still having problems so I locked him in a large dog crate with the litter box for a couple of days. He used the box the entire time he was in the crate. So I let him out and he had been doing really well; every now and then I would find an accident but not very often. Last week he started ignoring the litter box again and I don't know why! I clean the litter box every day and he is the only indoor cat but he continues to have accidents in the house, mostly in the kitchen. I would rather not put a litter box in the kitchen though. Can anybody give me any idea why my Linus is doing this? I have never had any problems with cats and litter boxes in the past so I am so confused!! Please help!!!

Answer 1

The cat needs to be able to recognise that it is supposed to go in the litter box. It does this by smell and position. If you clean it too much and move it around it will soon start using somewhere else. When my cat started urinating in the house it was quite clear to see that it was using the same place every time. And despite how much i scrubbed the carpet it would still have a slight smell to it which it would recognise. It is much easier to clean a litter box then a carpet, the smell will always stay with the carpet.

Also the litter box should be a bit out of the way. Cat's are clean and like dogs will not eliminate near where they rest/sleep. So make sure it is away from their places that they are often in.

Answer 2

Kitty not using the litter box is possibly the most common complaint of all cat owners, and probably the one sure way a cat complains about a problem.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution: a cat may be avoiding the litterbox due to a medical ailment, a sanitation problem, wrong litter or litter box, inappropriate location of the litter box, or emotional stress.  This single page cannot guarantee that you can resolve the situation, but hopefully the hints on this page will be of some help to you.

First and foremost, you MUST NOT PUNISH the cat for inappropriate elimination behavior.  Hitting him (even gently), squirting water at him when he's urinating in the wrong place, clapping your hands or otherwise scaring him, or picking him up and dropping him into the litterbox will NOT work.  More than likely, punishment will escalate the problem.

To resolve the problem, you need to:

   1. Figure out why he is avoiding the litter box

   2. Reduce the cat's stress / eliminate medical problems

   3. Make the litter box desirable, and

   4. Make the inappropriate locations undesirable for eliminating

Answer 3

First I would recommend that you don't share the litter box with your cat. They can smell human urine and its probably scaring it off. Oh also don't share the same food dish.

Answer 4

Until your cat is reliably house trained, she should not have free run of your home. If your cat continually makes mistakes, the behavior can simply become a habit. Punishing a cat after the fact teaches her to be afraid of you. Scolding and then taking the cat to her litter box after she has already eliminated teaches her to associate the litter box with punishment. Basically, punishment doesn't work with cats: prevention and praise for getting it right are the keys to training. When you leave the house for any length of time, your cat should be confined to a single room, preferably one with non-porous floors, such as a kitchen, bathroom, utility room, basement or garage. Provide your cat with a bowl of water and a warm place to sleep at one end of the room and a freshly cleaned litter box at the other end. Until the house soiling has been cured, your cat should have a regular feeding schedule so she will develop a corresponding elimination schedule. Read more on how cats learn.

The Litter Box

Your cat does not simply need a litter box - she needs a clean litter box with fresh litter. Your cat will be inhibited from using her litter box if it smells of urine. Think about it from the cat's viewpoint. When she soils your dining room carpet, the area is immediately and thoroughly cleaned. Given the choice between a regularly cleaned place and a litter box that gets changed only once or twice a week, your cat will naturally prefer the carpet.

Answer 5

You've gotten some excellent answers - such as no punishment - but here's another important point:

Your cat will continue to pee in the same spots until you completely get rid of the urine smell. If he's peeing on carpet, the best enzyme product to completely neutralize the smell is Nature's Miracle.

Good luck to you!