Ragdoll (Nearly 5) poo'ing in the wrong places!

[Catkin]

Hi there,

I am hoping some of you maybe able to help me. We have a male Ragdoll who keeps poo-ing in the wrong places like our bedroom carpet. He uses the litter box fine for a wee and he even sometimes uses it for poo-ing.

We can't figure out why he is doing this, nothing is any different and he seems to be happy and settled .

Its driving us mad as its no nice finding poo all over your house plus as we have other cats we are worried they will start to copy him if he carries on like this .

We're lost on what to do and we could desperately do with any advice/suggestions.

We can't shut him out of the rooms because he'll just scratch at the door and ruin the carpet around the door. Even if we did that he would just find other places to poo.

We would tell him off so to speak after he has done it but we never seem to catch him in the act so it would always be too late and so therefor wouldn't know what we were telling him off for.

Oh and its never the same place all the time so its not like he is going to that area because it smells of it.

Thank you for your time

[Elaine]

Hi, I have one who does this too, we havent got the solution as yet but we think ours is to do with territory, so I can empathise with what you are going through.
Out of curiosity, how long have you had this cat? How many cats do you have and how many litter trays? Has the cat always done this?
The general rule of thumb is one litter tray per cat plus one extra. Some cats dont like to poop and pee in the same box and sometimes these things can happen in a multi cat house hold because the cat is being subtly bullied by another. Have you changed anything at all? Such as litter brand, tray positions/locations?

[Catkin]

Originally Posted by Elaine

Out of curiosity, how long have you had this cat? How many cats do you have and how many litter trays? Has the cat always done this?

We have had him since a kitten so from about 14-16 weeks old.

We have 4 cats and he has grown up with all of them.

As for litter trays we have plenty around the house, our cats often do have certain ones to pee in and others to poop in. They are regularly kept clean and yet he still decides to poop out of the litter tray, yet other times he will use it fine .

As for has he always done this, yes to a degree but its become a lot worse now. Its a regular thing rather than an occasional thing.

Originally Posted by Elaine

Sometimes these things can happen in a multi cat house hold because the cat is being subtly bullied by another. Have you changed anything at all? Such as litter brand, tray positions/locations?

He is definately not being bullied, he actually is the bully in the household but luckily he isn't too bad. He likes to think of himself as king of the household even though its actually our first cat who is....

As for changing anything, not particularly and I don't think this is the problem as we have done this before and he really isn't bothered.

Its soooo frustrating because it doesn't seem to matter what he does and yet he still does it. I don't get how he always uses it for wee and sometimes for poop yet regularly he does it elsewhere on the carpet. Its annoying because its not nice finding poop in your bedroom and always having to clean it up, it doesn't matter how much we do that he'll just do it again and not always in the same place.

Thanks for your reply and trying to help, I hope your cat stops it soon as I know how frustrating it is .

Just as a note, even though he is a ragdoll he doesn't really have the character of one. He is a naughty boy and not the relaxed, hanging around humans all the time type of cat.

Any help/suggestions/advice much appreciated as its become so much worse and its like a daily thing and I don't know what to do if it continues as I don't want all the other cats to start doing it as well as they are so good with toileting.

Many thanks

[Elaine]

Sorry I was of no help. My cat has been doing this for years now and we havent found the resolve, so I do understand where you are coming from. We have tried everything we can think of, she too is the bully here and again is not a lap cat either. We did have reiki sessions which did help enormously but it's proving very hard to get appointments with the reiki guy now.
Sometimes I think that she would have been ok if she were an only cat and that maybe it's just that her territory is simply not big enough for her and another cat to live in perfect harmony.
I hope you find a resolve to this and if you do, please let me know what it was

[Catkin]

Thank you for trying to help, much appreciated.

Our boy loves having his feline friends around and when he is alone he doesn't stop crying and looking for them. We brought him over first when we moved and he was so pathetic, he wouldn't stop crying for them and was so happy to see them when they arrived.

I'll let you know if I find any answers, i really hope we can sort him out as its no fun for anyone .

[tricia1470]

I had this with my Bengal when my eldest cat died in January, he started pooing just outside the tray's. To begin with I thought it was stress of him not knowing where Morph had gone but I ended up completely starting from scratch buying new trays locating them in a different part of the room and changed the cat litter and now have one for each cat and 1 extra. These get checked and cleaned daily and then disinfected weekly (touch wood it's worked for us so far)

[HappyKatz]

We have had a problem with one of our cats pooing in the wrong place. We fixed her poo problem by simply putting her in the litterbox over & over...When we go to put her in the litterbox, we will be quiet & let her sniff around. Sometimes she left, sometimes she went poo. When she did poo, we praised her several times. Thankfully it worked for her

Try putting your cat in the litterbox throughout the day. Do it once at a time. Just pick him up & gently put him in the litter. Be relaxed & quiet, see what he does. He can leave the litterbox, but your just going to put him in there later anyways...He has to associate the litterbox as a good thing. If he does go poo in the litterbox, make sure to praise him!
It may take time to get him back to pooing in the litterbox Hang in there!

That may or may not work but its worth a try! Hope something works for him!

[Catkin]

Thank you, I'll try your advice HappyKatz .