Need Cat Behavior Modification Advice

[MULTIZ321]

My wife and I need some cat behavior modification advice.

Background: We had 2 Persian cats, Lilly and Misty.
We had to have Misty put down recently.

Shortly thereafter, we adopted 2 additional Persians - Suky and Sibelle.

With Lilly and Misty, we only had one cat pan which they both used just fine.

When Suky and Sibelle came home - initially, we didn't change anything about the single cat pan. However, Sibelle started doing "number 2" on the floor adjacent to the cat pan. She did use the cat pan to pee. We decided to introduce a second cat pan into the same room.

For a few times, Sibelle did her 'biz - 1 & 2' in the new cat pan. Now, she has reverted back to doing number 2 on the floor adjacent to the cat pan.

Any suggestions for getting her to use the cat pan for both would be appreciated.

Richard

 

[chriskre]

Get her her own cat pan.

I've got two cats and two cat pans.
No poopie on the floor and no fighting.

 

[pjrose]

Some ideas.....

First, I'd take Sibelle and a stool sample to the vet, just in case something is wrong.

Then, I'd have multiple litter boxes in different rooms, so if Sibelle's issue is the presence or smell of other cats, she'll have somewhere else to do her business.

Does she stand in the box and just put her rear over the edge, or does she do her business completely out of the box? Do you see her going, and can you pick her up and plop her in the box? And put her leavings in the box while she's watching you and then help her move her paw to cover it? Is there some tracked litter on the floor where she is going, and if so can you keep it swept up? Is she going on a hard surface, or carpet?

You can eliminate or minimize litter outside of the box by making a large deep cat pan, or pans, from big deep plastic storage containers (e.g. Rubbermaid etc), the size that's almost knee-high.

Cut a U in one end, with the bottom of the U about 8" from the floor, and the width of the U wide enough for the cats to enter and exit. Keep the lid on or not - my guys don't object to it, but others might. Cats can hop in and out, but won't spread (as much) litter on the floor, so Sibelle might not have the temptation of litter outside of the box.

 

[pjrose]

Get her her own cat pan.

I've got two cats and two cat pans.
No poopie on the floor and no fighting.

Do they actually use their own pan? Did you somehow teach them, or did they just figure this out? My foster kitties seem to like sharing - if one is going, the others want to come check out what's happening.

 

[presley]

Why not have another cat pan next to it, where she is actually pooping?

I only have one cat, but have 2 cat pans. They are in totally different areas and while he has his "favorite", he does use both.

 

[IngridN]

We had a similar issue with our two newly adopted kitties. One of them would poop in a corner of the house about every other day. Even though we had 2 pans in different locations, they were too small. Vet suggested even with kitties, get the largest pan available. Another suggestion was not to fill them with too much litter, which I was doing. Stress was another consideration. If yours have just recently joined the household, that may be part of the problem and will resolve itself once they get comfy in their new surroundings. Once I made the recommended changes wrt litter pans, the problem went away.

The vet told us the recommended number of litter pans is one for each cat plus an extra one, all in different rooms, although she only has one for each cat. We only have 2, one upstairs and one downstairs. The covered ones are not recommended.

Good luck.

Ingrid