The Litterbox

i had a dream about clay kitties last night . we didn ‘ t have enough kitties running around the house , so i made some out of clay . then i had to build a garage to keep them in because they were leaving stains all over the rug . the garage would have taken up too much space , but i built it on the dead part of the lawn out back with all the rocks . the kitties liked the garage , but not as much as the house . we felt bad about having to keep the clay kitties out in the garage , but that ‘ s just how it goes sometimes . then one of the kitties got out of the garage and ran around . it wasn ‘ t clay anymore . it was a real kitty but it was blue . the other clay kitties were still brown and clay and didn ‘ t like the new blue real kitty . they were jealous . they wanted to be blue , too . so the rest of the clay kitties went running around looking for blue things . they romped through kelly ‘ s flower garden and ate all the blue flowers , but that just turned them green . now the blue kitty wanted to be green but there were no blue flowers left so the real blue kitty was sad . sad real blue kitties aren ‘ t much fun so i tried to cheer him up . i gave him a big hug but that just made my arms blue . so i took all the kitties and rubbed them all together . now i had blue and green happy clay kitties and a blue and green happy real kitty .

Forsaking the litter box and urinating in inappropriate areas is the most common behavioral problem I see in cats and the most troublesome problem cat owners face. Included in this group of cats are those that pick areas of the house in which to urinate (and sometimes defecate) as well as cats that spray mark the house with urine.

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By: Nancy E. Wigal

Cats stop using the cat litter box for a number of reasons. Once you discover the reason why and correct it, you may need to re-train your cat to use her box again. Despite what you think, you can train a cat! For most cats, it’s not hard. They instinctively want to use a place with sand-like material to do their business.

To re-train your cat back to her good litter box habits, confine her to one room. It’s hard to say exactly for how long, but most cats are back in the habit within a week.

Pick a nice sunny room for kitty. Set up a clean cat litter box, food, water, toys, and bedding for her to sleep on. Be sure to put her food and water as far away from her litter box as possible.

Keep kitty in this room while you’re gone. Many cat owners purchase kitty DVDs for their cat to watch all day long while they’re gone. These DVDs feature birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and other critters that dart around. You can set up the DVD to play in a continuous loop all day long. These videos are also available in VHS tape format.

Let kitty out under your supervision. If she looks like she’s heading for her favorite corner to make an illegal dump, get her back to her room immediately, and place her in the cat litter box. If she uses it, praise her.

Generally, cats “get it” very quickly. For one thing, they get lonely being in a room by themselves. For another, it’s a cat’s natural inclination to use a litter box. As long as you’ve corrected the source of her problem with the litter box, she’ll go back to using it.

If you can’t let your cat out and supervise her, be sure to visit kitty often. Sit in the room with her, and keep her company. Watch the DVD with her!

Confinement is not cruel if it’s done properly. If your cat won’t use the litter box during her confinement period, then the cat urine odor damage is limited to one room. If after a few days, your cat is still not using her cat litter box, please consult with your vet. There may a deeper issue that you simply can’t tell from observation.

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advice@stopcaturineodor.com

By: Nancy E. Wigal

You don’t often hear about or see information for special needs kitties. These may be blind, very old (with limited mobility), or disabled in some way. Disabled cats may be amputees, or even paralyzed. There are special mobile devices you can purchase for your paralyzed cat.

But this article will talk a little bit about the cat litter box concerns for special needs kitties. Due to their limited mobility or lack of site, litter box type and location are absolutely critical.

If you have a blind cat, your best bet is maintain location consistency as much as possible. When your blind kitty has become accustomed to finding his cat litter box in one location, the most successful strategy is to leave the box there. However, if you have to move the box, you’ll need to help retrain your blind cat to find his way to it again. A lot of patience will be necessary. You could even confine the blind cat to that particular location for awhile, so he’ll re-learn how to find the litter box easily.

You’ll also want to think about the type of cat litter box. If it’s too high to climb up in, he’s going to get discouraged, and he’ll find another, easily accessible location to void his urine. You may even need to buy a large storage container, cut out a “U”-shaped entrance (the bottom of the “U” should be up about 3 - 4″ to hold the cat litter in the box), and train kitty to find it.

Obviously, this depends upon the type of dwelling you live in, how many other cats and litter boxes are in your home, and if you own a multi-story house. Consult with your vet for other strategies.

Very old cats often develop mobility issues. If this true for your kitty, you may need to strategically place cat litter boxes in places you didn’t previously consider, just to make it easy for your senior cat to make it to the box in time. Again, if you live in a multi-story house, you’ll probably have to place cat litter boxes on different levels.

However, if your senior cat voluntarily confines herself to one area, then you may only need to consider litter box placement in that part of your home. And just like blind kitties, consider the type of cat litter box that’s best for your senior cat. If she has stiff joints, be sure she can easily climb in and out of the box. If she’s unable to squat to urinate, you’ll need a high-sided box. The solution given above may be just the ticket to avoid cat urine odor problems for your senior kitty.

Talk to your vet to see if there are any medications that may ease your cat’s joint pain. This removes most of the challenge of getting to the cat litter box in time.

Paralyzed cats face daunting challenges. They can’t feel anything back in that region, so very often their voiding functions simply happen. I have had cat owners tell me that the best solution is to diaper the cat. The downside is you have to constantly check the diaper, but if it stops a cat urine odor problem in your home, and you can keep your wonderful, special kitty, that’s a small price to pay.

You will probably want to make certain that your home has as much tile floor exposed as possible. Carpet cleaning can be costly, and eventually the material will not clean up as well as it used to, making replacement necessary and costly.

Some cat owners confine their paralyzed kitty to one area of their home that’s easy to clean up. Consult with your vet on the best strategy for your paralyzed kitty.

If your special needs kitty is an amputee, you may either have a few cat litter box problems, or absolutely none. I have met cat owners who tell their three-legged cat has no trouble balancing in the litter box. Others report that the only thing they need to do to accomodate their amputee cat is to make sure they buy cat litter boxes that are low enough for kitty to hop in and out of.

Cats that lose a limb later in life may have some initial balancing issues. I recommend confining kitty to one area with a floor that’s easy to clean up, while the amputee practices new cat litter box skills. Consult with your vet for more ideas.

With a little bit of thought and preparation, special needs kitties can as trouble-free as any cat when using the cat litter box.

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www.stopcaturineodor.com

By: Nancy E. Wigal

If you have a cat who doesn’t use her cat litter box, it might be the type of cat litter you buy for her.

Cats are fussy about a lot of things, and the cat litter brand you think she’ll likes might end up offending her for a number of reasons. If she doesn’t like it, your cat will communicate the only way she knows will get your attention - she’ll stop using the cat litter box.

There are a confusing number of cat litter brands to choose from. Some are made with humans in mind. These types often contain perfume or some type of smell that pleases you and me, but not necessarily to kitty.

A cats’ sense of smell is much more sensitive than a human’s. Cat litter that is drenched in a pleasant (for humans) scent may be very offensive to your cat. If her sense of smell is overwhelmed, she’ll avoid the cat litter box.

If you suspect your cat doesn’t like her cat litter, this can be an easy problem to fix. For example, if you faithfully supplied her with a brand she liked, but you decided to switch brands, she’ll stop using the cat litter box if it doesn’t meet her approval. In this case, switch back to the previous cat litter brand.

It may feel like defeat, but if you think about it in terms of saving money, time and frustration because you’re not cleaning up cat messes, then everybody wins.

You may have had to switch cat litter brands because her favorite brand is no longer available. If this is the case, experiment with similar brands and see which one she prefers.

Here’s an easy way to test cat litter brands to get kitty’s approval:

Set up two litter boxes. Each box should have a different cat litter brand. Leave the boxes down for a few days. At the end of your test period, see which box accumulated the most deposits. If one box was preferred over the other, you have your winner. You may need to repeat this test a few times before your cat decides you got it right.

If you have several bags of cat litter left over from your tests, donate them to your local feline rescue organization. They can always use any type for their rescued kitties.

If you switched cat litter brands because your nearest pet store no longer carries it, consider making a trip to one a little further from your home. The trick is to stock up with a large number of bags so your trips are as infrequent as possible.

Cats are demanding creatures. Since we don’t speak meow, and they can’t talk, cats communicate clearly (according to kitty logic) with radical, startling actions. It’s up to us humans (isn’t it always?) to translate our cat’s wishes and concerns.

By paying attention to past events (like switching litter brands on kitty), we can decipher and solve many cat litter box problems.

About The Author

www.stopcaturineodor.com

By: Nancy E. Wigal

Cats experience anxiety and get stressed out just like us human staffers. Unlike people, cats don’t have a lot of creative ways to express their feelings. Unfortunately, when cats suffer from stress and anxiety, they generally communicate it in a very clear way that can really turn humans upside down. They usually tell us by not using the cat litter box.

And since we can’t speak meow, and cats don’t talk, the challenge is to figure why our cats aren’t feeling right. Usually when a cat stops using her litter box, it’s a medical problem. But if it isn’t, one of causes high on my list is stress and anxiety.

What do cats get anxious about? Here’s a partial list:

• Moving to a new home

• Gaining a new household member, animal or human
• You change jobs and start a new schedule
• You bring new furniture into your home
• Kitty’s favorite person moves out, and she misses that individual
• Construction and/or remodeling of your home
• Relocation of her cat litter box(es)
• Change in type of cat litter
• This list is not complete. Felines are complicated creatures, and almost anything can set them off.

If your cat suddenly stops using the litter box out of the blue, eliminate any medical causes first. If kitty gets a clean bill of health, examine the list above, and think about any recent changes you’ve made to your home. If it appears to be a coincidence, it probably isn’t.

This can be a tough problem to solve, but once you figure out the cause, you can start developing solutions. If the stress-inducing situation is temporary (such as the last three items on my list), they can be dealt with.

On the other hand, if the problem appears to be one of the first five, you’ll need plenty of patience and a strategy to get kitty right again.

Often, once kitty gets used to the change, she’ll calm down and start to use her litter box again. During her adjustment period, it may work to confine her to one room with her food, water, litter box, bedding, and toys. This limits the amount of damage done to your home, and as kitty realizes the changes mean her no harm, she’ll get back to her good cat litter box habits.

You can also help kitty calm down by purchasing synthetic feline hormones. These will reassure her that life is still OK. You can also administer homeopathic remedies that are completely natural and cause no side effects.

Many feline owners get an anti-anxiety prescription for kitty, but if your cat freaks out over being pilled, this will increase her stress. If this is the case, rely on the synthetic hormones and homeopathic remedies to solve this problem.

Consult with your vet on the best course of action to help your kitty quickly get over her stress and anxiety. Reassure your cat with lots of extra attention and love, and this too shall pass!

About The Author

advice@stopcaturineodor.com

By: Nancy E. Wigal

Just like in real estate where location is crucial, so it is for your cat’s litter boxes.

Here’s some ideas and tips on how to effectively locate them for good cat litter box habits.

When you think about cat litter box placement, imagine if it’s a place where you’d like to do your business. We humans generally cherish a quiet and private location. Your cat isn’t much different. She’d like her cat litter boxes placed where she can feel safe while voiding. When animals eliminate, this is a vulnerable time for them, and if your cat doesn’t feel safe and comfortable, she’ll find her own location to fulfill this need.

Depending upon the cat’s age and mobility, an ideal litter box location is someplace where humans don’t tread constantly. Take a look around your house and think about this as you ponder locations. Some ideal places are your basement, rarely-used bathrooms, and larger closets.

If you have a room that doesn’t get much traffic and won’t let the odors waft all through the house, then set up a litter box in that location.

If a family member’s bedroom will work (assuming that person won’t be jarred awake at 3 AM when kitty is busy digging a hole to China to bury her output!), use that as well.

Many cats prefer to have a cat litter box near their favorite “hang outs.” This way, they don’t have to go far when nature calls.

The most desirable location will be quiet, somewhat secluded, and afford kitty the luxury of time and the feeling of safety to properly eliminate in her cat litter box.

Sometimes your cat will decide a location for you. In my home, my kitty Scout prefers the cat litter box in the exercise room in lieu of the one in the basement (which would be my first choice) and another in a nook off the kitchen.

But she doesn’t like those locations as well, so it’s critical that I keep that cat litter box up to her standards - clean, no deposits left over from her brother JJ, and leaving the door open - even when I’m using the exercise bike or the cross trainer! If I forget any of these things, she lets me in the most direct way possible - by not using a litter box when she needs to eliminate.

If there was ever a case where cats have staffers and hired help, I’m living proof! So take a hint from your cat…try to accomodate her preferred location for successful, consistent cat litter box usage.

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By: Nancy E. Wigal

Cat litter box problems stem from a variety of sources. One of the most common causes is a feline Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).

Cats tolerate pain pretty well. As a matter of fact, we can be fooled that kitty is feeling fine because she’s eating, purring, and snuggling up to us for human love and attention. But at the same time, if she’s demonstrating out-of-cat-litter-box experiences, she could be suffering from from a feline UTI. It’s up to us to figure it out.

When you know the symptons, it becomes clear that kitty has a problem. She may cry in pain while urinating. She may try to urinate, but little or nothing comes out.

Your cat may groom her privates excessively, and cries while she does it. But the biggest indicator that your cat may be suffering from a feline UTI is blood in her urine.

If your cat has stopped using her cat litter box, and she’s urinating on a surface that’s white or very light colored, the blood will clearly stand out in the cat urine puddle.

Many cats who suffer from a feline UTI associate the litter box with the pain that comes from this infection. Their kitty logic says if they stop using the cat litter box, maybe the pain won’t come around again. This is when you start discovering cat urine puddles all around your home.

If you’re one of the lucky ones whose cat is still using her cat litter box while suffering from a feline UTI, the cat litter color and composition may hide the blood. It’s always a good idea to closely check your kitty’s deposits on a regular basis to make sure she’s healthy.

Feline UTIs are quite treatable with antibiotics from your vet. If you suspect a feline UTI, call your vet immediately and follow her instructions for bringing in your kitty for further evaluation.

Once the feline UTI is diagnosed and treated, your cat should regain her good litter box habits again. If not, a short period of confinement for cat litter box re-training is very effective.

Feline UTIs are preventable with a permanent change in your cat’s diet. Consult with your vet on how to safely proceed with this.

About The Author

www.stopcaturineodor.com

By: Nancy E. Wigal

The number of cat litter boxes available for your kitties is another key to good litter box habits. Many cats are fussy about their litter boxes, and if they aren’t happy with number you provide, they communicate their unhappiness to you in most direct manner possible - they stop using the litter box.

Here is some essential information for determining the minimum number of cat litter boxes you need for your cats.

First off, there is a tried and true formula that tells you the bare minimum number of cat litter boxes you should have available:

“X” cats + 1 = minimum number of cat litter boxes.

If you have three cats you need a minimum (I can’t stress this enough) of four cat litter boxes. However, depending upon your cat’s litter box habits, you may need more. Why?

Some cats require two litter boxes for their personal use. They use one for liquid waste deposit, and the other one for their solid waste output. If you have just two cats, and one of them fits this description, you’re already up to four cat litter boxes!

With this formula, even one cat requires at least two cat litter boxes. If you have a dwelling that is multi-story, you may need to strategically locate litter boxes on each level of your home. This works well to eliminate any problems your cat may have about making it to the litter box in time. Particularly as cats get older, they develop stiff joints and/or memory problems. You will see this illustrated in their ability to get to the cat litter box in time, provided they remember where the nearest one is located.

If you have several cats in your household, applying this formula can be challenging if you run out of litter box locations that suit you. What if your cats don’t like the litter box locations you chosen? They tell you - they do their waste elimination business in the location they’d prefer to see a cat litter box.

It may take some creativity on your part, as well as negotiation with the cats, to place the minimum number of cat litter boxes around your house that will reinforce good cat litter habits.

When I am contacted by cat owners who have 4 or more cats, and they want to know how boxes they need to have available, they sometimes gasp at my answer. But cleaning up after multiple cats can become a full time job. You really have to scoop out the boxes as often as the cats deposit their mess, because a dirty cat litter box will cause problems.

For this reason, I always urge feline owners who live in rather small spaces to think seriously about the number of cats they wish to keep, especially if they decide to keep all kitties indoors. I agree that all cats should be kept indoors, except under special circumstances. However, space considerations are finite and can only accomodate so many cats and their litter boxes.

The majority of questions I receive from stressed-out cat owners involve multi-animal households. Often, the owner simply doesn’t realize that each cat needs at least one litter box to call her own. When they realize the number of cat litter boxes necessary, they often have to be very creative to place the litter boxes in strategic locations.

However, once you set up enough cat litter boxes, depending upon your cat’s litter box habits, successful litter box habits can be learned and enforced.

About The Author

nancy@cat-urine-odor-advisor.com

By: Nancy E. Wigal

There are three important litter box considerations to account for whether you’re a new kitten owner, or someone who has had a cat for a while. If kitty isn’t happy with any or all three of these, you may find she’ll start urinating outside the box.

1. Litter Box Location:

Location is all-important in real estate. The litter box location is important to your kitty. As an owner, you need to be certain her box is in a quiet location, away from traffic and noise. Ideally, a room that is seldom visited, such as the basement or laundry room is a good choice.

Cats need to be left alone while tending to their business. A child’s room, the hallway by the front door, or the family room may be too noisy for her.

2. Litter Box Type:

New cat litter boxes are marketed constantly. The final decision may rest with kitty. If you buy her a box, and she doesn’t use it, think about the way she does her business. For example, my boy, JJ (who is fixed), urinates standing up. He’s 14 years old, and it may be too much effort for him to squat. We have tall sided, and hooded litter boxes to accommodate the splash on the back wall.

You may consider the mechanical, self-cleaning litter box. They rake the results of kitty’s visit into a small container. The drawbacks are that your cat may be scared of the motor noise. If so, she won’t use it. The rakes, or tines, need to be cleaned regularly. They’re close together, and can be a real trial to clean properly. What if you lose electrical power for an extended period of time? The motor won’t operate, and the box won’t get scooped, if you forget!

Bottom line? Observe your kitty doing her business, and formulate a strategy about the best box to buy.

3. Cat Litter:

There are lots of different types of cat litter you can purchase. There are different blends of clay; some are perfumed, some are not. Again, your cat may decide for you. If you purchase a certain brand, and kitty eliminates somewhere else, you’ll need to experiment with different types until you and she agree on what will be used.

Perfumed, or scented litter is for us humans, not the cat! Some cats will refuse to patronize a box with heavily scented litter. As bad as the smell may be for you and your family, the end goal is find the right litter she’ll use every time.

About The Author

Nancy E. Wigal
Cat Urine Odor Advisor
www.cat-urine-odor-advisor.com
The Cat Urine Odor Advisor offers solutions, resources, and materials that work together to get rid of cat urine odor in your home.
nancy@cat-urine-odor-advisor.com