Here is my dilemma: last January, my partner and I adopted a pair of flame point girls from a different rescue (not our own, and not a local one). The lady was nice but not, in my opinion, particularly honest about the girls. They came to us with fleas (ok, that's treatable) and serious litter box issues. We were told that they had been from a hoarding situation and had been living with this foster parent for almost a year. So I'm guessing that this foster mama SHOULD have noticed the litter box issues.
Sara and Shoshanna don't particularly feel the need to poop in litter boxes. Shoshanna's problems have been mostly solved, because she chooses to poop on the basement floor. I plop a litter box down wherever she seems to be concentrating on and scrub the heck out of the area. She uses the litter box(es) pretty well now, even though it meant expanding from five boxes to nine in the basement. Unfortunately, I cannot do the same with Sara's chosen potty area since it does not lend itself to adding a litter box. She wants to poop under the table in the back room, where my grandmother, who stays with us in the summer, likes to sit, eat, do puzzles, listen to music, etc. So she basically lurks in the back room until my grandmother isn't there and then poops under the table, every other day or so--so she is sometimes pooping elsewhere. My normal response would be to put a litter box under there but my grandmother objects to the idea. Every time she does it I clean the area well with enzymatic cleaner but Sara isn't taking the hint.
The idea came up for a scat mat. I am willing to give it a try, having tested the ones a friend used to keep her cats off the pool table, because I have put my hand on it and felt the strength of the shock. It's not like touching an electric fence. The lowest setting is a tingle, and the highest setting is a mild static shock like you might get in the winter when the air's too dry. But I feel bad that anybody needs to be shocked to get this accomplished. If I could stand vigil there with a squirt bottle I think Sara would get the idea but I can't guard the table 24-7.
I guess my question is not so much are they inhumane...I've come to the conclusion that they aren't...but does it mean that I've failed as a cat parent because I couldn't train my way out of this without using a scat mat?
Also, I'm worried a little bit that it would malfunction and shock somebody too hard...but I suppose you load it with a 9V battery so it wouldn't have enough power to really do much damage.
Does anyone else use scat mats? I hope the lowest setting will be sufficient, because there are often young kittens in the house and I don't want to traumatize them.
Sara and Shoshanna don't particularly feel the need to poop in litter boxes. Shoshanna's problems have been mostly solved, because she chooses to poop on the basement floor. I plop a litter box down wherever she seems to be concentrating on and scrub the heck out of the area. She uses the litter box(es) pretty well now, even though it meant expanding from five boxes to nine in the basement. Unfortunately, I cannot do the same with Sara's chosen potty area since it does not lend itself to adding a litter box. She wants to poop under the table in the back room, where my grandmother, who stays with us in the summer, likes to sit, eat, do puzzles, listen to music, etc. So she basically lurks in the back room until my grandmother isn't there and then poops under the table, every other day or so--so she is sometimes pooping elsewhere. My normal response would be to put a litter box under there but my grandmother objects to the idea. Every time she does it I clean the area well with enzymatic cleaner but Sara isn't taking the hint.
The idea came up for a scat mat. I am willing to give it a try, having tested the ones a friend used to keep her cats off the pool table, because I have put my hand on it and felt the strength of the shock. It's not like touching an electric fence. The lowest setting is a tingle, and the highest setting is a mild static shock like you might get in the winter when the air's too dry. But I feel bad that anybody needs to be shocked to get this accomplished. If I could stand vigil there with a squirt bottle I think Sara would get the idea but I can't guard the table 24-7.
I guess my question is not so much are they inhumane...I've come to the conclusion that they aren't...but does it mean that I've failed as a cat parent because I couldn't train my way out of this without using a scat mat?
Also, I'm worried a little bit that it would malfunction and shock somebody too hard...but I suppose you load it with a 9V battery so it wouldn't have enough power to really do much damage.
Does anyone else use scat mats? I hope the lowest setting will be sufficient, because there are often young kittens in the house and I don't want to traumatize them.