Crate Training My Cat

[sunny578]

I'm sorry that you have still been having trouble You are probably tired of advice at this point. If you need to bounce some ideas off someone though, feel free! One thing that is on our side I think is Tiny's raw food diet. She only seems to need to urinate once every 24 hours, so that has been helpful with her retraining. I know as long as I get her in the box twice a day, she will be good. Sometimes I have to reposition her in the box several times and point my finger and tell her to go to the bathroom. It's crazy. I can't even talk to other cat people about this because it sounds so weird and like I don't know anything about what a cat needs. I don't know that a behaviorist could have gotten us to this point. It feels like a very specific Tiny centered solution. I hope you find your solution soon

 

[Not Jackson Galaxy]

I am so out of ideas I feel like i've tried everything. The tests cost over £400 and I can't keep throwing money at this.

Jelly is fussy about food. She likes biscuits and Sheba brand wet food. I haven't been able to phase out biscuits because she goes on strike. She ignores food that isn't those two things, So I don't see a raw food diet working.

I love your crazy solution, you're near genius for figuring it out.

I hate where we're at. It doesn't feel fair to her. She doesn't have freedom, we're not really enjoying each other. I can't see that she is happy. I don't know what to do.

 

[rubysmama]

Is it awful to be thinking of rehoming her?

Re-homing her isn't an awful thought, however, I'd worry she'd be hard to re-home with her litter box issues.

I know you've probably answer these questions before, but is she an only pet? How old is she? Have you had her since she was a kitten? When did the peeing outside the litter box start?

 

[sunny578]

When did the outside the box behavior start is a good question! It helped lead me to a solution.

I hear you about throwing $$ at problems Not sure if cat boarding is expensive in your area, but you could just take a break from each other and see if you come up with any new perspectives in her absence. Or maybe a shelter could link you up with a cat person who has an extra room/basement or something so you could have a break. Our city shelter is really great and will help connect pet owners to resources when they are considering re-homing, but I know not all shelters do that.

Does she go outside? I wonder if a cat door at your front door might be an option. Or, blocking off that area with gates or doors.

Apologies--I know it's so annoying to have ideas thrown at you when you have tried nearly everything.

 

[Not Jackson Galaxy]

I'm not sick of suggestions, I just wish I could find the answer.

She's an only pet, 10 years old. She's always had an occasional (managed by a litter box near by) tendency to pee by front doors. The acute litter box avoidance started at the end of April last year when we moved house. We did our best to reduce the stress of the move, Feliway spray and plug ins everywhere. Confined her to the bathroom while moving was going on. Etc etc.

She goes outside but rarely for more than 20 minutes at a time and if she can't see us, she'll come in and find us. Does not like being shut outside.

My sister had to re home her cat for litter box avoidance and the next owners never had the same problem. It does make me wonder if she's just unhappy with me/in this situation. Thank you for any advice.

 

[rubysmama]

Are there stray cats, or just neighbourhood cats, in the area? I read something recently, that cats pee by the front door, because it's the beginning of their territory.

 

[Not Jackson Galaxy]

I have seen a cat walk along our fence once.

She doesn't have free access to the house at the minute so that reduces her opportunity to pee by the front door. At the moment, she pees in the bathroom. Her litter box is there which she uses for no.2 and occasional no.1. (there is another unused box available too). Otherwise, she pees (on a puppy pad, now) right next to the litter box. Or in the bath. I said to the vet that this behaviour looks to me like pain related aversion. They offered pain medication in case it helps. I have tried that before but might try it again.

 

[sunny578]

Tiny had the front door thing for a year too It was when we moved into a new house as well! I actually made the door mat her pee pad. That did drive me a little crazy though. What worked for Tiny's front door issue was putting an empty box by the door. Another thing that worked was putting a box of dirt by the door. I think we started with the box of dirt and then switched to an empty box at some point.

I think moves are super hard on some cats. I heard someone say once that cats are grounded in their space and dogs are grounded in their people. A generalization, but one that sometimes holds true!

Tiny ultimately needed to move I think in order to reset her. There was some cat voodoo problem with our old space. That, and it was way too small for her and 2 + dogs.

 

[sunny578]

Have you tried a pee pad in a litter box?

She might be unhappy with you/the situation, but I also don't think that's necessarily true. I think sometimes the litter box behavior starts bc of anxiety or fear, and then it becomes a habit. I think urinating calms some cats down, and I think also their own scent calms them down too, so in her mind urinating on the floor by the door is a pleasant thing that makes the space that much better :-/

 

[rubysmama]

When she pees by the front door, is there by any chance a door mat there?

I wonder if she's ever used the bathroom outside? Meaning would she be familiar with using dirt to cover her waste? If so, maybe try putting some unfertilized potting soil on top of the litter. Or try it anyway. At this point, you have nothing to lose. And that's something that helps when training feral cats to use a litter box.

Have you tried sopping up her pee in a paper towel and burying it in the litter box, and letting her smell it. That supposedly works for litter training kittens.

Have you tried cat attract litter?
Cat Attract™ Litter - Dr. Elsey's

Have you tried a pee pad in a litter box?

Good idea. I've read that sometimes helps.

I said to the vet that this behaviour looks to me like pain related aversion. They offered pain medication in case it helps. I have tried that before but might try it again.

That's definitely worth trying again.

 

[stephmnichols]

I would second the suggestion about pee pad in the litter box! Perhaps start with just a pee pad in the spots that she has accidents the most, which sounds like the front door and the bathroom. And if she starts consistently using the pee pads, you could try putting them inside the empty boxes! Maybe eventually you could combine this tactic with a variation of the one mentioned by rubysmama , and cover the used pee pad with a sprinkle of litter.... slowly building up to more?

 

[Not Jackson Galaxy]

Thank you for the suggestions, I will try moving the puppy pad into a litter box. In the past, this has caused her to choose a different spot on the floor, but you never know. I have tried cat attract before, still have some.

The worst thing, is that she can't have free roam of the house unsupervised because the front door thing. The bottom of the door is very low and kinda drags long the floor so no puppy pad would stay in place, it would get dragged and crumpled up as well. So I can't protect the floor there and it is brand new wood. Accidents in the bathroom I can tolerate because it is tile and I can protect the floor with whatever. I have taken to putting an enormous cardboard in front of the door when she is roaming free. But I worry that if I let her full access unsupervised, she'll pee just in front of the box too.

She never pees outside as far as I can tell. I let her out the back door, and she can't actually get round to the front door (I mean, she could if she was smart enough to jump the wall). The front of the house is one big driveway which serves 8 houses. It is in a housing estate so not straight onto a big road but it worries me a bit more than the back garden. But maybe I should help her go out the front.

 

[sunny578]

It's been so long--did you ever find a solution? Hope all is well!