Hello everyone!
For some context to the title, we adopted a kitten (we'll call her “Tabby”) back in December, she’s 5mo now and is female. She’s our third cat after “Grey” (7yo, male) and “White” (5yo, female). All are neutered/spayed except for Tabby, who is scheduled to be spayed in 2 weeks. Tabby was “quarantined” in a bathroom for the first 2 weeks or so (flea infested) and was then moved to my room where she stayed all day except for some supervised short visits in other parts of the house. They had slow paced introductions following the suggested steps and expectedly, they didn’t like her at first, hissing, growling, etc. was common. Grey got over it eventually but White really hated her (and still kinda does?) since day 1 to the point of aggression (hunting her down NOT playing, drawing blood a couple times) and of course, she’s the one with the pee problem.
White’s personality: she’s a scaredy cat with strangers, she’s really calm in general and with everyone living at home and she’s not all that affectionate except when it comes to me. She’ll follow me around like a shadow everywhere, will ask to come into every room I go and has slept with me most nights, it’s like she chose me as her person or something, I love her so much. Our vet has even described her as one of the calmest cats he’s seen (even if scared she’ll never hiss or attack) so we were pretty shocked with her attitude towards the kitten.
Tabby is brave, affectionate and FULL of energy, can be obnoxious, especially with Grey whose patience she likes to test often. But she’ll respect White (probably because of her beatings) and if she tries to initiate play with her she’s super cautious and doesn’t hesitate to hide if White comes after her. So it’s not like Tabby annoys White a lot.
So, the peeing problem —only pee, she does poop inside the litter boxes as usual— started one of the first times I took Tabby downstairs (I usually had to take White away from the space because of her attacking the kitten) and I’m pretty sure Tabby used the other cats’ litter boxes. White peed in a corner in the kitchen/dining room. I thought it was an accident because White was still using the litter boxes after it. Then, when Tabby started having more visits downstairs, I noticed these accidents happened again and put two and two together that “oh, it has to do with the kitten”.
I read online about enzymatic cleaners but couldn’t find one where I live so I turned to home-made solutions (like vinegar, pepper, lemon and even hot sauce) which deterred her maybe half of the times. Then I found a product used to train cats to not pee where it’s sprayed and it kinda worked at first but she stopped caring and would pee on top of it when it was dry after some time. Yesterday, —approximately 2 months since the first incident— I finally got my hands on an enzymatic cleaner and I was hopeful… I sprayed it generously on the problem pee-spots last night and washed it after like an hour (as per the instructions). Woke up today to no pee puddles, sprayed it again for good measure but before I could wash it off an hour later she had peed on it
At this point I don’t know what to do anymore, and it’s only got worse since Tabby was allowed to roam freely in the house (except for sleeping in my room at night). I’m sure it has to do with jealousy (threatened by me spending time with kitten and her sleeping in my room at night? I do pay attention to White and Grey too, though) and being territorial (luckily the attacking has mostly stopped, except sometimes when both Tabby and White are in my room). Maybe also despising that Tabby’s using the other litter boxes? But I don’t know how to fix it and feel like nothing works. I’m scared she’ll never drop the habit. I love her deeply but it’s no fun cleaning pee puddles, nor the smell, nor the tension between my father and I because “my cat keeps being nasty and pees on the floor”.
**Another relevant point about White’s peeing is that besides her 4 problem pee spots (tiled floor) she does pee inside ONE litter box: the one I had for Tabby in my room that I still keep for her as she stays at night (but she rarely uses). I don’t mind this at all except for the fact that White still pees on the floor when she’s downstairs, so it only works when she wants it to work. -It has a different kind of litter (wood pellets) but I don’t feel like the litter is the issue here because she’s used the clay(?) one for 5 years without issue, and if I were to change to all wood pellets I’d need 4 new litter boxes plus having to accustom Grey to using a different litter (he’s a picky cat in general so I’d rather not gamble with him).
So yeah, sorry for the long post but I felt some background was needed! Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated
For some context to the title, we adopted a kitten (we'll call her “Tabby”) back in December, she’s 5mo now and is female. She’s our third cat after “Grey” (7yo, male) and “White” (5yo, female). All are neutered/spayed except for Tabby, who is scheduled to be spayed in 2 weeks. Tabby was “quarantined” in a bathroom for the first 2 weeks or so (flea infested) and was then moved to my room where she stayed all day except for some supervised short visits in other parts of the house. They had slow paced introductions following the suggested steps and expectedly, they didn’t like her at first, hissing, growling, etc. was common. Grey got over it eventually but White really hated her (and still kinda does?) since day 1 to the point of aggression (hunting her down NOT playing, drawing blood a couple times) and of course, she’s the one with the pee problem.
White’s personality: she’s a scaredy cat with strangers, she’s really calm in general and with everyone living at home and she’s not all that affectionate except when it comes to me. She’ll follow me around like a shadow everywhere, will ask to come into every room I go and has slept with me most nights, it’s like she chose me as her person or something, I love her so much. Our vet has even described her as one of the calmest cats he’s seen (even if scared she’ll never hiss or attack) so we were pretty shocked with her attitude towards the kitten.
Tabby is brave, affectionate and FULL of energy, can be obnoxious, especially with Grey whose patience she likes to test often. But she’ll respect White (probably because of her beatings) and if she tries to initiate play with her she’s super cautious and doesn’t hesitate to hide if White comes after her. So it’s not like Tabby annoys White a lot.
So, the peeing problem —only pee, she does poop inside the litter boxes as usual— started one of the first times I took Tabby downstairs (I usually had to take White away from the space because of her attacking the kitten) and I’m pretty sure Tabby used the other cats’ litter boxes. White peed in a corner in the kitchen/dining room. I thought it was an accident because White was still using the litter boxes after it. Then, when Tabby started having more visits downstairs, I noticed these accidents happened again and put two and two together that “oh, it has to do with the kitten”.
I read online about enzymatic cleaners but couldn’t find one where I live so I turned to home-made solutions (like vinegar, pepper, lemon and even hot sauce) which deterred her maybe half of the times. Then I found a product used to train cats to not pee where it’s sprayed and it kinda worked at first but she stopped caring and would pee on top of it when it was dry after some time. Yesterday, —approximately 2 months since the first incident— I finally got my hands on an enzymatic cleaner and I was hopeful… I sprayed it generously on the problem pee-spots last night and washed it after like an hour (as per the instructions). Woke up today to no pee puddles, sprayed it again for good measure but before I could wash it off an hour later she had peed on it
At this point I don’t know what to do anymore, and it’s only got worse since Tabby was allowed to roam freely in the house (except for sleeping in my room at night). I’m sure it has to do with jealousy (threatened by me spending time with kitten and her sleeping in my room at night? I do pay attention to White and Grey too, though) and being territorial (luckily the attacking has mostly stopped, except sometimes when both Tabby and White are in my room). Maybe also despising that Tabby’s using the other litter boxes? But I don’t know how to fix it and feel like nothing works. I’m scared she’ll never drop the habit. I love her deeply but it’s no fun cleaning pee puddles, nor the smell, nor the tension between my father and I because “my cat keeps being nasty and pees on the floor”.
**Another relevant point about White’s peeing is that besides her 4 problem pee spots (tiled floor) she does pee inside ONE litter box: the one I had for Tabby in my room that I still keep for her as she stays at night (but she rarely uses). I don’t mind this at all except for the fact that White still pees on the floor when she’s downstairs, so it only works when she wants it to work. -It has a different kind of litter (wood pellets) but I don’t feel like the litter is the issue here because she’s used the clay(?) one for 5 years without issue, and if I were to change to all wood pellets I’d need 4 new litter boxes plus having to accustom Grey to using a different litter (he’s a picky cat in general so I’d rather not gamble with him).
So yeah, sorry for the long post but I felt some background was needed! Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated
