How to stop this culprit?

[cindy321]

whenever we got a new carpet, or new cat bed etc, there is always someone pee and poo on it within 24 hours. It took us a while finally found the culprit, one of our female cats. We caught her red handed multiple times, and yell at her and chase her away but she keep doing it.

She is in perfect health and use litterbox fine normally, but why does she keep doing this? It drives us mad, is there anything we could do to stop it? or put something on the carpet/bed etc to prevent it?

 

[Maria Bayote]

Have you tried cat repellant sprays?

 

[cindy321]

not yet, the main reason is, if we got a new cat bed, it is supposed for the cats to sleep in it , we do not want to repel our other cats to use it.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I would make sure you have some towels and/or blankets handy that she has laid/slept on and place one of them in the new bed. For the new carpet, especially if is isolated to a room or two, spread the towels/blankets out over as much area as you can - or rub them onto the carpeting to enable her to smell herself - or, even stuff from the other cats since she apparently gets along with them. You can also block her from a room with new carpeting until your other cats have had a chance to 'spread' their scent over it. She is likely marking territory so it will smell like her.

Don't yell or chase her as it is very likely she has no idea how to connect her marking with how you are treating her. You could pick her up and tell her a firm "no" or hiss, and then remove her from the area, but by then she has already marked - the key is to find ways to get her stop before she starts.

 

[cindy321]

Thanks a lot for your suggestion, FeebysOwner!

We also suspect it is territory behavior, she is not a low ranking cat but she is not alpha cat either. I guess she possibly want to be a alpha one day.

Funny enough, she is the only cat in our household doing this and we have caught her red handed so many times.

For example, if we heard some scratching sounds from living room, like someone was covering their litter, obviously there is no litter box in the living room. By the time we chase her away, she already done it. All the yelling and chasing is futile as you said

 

[danteshuman]

Besides what Feebysowner said; I would try washing all her markings with an enzyme cleaner. You may need to buy a special enzyme cleaner for set in carpet stains. A black light will show you all the places that have been marked.

If the getting her smell on things with blankets & towels doesn’t work, you could try catnip spray. I would try adding a litter box into the living room or the room next door. Does she have a couple scratchers in the living room (or where you spend your most leisure time.) That way she can mark her territory in better ways. Or you can try medicating her if everything else fails.

 

[cindy321]

we do not have litterbox in the living room but there are many scratchers, and cat bed scatter around. she seems mainly do this on new bed/carpet. She has destroied a few carpets in this way already