litter box problems!

[boecyrus]

I have two cats, one was a street rescue and another was a kitten from a litter a stray cat had in our attic -- so we've had him since he was born. Both are boys, neither of them neutered even though I know they both should be, but the cat I had before them died after getting neutered so I'm very afraid for my current cats to have it done.

The problem I'm having is, one of my cats seems to only use the litter box when I'm around it. He's very attached to me so at first I didn't see it as a problem but after reading around online it seems like he could have a medical problem if he's behaving this way. My other cat does not bother him while he's in the litter box, in fact they rarely interact. Both have their own spots around the apartment and they steer clear of each other except to eat.

I'm just worried about what the cause of this behavior could be. Killer (the cat this post is about) as I said is very attached to me and follows me throughout every room of the apartment, and even sits at my feet while I'm in the bathroom, waiting for me to get done. I can see that stemming into him only feeling comfortable using the litter box while I'm around, but I just want to make sure. He's never had any health problems before, neither of them have aside from a few wounds from fights with each other.

Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tulosai]

I honestly have no experience with this so I am partly just bumping this to see if anyone with more knowledge answers.

However, a few clarifying questions: what exactly do you mean he will only use the box if you are there? Do you mean home or physically in the same room with the box? What if you are not there? Will he hold it or will he pee somewhere else instead? What happens if you have to leave the house for an extended period?

How many boxes do you have?

Good luck sorting this out.  And a warm welcome to the site!! 

 

[boecyrus]

Thank you for responding!

What I mean is: He will use the box no matter if he's gone recently or not, when I am in the same room with it. It's almost like he's trying to show me that he can use it, but he's nearly two years old. He was an outside cat for one of those years, so that may be a contributing factor, but he loves being indoors now and I let him outside sometimes if he has the itch to go, but I supervise him.

As far as I know he does not go anywhere else when I am not at home, when we leave for extended periods my cat sitter says they both use the box, she doesn't find anything around the apartment. We only have one box, and it's fairly small for two cats, which is why I clean it more often than I should, because Killer is very picky about a dirty litter box and he'll come on the bed and pee if the litter box is too dirty. I want to buy a bigger one and possibly an extra one but I can't ever seem to have the extra money for it and for the extra cat litter I'd be using.

 

[vball91]

The rule of thumb is one box for each cat plus one, so for two cats, that's three boxes. I would definitely add at least a second box. That may just solve the issue especially if you know he's picky about the cleanliness. That may be why he goes outside the box when you're not home. You're not there to clean it.

As for litter boxes, they are not very expensive. You can also use storage containers. And frankly I would rather save and spend the money on extra boxes and litter than have my cat pee on my bed.

 

[tulosai]

It's also worth noting that, while people assume more boxes means more litter, it is not really true, at least not to the degree people assume. More boxes means each box gets less use than one would, and needs to be refilled less often, scooped less often, and completely dumped and emptied less often.  I've always had 2 boxes so I can't comment on a switch from 1 to 2, but when I switched from 2 to 3, I found I used almost NO more litter than I was using when I only had 2 boxes.