Hi all,
I'm a first time poster, so please let me know if I am not doing this right.
Last year, I got my first cat - I was a foster fail.
But from the start, she had litter issues. She just didn't like to use the litter box, and would hold her pee for days. (That caused quite the freak out, but she was vet checked multiple times and they said it wasn't a medical issue. It had happened as well with her prior fosters.) When she did pee, she would find anywhere else to go - her cat bed, the couch, etc. I've tried multiple types of litter as well as pee pads with no luck.
Noticing that it was usually on a blanket / towel if one was out, I then got her to a point where she would pee on towels. So for about six months, we did that and she was great. She had two litter boxes with towels in them and used those regularly. Per my vet's advice I did also leave a litter box with litter in it in case she ever wanted to try that again, but she never touched it.
We took a trip to my parents' place over Christmas. She was great while we were there, kept using her towel boxes. However, since coming home, she's gone back to finding various spots in my place to use to go to the bathroom again - her pillows, couches, a corner of the stairs she likes. She doesn't repeat the same locations, although that may be in part because I remove her access once it happens - so I take away the pillow / cat bed, and now have boxes along my couch and stairs. I thought I'd give her pillows back once she started regularly using her boxes again, but that hasn't happened.
I'm not sure if that's the best way to go - one thing that concerns me as I keep blocking places off is that, for lack of anywhere else, she may decide to go in my bed, which hasn't happened yet. I don't know if I should put one of her pillows and blankets back out on a pee pad, or if that would just be letting her get away with the behaviour?
One thing I do that kind of helps, as she still doesn't go often, is at the end of each day, I catch her and shut us in a small room with a towel box until she's gone to the bathroom. She really doesn't like that, though - she hates being picked up. And then once we're there, she whines and scratches at the door for a bit before using the box. And I would like her just to use the boxes on her own.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
I'm a first time poster, so please let me know if I am not doing this right.
Last year, I got my first cat - I was a foster fail.
But from the start, she had litter issues. She just didn't like to use the litter box, and would hold her pee for days. (That caused quite the freak out, but she was vet checked multiple times and they said it wasn't a medical issue. It had happened as well with her prior fosters.) When she did pee, she would find anywhere else to go - her cat bed, the couch, etc. I've tried multiple types of litter as well as pee pads with no luck.
Noticing that it was usually on a blanket / towel if one was out, I then got her to a point where she would pee on towels. So for about six months, we did that and she was great. She had two litter boxes with towels in them and used those regularly. Per my vet's advice I did also leave a litter box with litter in it in case she ever wanted to try that again, but she never touched it.
We took a trip to my parents' place over Christmas. She was great while we were there, kept using her towel boxes. However, since coming home, she's gone back to finding various spots in my place to use to go to the bathroom again - her pillows, couches, a corner of the stairs she likes. She doesn't repeat the same locations, although that may be in part because I remove her access once it happens - so I take away the pillow / cat bed, and now have boxes along my couch and stairs. I thought I'd give her pillows back once she started regularly using her boxes again, but that hasn't happened.
I'm not sure if that's the best way to go - one thing that concerns me as I keep blocking places off is that, for lack of anywhere else, she may decide to go in my bed, which hasn't happened yet. I don't know if I should put one of her pillows and blankets back out on a pee pad, or if that would just be letting her get away with the behaviour?
One thing I do that kind of helps, as she still doesn't go often, is at the end of each day, I catch her and shut us in a small room with a towel box until she's gone to the bathroom. She really doesn't like that, though - she hates being picked up. And then once we're there, she whines and scratches at the door for a bit before using the box. And I would like her just to use the boxes on her own.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!