My cats are using each other's litter boxes. How can i fix this?

[gillyrosh]

Brought a new cat home last week, and I set up a litter for the new kitty, separate from the litter for my resident kitty. For reasons unknown to me, the cat's have used each other's litter boxes. Is this normal? And how do I fix it?

 

[FeebysOwner]

It sounds pretty normal to me, and if it doesn't pose a problem with any of the cats, it really shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Jem]

It's perfectly fine that they share litter boxes. I have three cats and 2 oversized boxes...they all share...it's quite normal. Sometimes cats can be very particular about their litter habits, like one for pee and one for poop, or sometimes one can bully the other making them scared to use it so they pee on the floor, but if there are no issues...yay! No need to fix this. Just stay on top of cleaning them as one may become "the favorite" and get used more...so more to scoop.

 

[gillyrosh]

I read that allowing cats to share litter boxes is unsanitary. Is this something you all have found?

 

[FeebysOwner]

I read that allowing cats to share litter boxes is unsanitary. Is this something you all have found?

As long as the litterboxes are scooped regularly, and then cleaned thoroughly (probably as a general guide, at least once a month - it all depends on your boxes/litter/cats), you should be good. Scooping multiple times a day, with multiple cats is essential. The same thing applies if you were so lucky as to have one box per one cat and that is all they used. Unsanitary conditions don't stop being an issue even then.

The only problem you will have to worry about is if one contracts some sort of parasite, and tbh, if one has got a parasite the others will probably follow suit, regardless of whether or not they use the same box. That is because they share dishes, and sleeping spaces, and many cats even groom each other.

 

[ArtNJ]

To my knowledge, its almost impossible to get cats to not share if they have the free run of the house. You risk stressing out the cats about the litter boxes, which could lead to accidents. As already noted, there isn't really any reason for it anyway.

I think you just read bad advice, like when Trump got some people to drink bleach.

 

[sunny578]

It's very normal for them to share! A totally good and normal thing

 

[Antonio65]

By reading all the replies, it seems I was extremely lucky, if not even having an unreal situation, that my previous cats had their own litter box each and that they never swapped them

 

[Robyn5678]

Good luck not getting Them to share. The only way you’d do that is totally closing them off from each other. They are probably trying to get their smell in each other’s boxes.