pooping outside the box

[k&j]

I have two cats, Kramer and Jesse, both 6 years old. I have two litter boxes that I clean out twice a day minimum. My problem is that one of my boys, Kramer, refuses to use the litter box for pooping.

When the weather's nice, I let him outside on a leash and he's perfectly content to poop outside. But when he's in, it's on the carpet (I've at least gotten him to go on one particular throw rug and no where else).

Does anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on how to change this behavior? It's been going on for a while so it may be impossible to change at this point.

If he weren't so darn cute...

Thanks!

 

[lynda]

Hi K&J,
I'm just taking a wild guess here...many, many moons ago, when I was a kid living at home, my mom had a cat who liked to "do his business" outside. He didn't seem to like kitty litter. After being involved in a few cat fights, my mom decided to keep him inside all the time, which then provoked a litter box problem. She solved it my using sand in the litter box instead of litter since he used the kids' sandbox for his "business" when he was outside. Maybe you could see where he likes to go when he is outside and if its sand or dirt, use that in the box.

Did you change brands of kitty litter? Even just from scented to unscented or vice versa? They can be so picky. Did you move the box? Get a new box? Anything that might have trigged it.

I wonder though why he doesn't have a problem with urinating in the litter box, although, be thankful because that's a much bigger problem than pooping outside the box. Been there, done that...and I don't want to go through that ever again!! What a smell!

Lynda

 

[sandie]

He is just being a fussy cat. He wants to go outside and if you dont like it too bad. Cats are so fun that way...hehe. The only way I have found to make a cat understand this, is to put them in a bathroom with the box and the food and water. You only let them out for short periods of time and supervised. They usually get used to going in the box, because they wont poop where they sleep and the bathroom is awful small. If you dont mind him going on the same rug all the time, I would just leave it be. Or try using a small cat box on that particular rug.