Why is my old cat often but not always pooping outside his toilet

[cloa513]

How big is your home? Is it more than 1 floor? How many litter boxes does he have? How often do you clean his litter box? When was the last time he saw a vet? Does he have to jump to get into the litter box? Has he shown any signs of decline in cognitive function?

It is a house with living room, kitchen,
Two floors and 1st floor has a raised area.

Now two litter boxes.
Cleaned of excreta etc. after every time and full cleaned like every 2 weeks. Fluffy has always been a messy cat in regards to himself and surrounds (but quite good lately).
decline in cognitive function- Fluffy is as dopey and not terribly playful as he always was- often about a minute or two a day as far as I know- ignoring toys offered to him if out of the mood. Friendly as ever for a cat especially Norwegian.

He is big cat so litter entry is just a big step.

 

[cloa513]

And today he pooped on it after at least a week of no problems while no one was home and he only had breakfast which had pumpkin- I come home at 3:30 pm. We've had a one or two nervous moments where Fluffy miaowed at my wife and that was sign that he wanted to go toilet and he needed to directed to enter the toilet whereas he just had his head inside. He has done it fine by himself other times. I recently reduced his cat food content a couple of grams to compensate for adding pumpkin.

 

[cloa513]

After a long time of good toilet behaviour (from last post till now), Fluffy pooped on the big living room mat- couple of small poops. My wife was away all day and I gave him half a meal without pumpkin in addition to his breakfast plus pumpkin in morning. There was another incident before we thought it was one of us humans with little line of poo.

 

[StormyPeak]

The cat in my avatar was my first cat, I got her as a 1/2 grown stray kitten and she lived to be 21 years old.
For years with her, I used a scented, course-type non clumping kitty litter...but when she hit about 16 years old, she started pooing outside the litter box.

I did some research and in reading a number of things that might help, I started to experiment with kitty litters. I tried non-scented as that was one suggestion, and I tried non-scented clumping. She was still having issues...then I hit on a very fine clumping litter, and she never went back to pooing on the outside of the box. The litter came in scented and non scented, and she didn't mind either.

So, I had to conclude that her feet must have become too sensitive, ?arthritis in her feet? or something in her brain didn't like that course stuff anymore. She liked the fine soft stuff though.

Also, I read above about dementia. Ashley was around 19 when she started showing signs of dementia. It started out with her about once a week, walking around the house for 3 to 5 minutes meowing the whole time, and not acting like she knew me, or where she was....then the meows would suddenly stop and she would look around and relax and go lay down.

The incidents started to become a daily thing, and started to last longer as the next few years rolled by.
Physically for an ancient cat, she was in remarkable physical shape, still fairly strong, no wobble to her walk, some slight to mild arthritis in her hips according to her last x-ray a year before I put her to sleep.
But she got to a point where her dementia episodes were lasting around a 1/2 hour and sometimes happening a few times a day...it was too much, the constant mews and all that walking and her looking afraid and confused as to where she was at. And I made the decision to have the vet come to my home and put her to sleep.

Maybe, her litter box stuff was a super early sign of dementia? I just figured it had something to do with the tactile sensation on her paws that the courser grain stuff was just feeling too sharp for her, given how she took the the fine grain litter.

Stormy

 

[cloa513]

Fluffy doesn't dig his poop in the toilet. He was taken from mother at 2 months from a distant breeder- no choice of breeder around here. We for instance put our names down first for an distant abandoned Norwegian Forest cat but the person gave it to some else without contacting us. He was used to a sticky sheet but instantly refused to use it at our home. He flails around kicking the litter and outsidde the litter box and used to often get his feet and body fur soiled which my wife cleaned a lot. He doesn't soil himself much any more. We always had soft kitty litter and now he has a second toilet with gravelly stuff which was previously had gritty fine gravel but it got stuck in his paws and fur.