Would It Be Better To Rehome Or Make Cats With Behavioral Problems Into Outdoor Cats?

[juliamarie32]

Hi, I know this must be stressful for you, espcially while pregnant. My first thought is to keep the 2 cats with litter box issues in one room, just to limit the damage and buy time. You could let them out with suppervision. I'm assuming once she is spayed all your cats will be neutered or spayed? If not, that needs to be step one. It can take up to a month for her hormones to balance out so don't expect instant results.
My next thought is this may be a dog problem and not a cat problem. Your dog needs lots of training. Your cats should not ever have to worry about a dog while trying to go! That would stress a human out!!! Your cats need one room where they have some litter boxes where your dog is never allowed, under no circumstances! I would also watch a few cat versus dog episodes. Many cays prefer uncovered boxes, especially cats that were feral. Not only that but sometimes there are bully or jerk cats who like to bug or attack another cat while they go. Lastly I'm wondering if there are ferals outside that are stressing your cats out? You can make your front and back yard unappealing to neighborhood cats by doing things like setting up motion activated sprinklers to chase off all unwanted visitors. Given your dog stressing them out, that she is not fixed and I'm guessing neighborhood intruders a better question might be, why are my other 2 cats using their box? Also they may not be, unless you have cameras and a black light, you may only be catching those 2 cats doing it. Without a black light you can never find the hidden pee, and trust me it is there.

My punk Dante bothers my other cat Salem by sniffing him while he uses the box. So I leave one box uncovered so he would quit hanging half his body out of the box while he went. He started getting so stressed he stepped in his own pee clumps couple of times.

If none of the above things work, then yes you should re-home your cats. You can also have fencing installed on top of your fencing so it keeps intruder cats out and your cats in. Then you could let all the cats and the dog be inside/outside animals whenever they wanted.

Thanks for all the thoughts and advice! Yes, after Lillie is spayed all of them will be. They do have 2 uncovered litterboxes in areas the dog can't reach (basement) and those are quite popular. They also have a covered one in the upstairs bathroom that the dog can't reach. The dog usually leaves them alone pretty well because they'll swat at him if he bothers them, I'm more worried about him eating poop out of the box so that's why the main level ones stay covered.

Murphy's favorite box is actually a square XL covered one in the dining room tucked under a cabinet so I try to keep that one extra clean to encourage him to use it. That one is the most frequently used though so I think that's part of his issue as it gets full the fastest.

 

[ArtNJ]

Oh glad I popped in! I feel like conversion to indoor/outdoor is appropriate to think about as a last resort option. My experience with this:

We rescued Rocky 6 years ago when we found her outside our house. She didn't adapt to the litterbox that well, and we decided she could be an indoor/outdoor cat. Later, we allowed youngster Clyde to join her. She was just miserable when Clyde was in the house 24/7, he wouldn't stop trying to jump on her. It wasn't an introduction issue -- she just doesn't like being jumped on. Indoor/outdoor solved both issues. Rocky does not have accidents as long as she can go outside, and will almost always hold it if she needs to stay in during a blizzard or something like that. We have a sliding glass door, and the cats will go to that to ask to be let in or out. Without a sliding glass door or cat door, conversion might be trickier. Ours know to meow at other doors if they see lights or hear you near them, if they don't get a response at the glass door, but I'm not sure how quickly that is learned. So without a sliding glass door, you would need to keep to a pretty rigorous schedule so they learn to come back when its feeding time -- at least until they learn to meow at the outside or back door loudly enough for you to hear. Its perhaps doable, but I don't think it would be as easy or risk free as if you have a sliding glass door.

There are risks regardless. Especially for your older cat that has never been an outdoor cat. The risks vary depending on your neighborhood, streets and preditors. I live on a cul de sac, have a bit of wooded land behind me, and we don't have a lot of predators -- a better than average set up.

Absent a catio, conversion to outdoor only will be a death sentence for an older cat with no hunting experience. It can be that even for a younger cat -- when we found Rocky, we thought she was a 6 month old kitten. No, she was around 3 -- she was just very underweight leading to our confusion. So I'm totally agree that you shouldn't just release them. Thinking your going to feed them outside is naive -- for 3 years, we lived next to a woman that put out tons of food for strays, and let me tell you, other animals came to eat, other cats came to eat and fight, and the strays quite often wandered off or died within a season or two despite the food. Its not a good solution.

Bottom line, conversion to indoor/outdoor is a something that is legit to think about, but there may be problems preventing you from doing it (related to your neighborhood) and if you do decide to do it, you could encounter problems implementing. As such, it is likely a last resort.

 

[maggiedemi]

Can you share with us what their diet is like? Brand and type of food?

 

[danteshuman]

For his favorite litter box that everyone loves, perhaps you could try buying an automatic litterbox just to put next to the favorite box? Or you could buy or build a litter box cubard that has a kitty door on the side. If your dog is large, a small entrance to an extra large litter box cubard or to a cat room, might help.

If it was my dog I would start training them to stay on their bed and to. It go into the one forbidden cat room. I know the dog eating poo thing is beyond gross. In one of the 'cat vs did' episodes on animal planet an ownder had s dog with the same problem. He trained his dog so well that he could drop a treat in the litter box and the dog would not go after it!!! So yes some doggy training.

Also again you really want a black light. That way you can be 100% sure you get all the pee. Normally I would suggest to put a box where ever your cat has the most accidents. If the dog is trained then you can try that.

 

[MeganLLB]

Do all of your cats get along well? Do they get along with the dog? The number one reason why cats eliminate outside out the litterbox is territorial insecurity. They are trying to over-own certain parts of the house because they feel insecure and they feel like they don't own anything. They may be marking because they are stressed out by the other animals.

What kind of cat furniture do you have in the house? Cat trees, beds, scratching posts, blankets are all things that cats can soak there scent into so when they walk around the house they can smell themselves and think that they own something.

What kind of vertical space is there for them? Have you heard of the cat "superhighway"? Cats should always feel like they have an escape route if they need to get out of a room or get up high.

I would try to play with them more throughout the house to build their confidence up.

My gut feeling is that this isn't a litter issue, but that they are stressed and insecure.

If you aren't willing to work on the issue, U would rehome them. I wouldn't put a cat outside thats never lived outside before.