Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Cat People - I Need Advice!

I need help with my cats. I have two male cats that are about 3 and a half years old and litter mates. They are extremely close...clean each other, play together, sleep together. My problem is that they are urinating outside the litter boxes...not somewhere else all together, but on the edges, the floor next to it and the wall next to it. They get in the box and squat like usual, but then will start to stand up and the urine goes on the edge, floor, wall. Does anyone know why they are doing this and how I can get them to stop??? Oh, and they are also scratching the hell out of my couches. Is it a territory thing? Are they just lazy? Could they be sick? This only started about six months ago.

4 comments:

Laura said...

The scratching thing is normal. Welcome to the world of cats. You can get them something to scratch on. When I did that, my cats just scratched on the scratching post AND the furniture.
As for urinating outside the box. Make sure you are changing the box often enough, get at least one box for each cat, make sure you haven't changed litter brands recently, and you can make sure they don't have UTIs by having a urinalysis done at your vet. If they're actually spraying or going on your bed or something, you can try prozac but if their aim is off (they're near the box but missing), it's likely not going to help.

Laura said...

Oh, a covered litter box may solve your problem. At least they won't hit the walls!

Anonymous said...

I have 2 girls, and one of them has ALWAYS done that. She will get right up to the corner of the box and miss just about every time. Drives me nuts! I have ruled out a potential health problem, since she makes it to the box and doesn't go in "random" places around the house. Unfortunately, I have no suggestions except for a covered litter box if yours are small enough to fit in one - mine won't! It's a pain I tell you. As for the scratching, they may just need more places to scratch (maybe some new scratching posts? Put some catnip on them to make them more desirable!) It's hard becuase you have to catch them in the act and "coach" them to move away from the furniture to their new toys. Maybe try putting the scratching post in front of the place where they usually scratch? I feel for you!

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.