[JoJodaPyro]

SO, I am here because I love cats. The reason I felt that I should join is I have an issue with Fieldy. Fieldy is a very different cat. He isn't afraid of anyone, or anything. He likes my dogs, in fact he tends to spend more time with them, than he does us. He plays fetch like a dog, He eats dog food, and drinks their water. He is the neatest cat I have personally ever owned. I have 2 cats, they are both indoor only. I have 3 litter boxes, 2 are covered, and one Litter Maid. I bought the Litter Maid because Fieldy was pooping on the floor. (Fieldy went the first 6 years of his life not pooping on the floor, the first 2 years in a 2 cat house, and then 4 additional in a 3 cat house.) I tried changing the litter, I tried moving the boxes, I tried taking the tops off the boxes. Nothing. I know what most people think that it is most likely due to the boxes not being clean. The boxes are cleaned 2 times a day. To make it even more confusing, he still pees in the box. So, I tried cleaning the litter boxes, taking the litter out and scrubbing them out. It worked, for about 2 days. :fust Back to pooping on the floor. So, last resort, I bought a Litter Maid. He stopped pooping on the floor for 4 months. If Snoop uses the box and it hasn't cycled (Litter Maids have a 10 minute timer) and scooped, Fieldy would poop on the floor. I started to try to keep Snoop from using the Litter Maid, first because as a Main **** he drinks a lot of water, and he pees a very large amount, and to top it off he digs to the bottom of the box, so when he buries it, the litter then clumps and sticks to the bottom of the box, and the Litter Maid can't scoop it. So my question is this. What else can I try? I am at my whits end trying to deal with this. I love this cat more than I can put into words, but I can't have a cat that poops on the floor. He still uses the covered boxes to pee, but he wont poop in them, and now the Litter Maid either. I have tried to think of things that may be triggers, but I can't think of anything that is related to why he would just refuse to use the box to poop. He is in good health, he gets lots of exercise, he has a bird feeder outside one window to watch, as well as the dogs to play with, and Snoop. Anything would be great! Thanks

 

[JoJodaPyro]

Nothing huh?

 

[jodi]

That is weird. Does he always poop in the same place on the floor? Do the cats each have their own litter pan or do they share the 3 pans? If he poops at a regular time maybe you could put him in the bathroom with his own personal (clean) litter pan that none of the other cats have used. Leave him in there a few min & see if he will use it. I can't wait to hear the solution to this problem.

 

[JoJodaPyro]

I think the same thing. Fieldy mostly uses the Litter Maid, But will use one of the other boxes too. Snoop doesn't care, but if he has his choice will use the litter maid as well. One of the other boxes doesn't get used, Ever. We have switched where the boxes are, and they just don't use one of them. But before we got the litter maid they did. Fieldy started pooping on a carpet in our room, I wondered if the carpet may have a smell, so I turned it 180 degrees, he still pooped in the same location in the room, so at the other side of the carpet. He then moved to the shower mat, at that point we moved the shower mat next to his litter box in the bathroom and decided it was better than nothing. He then moved to our new carpet. I put his food and water in that area, and he would poop right next to his food bowl. So we put a scrap of carpet in the area that he pooped, once again better than nothing. He stopped for a good amount of time after I bought the Litter Maid. The latest is, after I cleaned out all the boxes, and completely changed out the litter in the litter maid, I woke up the the sound of the rug being picked up and dropping on the laminate floor. I got up, and he had pooped on the rug and was trying to bury it under the rug. He didn't use the Litter maid, because he had peed in it. We always know what is his or Snoops, as Snoop will cover his leavings for minutes if you let him, and Fieldy does his business, and then jumps out of the box and does some mock digging on the carpet, and then leaves. Like before, any info, or ideas would be great. We have tried to keep him in the room at night, and when we aren't around, and he will wait, all day sometimes, and poop on the carpet as soon as we get home and let him out.

 

[catloverami]

Do you know if he tends to poop at the same time every day? I would feed him his meal in a large size dog crate, with a clean litter box and confine him for half an hour or so. Do this with each meal, and hopefully you can retrain him. Some cats tho just won't change....I had a neuter that did the same thing, peed OK in the box, but pooped beside it. He just wouldn't change. So I just put newspaper beside the box, and he would go on the paper, so that was easy to clean up. Hope something works out for you as I know how frustrating this can be.

 

[JoJodaPyro]

He doesn't go at the same time. There are times when he acts nervous, and this has been a good indication of when he needs to go. Mostly he goes on the floor when we aren't home or awake to stop him. I don't think it is fair to confine him any time we aren't home, or we would try that. We have thought about the crate route, but again, we are softies when it comes to our little friends. Both of them are fed in the morning, and the food remains until it is eaten, or the next morning, whatever happens first. They are good cats, they don't get on things, or into things, except House plants.
thinking about this issue, He also doesn't ever go upstairs. Only downstairs. We only have one carpeted room on each floor, with either hardwood, laminate or tile making up the rest.. Lots and lots of rugs. But he only goes on the floor downstairs!

 

[Alpaca]

It's not a matter of 'being mean' or 'not being fair'. Sometimes, you have to exercise 'tough love'.

Generally speaking, being in a small/confined space is calming and comforting to a cat. They think differently from humans so they may not percieve confinement as something negative.

Another example I have of this is when I brought my former stray Cap'n Jack. I confined him in my main floor bathroom for about 2 weeks. I changed the door to a wooden, prison bar design to allow introduction to the other cat and dog and confined for another 2 weeks. They could all see, touch and smell each other thru the bars. He was a very skittish cat and if I had giving him free reign at the very beginning, he would have been way worse.

After the month, I switched him to a bigger, enclosed dining room for another 2 weeks for him to heal from neutering. To this day, (2 yrs later), he treats the dining room as his 'safe room'. When he gets scared, he'll go back to that room to hide. Because of the confinement, he acknowledges one box as his own and strictly uses that religiously.

As for Miu, the confinement period also helped to calm and mellow her out. Her relationship with the Jack and Rocky the dog are more harmonious. She forgives them more easily and she's definitely less high-strung. She's also developed a solid association and routine with eating her meals in the exact spot the kennel used to be. I fed all her meals in there to have her associate the kennel with good things.

I also did not confine her indefinitely. Pls read my other thread for the details. The longest she was ever confined was overnight plus 1 or 2 hrs after breakfast.

At first I also thought it was would be so unfair and sad to confine, but I was at my wit's end and both my vet and some ppl on the forum were suggesting this after I tried numerous other methods to no avail. This is the only thing that worked. My vet also mentioned that the longer you leave this behavior uncorrected, the longer it'll take to correct it. It took me 2 yrs to fix it because I let it slide.

 

[JoJodaPyro]

So this morning he decided to go on the floor upstairs too, so now the door is closed, hes mad!

 

[catloverami]

I have the same thoughts as Alpaca on this.....no this is not mean, it is gentle discipline, and it does calm cats. You will be forever picking up poop and will start to dislike this cat. Try and fix it using Alpaca's suggestions. Good luck.