Litter Box Issues: Dr. Amy Jones has suddenly started to have a few “accidents” with her litter box. It’s when she pees, see. She’s always been a little weird with her box, pooing in one corner and peeing in the other. The “zones” are getting further apart though, and now she’s going over the edge. We’ve actually seen her do it. She’s physically in the litterbox but she’s backed up to one edge, so when she squats down her bum’s hanging over. Hence: the big piece of cardboard underneath to catch the overspill. We thought at first that it was the litter; we were trying an increased amount of the magic crystals to cut down on odor, and we think maybe they were too rough on her feet. Fine, we switched back to the old clumping stuff. But she’s still doing it. I don’t think there’s anything physically wrong with her; I think she’s just got a bit of a bathroom ritual going on and we need to move her forward a bit. Could we need a bigger box? Do we need to clean more frequently? (The answer is yes, but she never complained before.) Should we move the box out of the corner it’s in? Any advice is welcome. Right now, I’m thinking of trying something like this…
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I have the same problem with Mina just starting to do it. I am considering buying either a hooded tray or a rimmed one – I just wonder how much difficulty she’ll have in adjusting to it. But then cats do love confined spaces… I have no idea why she’s doing it all of sudden either.
We bought a hooded one with a catflap (except our cat refuses to go through a catflap – luckily it is removable). The top-entry one looks even better with the natty paw-litter-remover thingy.
One of my friends has an automatically raking litter tray – as soon as the cat exits it cleans away any clumps and the tray is ready for next use. May be a solution, albeit costly.
Robert! Haven’t seen you in ages. Hope all is well…
We’ve got one of the automatic ones, actually. They’re great in theory but we don’t use it anymore. The problem is that the tines don’t go all the way down to the bottom, so you end up with a layer of wee-soaked litter at the bottom of the tray. We found it didn’t cut down on the smell issue much at all.
Dr. Amy doesn’t seem to like going forward into confined spaces. I tried DIYing a hooded box by chopping a door into a bit cardboard box, but she refused to go inside. She loves jumping INTO boxes (and the laundry basket) though. I’m starting to think that simply getting a deeper tray would be the best solution. If she physically can’t hang her butt out, she can’t wee on the floor! So I may try getting a tub at Kmart or something and seeing how that works.
The top-entry thing kinda freaks me out. We always just had the hooded litterboxes after a few cats who got a little too enthusiastic about covering their mess. That kind works great.
Riley does this – I think it’s his arthritis. He gets into the box but it’s too painful to squat so he doesn’t, he just stands there and goes so it all squirts out behind. But he only does this sometimes. Sometimes he does the butt over the side trick and sometimes he gets it all in the box – always in a corner though, never in the middle. He’s old, of course, nearly 16. It’s driving me demented! And it really smells!
2 trays
I wondered about that, M-H, but she’s relatively young and in good shape. She doesn’t seem to have trouble moving any other time. And I’ve watched her; she’s squatting all right. She’s just squatting over thin air! 🙂
I think we may give two trays a try too. I’ve been researching today and some of them say cats prefer to urinate in one box and poo in another. She’s never been precious like that before… but maybe she’s getting finicky as she gets older.
dude! I SO WANT one of those covered litter trays. Let me know if you find them.
other than that, I have no little box advice. You know the problems we have in our house….
We have a covered litter box and our cat used to do that even with the cover. She seemed to grow out of it after a little while though.
For the time, I think a larger box would probably be a good idea. You could also try to increase the size of the walls so she can’t hang over. If you do it all the way around, she may need a step to know she can still get in.
Hey Kris! Call Doctor Harry. He’ll save the day 😉