One of our bengal kittens is now pooping outside the litter box! We recently purchased 2 bengal kittens (sisters from the same litter, 4 months old now, plans to spay them at 5mos) and while the first 2 weeks in our home seemed fine wrt. using the litter box (just a few out-of-box incidents), this week one of the cats is consistently pooping outside the box. We currently have 4 litter boxes around the house which are kept clean with easy access. We observed what seems to be territorial behavior -- one of the cats will go in each box one after the other, and the other cat will then not go in any of the boxes and will instead poop on the floor/carpet (various locations around the house). There doesn't seem to be any 'blocking' or restricting access to the box going on (read that someone's prev post). My husband has been diligent in setting up multiple litter boxes, maintaining them, etc. based on everything he has read online, but we have not been able to find any solutions to what seems to be a territorial issue between 2 same-age sisters. The cats seem active and happy with each other otherwise (aside from a bit of growling and being possessive with toys). We are at our wits' end here. Do we need to train each cat to use only a specific box(es)? Confine them to different parts of the house while they figure it out? How to react to/redirect the cat when we observe her pooping outside the box?

As harsh as it sounds maybe confining the cat pooping outside the box to 1 room with food toys and a clean litter box for a couple weeks so she can establish some territory of her own making sure she has plenty of interaction with you so as not to get lonely or feel left out. It sounds like she needs some confidence reinserted into her and this may be the way forward.

This is one for a cat behaviorist! Normally, having extra litter boxes will solve the problem! You've got siblings which usually makes things easier because they have been together since birth. The main thing is that you just got these sisters and there is definitely an adjustment period when they go to a new home. It's a whole new environment for them and they should have been in a safe room in the beginning. A small area where they an get used to their new surroundings. I'm guessing you've had them for about a month now.

Your title says only one cat is not using the litter box and seems to be prevented from using it by the other kitty. In that case, separate them and put the kitty who is not using the litter box in a safe room which contains the litter box and see what happens. You're going to have to spend some time with her in there.

The other thing is the type of litter boxes you have. Many cats do not like the hooded litter boxes and prefer open boxes and vice versa. Secondly, are you using the same type of cat litter the breeder used! Bengals seem to be quite particular.

Just know that cats prefer using a litter box .... there's just something going on which is causing the one kitty to not use it. Hopefully, your kitty isn't losing confidence due to the territorial behavior of her sister. That will cause a lot of behavioral problems down the line. While most sibling adoptions go smoothly, this is a case where it hasn't!

I hope you've got the cat trees and spend a lot of time playing with both of your kitties. Bengal kittens have so much energy ... if you can wear them out, then maybe the territorial one won't be so territorial. Good luck.

I think you need to do some sleuthing to try to verify of disprove your theory about this territorial behavior. So some questions and ideas:

* does your kitty going outside the box *ever* use a litterbox now?
* when he chooses not to use a box, what exactly is the behavior? Does he walk up to a box, sniff around it, and decide to go elsewhere? Or does he just march right up to a spot outside the box and go?
* one thing I'm having trouble with is the idea that one cat will go 4 times, one in each box, before the other cat can go once, before the boxes are cleaned again. How often are the boxes being cleaned? How are you cleaning them?
* Sherry mentioned hooded vs open boxes, which style are you using?
* How large are the boxes? Could it be that they are now inappropriately small for the now larger cats?
* Is there anything else going on with the cat that is not going in the box? How is he getting along with the other cat in general? Is appetite and activity level normal? Is he drinking enough water?
* when he does "go", is there anything unusual at all? Does he struggle, or is his poo runny, or is there even any blood in it? Does it have an extra-strong smell?

An experiment might be (like Sherry and Rseymour mentioned):
* put your cat who goes outside the litterbox in a room with a brand new, unsoiled litterbox, and lock him in there, and see if he will use it.

* a second experiment might be to lock the other cat away, clean the boxes, and see if the other kitty will use the now cleaned existing boxes.

* yet another would be to get a brand new box, put in that cat attract litter, put it in a REALLY big, open style box, and make sure the other cat doesn't use it. And see what happens.

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The little monsters 3

I also am experiencing this behavior with my 5 month old boy Bengal , we also have a 2 year old male bengal. We did the appropriate things when we brought the kitten home such as seperating them, the kitten was confined to a small room with food water and a litter box we let them interact for a couple of hours a day with each other then continued to separate them for about two weeks. They get along really well we have two large tub sized litter boxes in separate bedrooms,uncovered. Our older male has no problem with either litter box but I noticed the kitten was only pooping inside one box and peeing everywhere else , especially around the boxes. Continually watching his behavior I tried something new, I got a new litter box that the older cat hadn't used and separated them and sat there in the room till he went pee it took about two minutes. I did it through out the day and he went pee almost every time. Not sure what my next step is ...

THANK YOU all for your comments and suggestions. I'm replying to this thread because many of the details are already described above. The short of it is that our bengal kitten is pooping/peeing outside the litter box. I see now that my original post was exactly 2 months ago, but I'm sorry to say that we STILL have the exact same problem, despite multiple attempts to change the environment (which I'll list below). We are getting desperate here, so I'm posting again in hopes that I can get some more suggestions! The good news is that in 1 month we'll be moving to a new house, so we *may* have a unique opportunity to change this behavior. Boy, I wish I knew of a cat behaviorist around here!

Contrary to my original post, we now do not believe that it is a territorial issue. My best guess currently is that she tries to find a location with the least activity to do her poop. Anyway, let me step back and fill you in on what we tried:

- got tested and treated (twice in a row) for giardia. Seems to be totally cleared for a month now. Poops are no longer diarrhea (thank goodness).
- we restricted her and her sister (same litter) to a smaller part of our house with no carpets: hall bathroom, hall, and front entry area (no access to kitchen, carpeted bedrooms, carpeted living room). There the cats have access to a cat tree, preferred sleeping location, toys, and two litter boxes.
- We started with 4 litter boxes, but on the suggestion that that might be too many, we reduced (by seeing which ones were not used) the number to 2. Both used to be next to each other in the front entry, and now one is in the entry and one is in the hall bath. (We thought there might be too much activity in the front entry.)

So here is what happens -- when she and her sister are confined to this (quite large) uncarpeted hall/bath/entry area all day when we are at work/school and all night when we are sleeping, there are NEVER any accidents and BOTH cats pee/poop just fine using these litter boxes. If we confine them to this space right after feeding (2x/day ~ 6am and 6pm) to allow time for them to digest & poop, again -- NEVER any problems. After they have pooped in the box while being confined, we can open up the doors to the rooms that we are in and they will hang out with us and play quiet happily, NO PROBLEM. In fact, all day long on the weekends when we are home, they are in the same room with us without issues.

So what is the problem? The pooping outside the box only happens when we allow her access to our rooms right after she has eaten. She will walk right past a clean litter box (the *same one* that she uses all the time when confined to that space), and walk into the living room and poop right there on the carpet, sometimes right in front of me. It's usually mostly on carpet, but a few times it has been on hardwood, tile, and bedding. Two times she has gone into my son's room when he's studying at his desk and peed on his bed right behind him.

Arrrrgh!

As I mentioned, we may have a unique opportunity in a month when we move to a new house. Most of the rooms will be hardwood (not sure if the carpet is more attractive to her). The following is out 'plan of attack', but I don't know if it will change anything. I'm open to suggestions!

- in the day when we are not home, confine both cats to the garage with toys, food/water, 2 litter boxes, and a nice big sunny window (which they seem to love)
- keep food and litter boxes in the garage (that's their home base), without any boxes in the house.
- confine both cats to garage for 1 hour (??) after they eat.
- install kitty door from kitchen to garage which can be 'locked' during these times.
- let them have free roam of our house in the evenings when we are at home (after 1-hr post-eating) and also when we are sleeping. (Kitty door will be functional at this time so they can come & go to the garage).

Do you think this will work? Is the "free roam" idea in the evenings totally absurd? How do we train them to use the kitty door, and will they be confused when sometimes it's 'locked' and sometimes not?

All suggestions welcome! My husband is ready to give this cat back to our breeder (and keep her sister), so I really need to figure this out soon. I don't want to give her back and I don't want to separate the two sisters.

Thank you!

I don't understand about the "too many boxes" theory. I've never heard or read that.

I would simply suggest adding a litterbox to the livingroom, right in one of the places where he poops. It's not a permanent solution, but if you get him to poop there, then you can gradually move the box to where you want it. Make sure it's large, and open, and put cat-attract litter in it.

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The little monsters 3

Yes, brian, I've never heard of a problem with too many boxes.
We have one cat and 3 boxes - one on each level of our home. He has never had trouble finding one of the boxes that suited him in which to evacuate himself.

If there are 2 cats, there should be at least 3 boxes, probably more, in various locations throughout the house including those areas that she prefers to use as her toilet.

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~ Kyenta

I can tell you're seriously trying to solve the situation! Moving to a new home could solve the issue or cause new ones. I've never heard of having too many litter boxes either. Usually, it's the more, the merrier! They do need to be in a quiet, less traveled area of your home. Cats do prefer the privacy! Confining the cats to a garage -- well, bengals are quite social and want to me with you. Even though my garage is fairly clean and uncluttered, I would never confine Raiden to the garage. Having a cat door is great, but if the cats are allowed to go in and out freely, when you lock it, they will revolt! Been there, done that with Raiden. One time and one time only! I thought he was going to bring the whole cat door down, he was so upset at not being able to get back into the house from his enclosure.

My suggestion is to really think out areas in your new home where the litter boxes can go and be private for the kitty! I suggest you initially put them in a "safe room" just as you would when you first brought them home. Once you start letting them roam, put out as many litter boxes as you think you'll need! When a cat needs to use the litter box after eating -- no cat is the same, but you can always place the cat in the litter box if you think it's time they need to use it.

Hopefully you can start fresh at your new home. There will be more stress placed on your kitties being in a new location with new smells. You want to get off on the right foot with them, so starting all over again with a safe room may be the thing to do. Good luck.

One thing to consider, is what sort of association is your cat making with his litterbox and the space that the litterbox is in. It's kind of a strange situation, but my guess is that your cat sees that space as "the punishment room". It's the room he is forced into against his will, and has to stay there instead of being with his family. Maybe people even speak to him with frustration when he's in there or being put in there because he's just gone poo somewhere he shouldn't. Then when he's "sprung", I can totally understand him avoiding that room when he has a choice. He may be afraid of someone shutting the door on him and being "trapped" in there again. I think that is potentially one of the side-effects of locking up a cat in a particular room frequently, he may start to resent that room and that whole situation.

The fact that he does use his litterbox in there, would seem to be a very hopeful sign. It seems like you ought to be able to put similar litterboxes in other places until you find one or more places that are acceptable to him such that he will use them. I know it's difficult, and you're right, if worse comes to worse, you can resort to a routine like your describe where you have a "poo time" and put him in his special room to do that and all that. But hopefully it won't come to that.

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The little monsters 3

Thank you so much for all of your replies and advice! I can see that we will need to be strategic about the transition to the new home, and start out with a "safe" region of the house, as you recommended.

Re. the multiple litter box issue -- we did have 5 litter boxes at one point (and methodically experimented with different types of boxes and litters). We decided to scale back slowly to 2 boxes (currently) since we observed that some were consistently unused. We also have a fairly small one-level house (new house will be even smaller), so 5 litter boxes felt overwhelming (to us).

I really appreciated the reply about the possible resentment of being confined. I did observe this once when my husband put her in the bathroom (with a litter box) after an on-carpet pooping incident. After a while she pooped again in there, right next to and outside of the box. That was very uncharacteristic of her usual M.O., so I'm sure it was because she was resentful. No, the area that both sisters are 'confined' to is rather large, with all of their play things and a nice warm window and places to sleep, so I don't think that resentment is a factor there.

Interesting what you mentioned about possible ramifications of locking the cat door to the garage only some of the time (e.g. when we are not home). I was worried about that. Hmmm, I think we are going to have to be more strategic in the new place.

To add more complexity to our conundrum, we contacted our breeder to seek advice and she suggested that some Bengals do this and are better suited to be outdoor-only cats. My husband is now gung-ho on this idea, but I'm still thinking it through -- I'm not sure I want to do this, or even how best to do it. Seems like there are too many unknowns/risks. Has anyone ever had experience transitioning a house-only Bengal to an outside-only cat at around this age (6mos)? Recommended? (She's so gorgeous and unique that I'm sure she will be stolen!)

Hi

I'm not going to advise you one way or the other, all I can do is tell you my experience with letting our two Bengals outdoors. We started to let them out at I think 8 or 9 months old. They have limited outside time, they get an hour or so in the morning before I leave for work and then they get another couple of hours in the evening. At weekends they get all day if we are home - they are only allowed out if we are home. They have been very good (so far) at coming back in when I call or whistle for them to come home, but the weather is getting nicer and I think I'm on borrowed time on this! I will be sorting out a cat flap to the big outdoors soon, a microchipped one so no other cat or animal can follow them indoors. I will probably get one with a timer as well, as I don't want them going out at night.

One thing I would say is apart from a couple of weeks of pooing on the lawn by Jagger, they have never stopped using their litter trays - they pop back in for a wee even! I consider this a good thing as I know they can't be roaming far if they have to come back to use their litter trays!

The other thing to take into consideration is your outdoor environment, what are the roads like where you live, how safe is it for them to roam, what predators are around? I live in the UK so mainly its foxes we have to worry about. Saturday evening Jagger was in fact attacked by a fox that chased him into our conservatory. So they are now even more restricted on time outside as I'm getting them in just before dusk every night which is generally when the foxes show up. Unfortunately there has always been a den in our garden and foxes have young in there at this time of year, so I'm assuming Jagger was sniffing around the fox hole. We are intending to fill the hole in once the young have dispersed this year in the hope it solves the problem.

He is fine other than being a bit shaken - he still wants to go out though and hopefully he has learnt not to sniff around fox holes. I think I was more upset by it than him to be honest... I'll probably get some stick for telling you about that incident but wanted to warn other owners that are letting their cats out to be wary of foxes at the moment!

These are all things to take into consideration and letting cats outside is a big discussion point. In the UK it is more common to let cats roam but I don't let them free roam for all hours by any stretch of the imagination, they have the enjoyment of going outside but it is restricted as far as possible to keep them safe and I do keep checking where they are and if there are any foxes or other cats around.

As for being stolen, my two won't go near anyone they don't know, which is good in my eyes.

It's a big decision and I worry all the time they are out but at the same time, they do love it - all the scents and bugs to chase, trees to climb etc and they love chasing each other around the garden too - burning off some of that Bengal energy!

There is always the option of a cat enclosure outside if you have the space for it? I think you will get a lot of advice on this I'm sure, but I thought I'd tell you my experience of letting them outdoors.

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK