My beautiful 2 1/2 female Bengal has been peeing in our downstairs family room for a while now. She usually does this when I travel ( which isn't very often) and then she stops. This time it's not stopping. We have visited the veterinarian, used a cat behaviorist,etc. There is only a sliding door in the room and there are no feral cats around anymore. She only urinates on this level of the house, only in this room and just the perimeter. This morning I was coming up from the basement to the family room and she squatted and started to urinate! I calmly said use the litter box honey, clapped my hands and she stopped. There is a long story with this but I try to condense this for you. We have already thrown out a leather sectional because of this problem and now she is ruining the new carpet. She is a very pampered, loved kitty and we just want to understand why she is doing this and try to help her. Any advice would surely be appreciated by all of us.

If you have ruled out any medical issues, then its is behavioral. Do you have a second or third litter box in the room? Have you changed the type of litter box or type of litter? These things are super important. Mine has decided to start using the litter box in his enclosure because he doesn't care for the litter in his other box (neither do I, so I'm changing it today). You want to make it as convenient as possible for your kitty to use the litter box. So if you have to put a couple of them where she goes, then do that. The other thing is to limit her time in that area of your house. She may find another spot to go in. Why cats do this is a mystery. They can suffer from separation anxiety -- which you've mentioned. Usually this is stress related. Just because you don't see any outside cats doesn't mean there aren't any! That can be a huge issue as your kitty can smell this cat (if there is one) even through walls.

The area she uses must be cleaned completely. If you are on a concrete slab or wood sheathing underneath, the urine can penetrate that as well. So, unless you pull up the carpet and pad and seal the area underneath, the urine will continue to seep back up to the top of the carpet (been there, done that). You can possibly use aluminum foil there as cats don't generally like the noise it makes. You can buy air canisters that are motion activated so when she heads to that area, a poof of air comes out. It really depends on how much you want to try to deal with this

Some episodes of My Cat From Hell have dealt with this issue and you may be able to view them on the Animal Planet website. Know that your cat can sense that you are stressed out over this as well. This is the #1 issue with cats -- inappropriate urination. It's the worst smell in the world -- both to you and your cat. I hope you can find a solution and get her back to using a litter box, but placing a box or maybe several in the area she is going, may get her back to using the box. Good luck.

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The little monsters 3

I use Cat Attract litter and she uses the litter box on the main floor without any issues ( urine and poop). Down one floor where she is having issues, she has 3 litter boxes with the same litter in large open 66 quart 24" x 17" Rubbermaid containers. I am having the carpets cleaned tomorrow. The odd thing is, is that she has only peed along the perimeter of half of the room and left the rest alone. None of the area is exposed to a window or sliding door. Also could you explain about the air canister and where to purchase them? I have put litter boxes on top of the areas where she has urinated and she just found another place to urinate. Now she isn't using any of the boxes downstairs, only the box upstairs. Also, there is no door in the room so how do I limit her access to this space? And if I do, will she find a new place upstairs to urinate? I discussed this with my veterinarian, possibly gating the area off and such......Its a risk I'm not sure I want to take.

Here is a link to a cat repellant:http://www.amazon.com/Ssscat-KIT19001-SSSCAT-Cat-Training/dp/B000RIA95G

Contech makes one as well and you can usually find these at your local pet store. They are not harmful to the cat. Yes, I'm sure your kitty will continue to find spots -- until you fix the underlying cause of why this is happening. It sounds as if you have super large litter boxes. Are they completely clean? No waste burrowed way down at the bottom? Know that cleaning the carpets alone is not going to work. As I mentioned in my other post, the urine will continue to come back up. We had a diabetic kitty who was in kidney failure and she peed all over the carpet. We cleaned and could not get rid of the smell until we pulled up the carpet, sealed the areas with a sealer (wood) and then put down wood floors.

If you have consulted a cat behaviorist, surely if qualified and good, would have given you a solution. Your baby is not going to stop going elsewhere until you fix the reason she is going outside of the litter box. If you are using plastic totes, I wonder if the smell is permeating the plastic? I don't know, but you have to start thinking like a cat and wondering what is the aversion to using the litter boxes you have in that room.

As for blocking off -- if you do not have door, that is a problem as they can jump over gates, etc. I don't know about your bengal, but mines wants to be in the same room as me. So, maybe you need to stop using that room for a while. I'm sure the internet is full of questions and solutions as to what worked for other cat owners.

The odd thing is Sherry, we are NEVER in that room. We only go down there for laundry. I contacted a new cat behaviorist so I'm waiting to hear from her. The containers are 8 months old FYI. How often should I clean them?? She has 3 perfectly 3 litter boxes unused, cleaned, I don't get it!!

*shrug* yea, I dunno, that does sound like a mystery. I mean you'd think that going against a certain wall would mean that your cat is marking that boundary of her territory against some sort of territorial threat, but no window and no door.... hmm. And you added more big open boxes and special litter. Hmm dunno.

Does she ever use the litterboxes down there? Sometimes? Almost always? Never?

What is her behavior when she does go against the wall? Have you observed it? Does she first go up to one of the boxes, sniff around, dig around, then choose to use the wall? Or does she just not give the litterbox a second glance and just march right up to the wall and do her business? Maybe that would give us a clue as to what she might be thinking?

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The little monsters 3

By the way, the little angels name is Seraphina, and she used to use the litter boxes all the time, no problem. I have never caught her in the act, no matter how many times I've tried. She howls a lot by the way, that isn't new, just another clue. I will be skyping with the cat behaviorist on Friday so I hope to have some helpful suggestions. I'm distraught

Might be worth investing in a camera that monitors and records motion and set up in the area she is doing this. I've got a couple of these, and then you will be able to see her in action and if there are any obvious triggers.

You said she used to do this only when you travelled. Has anything changed in the household ie around the time she started doing this all the time?? You say this is the family room - is there any reason at all she may feel insecure in this space? Does she 'own' any part of it, have a bed, cat tree in there or anything?

Grasping at straws here - I really hope you manage to sort this out... I assume she is spayed??

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

I'd say if you don't use the room, close it off to the kitty as well. There could easily be something going on as she seems to use the perimeter. Possibly an outdoor cat sprayed the outside wall in that area. Last night I swore I could smell cat urine in my bedroom. I had the window open -- then realized that it's the corner of the house that Raiden sprays when he gets outside and I'm sure other cats spray there as well. A cat's smell is 14 times stronger than ours, so it is very possible there is something on the other side. You might want to go and sniff it out.

As long as your litter containers are clean of waste and actually dumped once a month and scrubbed before refilling with litter, you should be okay.