Thread: Pooping in the bath? why?

We had problems with our girl Bella a month or so after we had gotten her. We were experimenting with different litters and that seems to have contributed. We found that she was peeing and pooping in the sinks, and worst of all, was peeing on the rug near one litter box as well as in a leather chair! Tried a bunch of different litters then plus did lots of reading about "inappropriate elimination." Here is some of what we read: Some cats do not like some litters either because of the smell or because of the texture of the litter. Some cats like their litter deep while others prefer it shallow. Many cats are attracted to smooth surfaces such as certain carpets or sinks, etc.

Bella is a dominant type cat, and very fussy about many things. We easily broke her of the carpet peeing, but I don't think we will ever completely break her of the sinks. For one thing, it is very obvious that she loves smooth surfaces. If we clean a litter pan and accidentally set it down she may get in it and pee. She has a couple of times peed in empty plastic laundry baskets and recycling tubs. It also seems as though she realizes what the bathroom is for and that things go down the bathroom sink drains. She will sit and watch you wash your hands and stare at the water going down the drain. Peeing in the sink then seems quite intelligent actually. Interestingly, she has never tried to pee in the kitchen sink (though it is metal).

So what did we do about this? We initially tried a number of sprays and devices to keep her away from the sinks, rug area, and chair. The problem is that you cannot really keep this up forever. It certainly did help get her out of the habit, though. Now only the bathroom sinks remain as an occasional issue. What we continue to do is have plastic bowls in the bathroom sinks. In two the bowl is upside down and in the other it is kept full of water as one of the cats loves to drink from it down in the sink. If remove them, it is very likely that within a week we will find that she has done something. She will mainly use the litter, but every couple of days she might choose to pee or poop in the unprotected sink.

So I have two suggestions. First, restrict his access to the tub for at least a couple of weeks to try to break him of the bad habit. After that try to limit access as much as possible but you shouldn't have to be too obsessive. Second, get a second litter pan and experiment with several different brands of litter. Don't go and change his main litter pan litter (as we stupidly did). Get a second pan and try some different brands for like a week each. If you find that he quits using your regular litter and exclusively using a new type then you have found a winner.

The water in the tub idea might be good to try first, as it might make him reluctant to go near the tub if he gets wet, but our cats generally look in the tub before deciding whether to get in it or not, so not clear how successful it will be. Also, since we run A/C all summer, water in the tub long term is not a good idea (plus bad to keep fiberglass tub/shower wet constantly).

I will note that we tried an experiment the other night to see if ours minded the litter that had been in their pans for a while even though it still smelled fine to us. We washed one pan and added all new litter and did not change their second primary pan. For three days now all four cats have almost exclusively used the clean litter pan. Based on this, we have decided to clean the other pan as well, even though we will be discarding $15-20 worth of litter from the two pans. The litter may smell fine to us, but apparently they do not like it nearly as well.