Cat pooping outside the tray any advice

by LP
(UK)

I have two Siamese cats one male one female both under two years old. One of my cats or maybe both keeps pooping outside the tray. I have two trays for them. One in the bathroom and one on the balcony with cat flap. They both seem to use the one in the bathroom most of the time and I change or scoop every day. I often find little lumps of poop in the tray and outside and also in the hallway outside the bathroom. It seems that they start in the tray but run off before they have finished. They are always running around and I am not sure if this is because they just get excited and want to play with each other or just pooping where they want to. Luckly they are fed on pro plan dry food so it's always little hard lumps and easy to clean up. I have used an open tray and a closed tray but no change. It is not all the time maybe two or three times a month. They are healthy, happy playful cats. Is there anything I can do to get them to finish all there poop in the liter tray. At the moment myself and my husband just pick it up and flush it away. We don't bring the cats attention to it as we are not sure which kitty it is.

By the way they never wee outside the tray and are very clean apart from this problem. This has been happening as long as I have had them so its not a new problem.


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May 10, 2012
 cat poo outside tray
by: Anonymous

Thanks guys. I did kind of wonder if it was because they are fed on a dry food diet. I have tried to feed them wet food but they just don't like it. I have kept them on the pro plan because that is what they were fed on by the breaders. I have also kept them on the same liter (catsan). Both my cats love tuna in spring water so I give them a little twice a week. I would let them have some tuna every day but I have read on the internet that tin tuna fish is not really good for cats. What do other people think about this? Do you feed your cats tin tuna fish and is it safe? They both drink a fair bit of water because we have them cat fountains and they love them. The younger cat will eat cooked chicken but the older one won't.
I got my female when she was nine weeks old and my male when he was thirteen weeks old. The female used to poo a little outside the tray back then so maybe she should have stayed with mum a bit longer. There is a year between them. When she does it I hear her scratching trying to cover it up. The other day the male was trying to cover up a poo in my hallway which makes me think he may have done one too.
May 10, 2012
 Cat pooping outside the tray
by: Beatrice

HI there,

I get this occasionally with my Siamese and Burmese, often it is bits with grass in it, a hard lump with a "tail" out on the carpet, always on the best carpet. I try to keep the cat litter tray changed as often as possible, as if it is wet or the tray is smelly, they do not like to use it for their poo. So make sure that the cat tray is cleaned and rinsed out frequently to ensure that no residue smells are left in the tray.

Are they constipated perhaps? Maybe it takes a while for them to pass these hard nuggets and they just want to get away from the litter tray quickly? Have you tried giving them a bit of wet food or maybe changing their dried food? Topping it up with a bit of boiled chicken or some tuna? Do they get adequate amounts of water?

What about the type of cat litter that you use,? I presume that it is the same one, because once or twice when I used the "chips" they downed tools and did the poo on the carpet, now I have to use lavender scented fine sand! Talk of spoiled!!!

I used to use a large cat litter tray with a roof or hood and this seemed to ground them, in other words, it created a little dome for them and made them go in the confines of the tray, so this might be another idea too and may help to focus them on the acual tray itself.

Training is always got from the mother cat and so I presume that they had been with her for at least 3 months and so would know all about litter tray etiquette.

I hope that this is of some help to you, it is difficult but cats on the whole are very clean and tidy and do not usually leave their poo around.

All the best,

Beatrice from Wicklow in Ireland.

May 10, 2012
 cat pooping outside tray
by: Vanessa-Ann

I'm glad you asked this because I have exactly the same issue...and I only have 1 cat...I will be interested to hear what "Beatrice" has to say (she is the Siamese guru) I though it might just be because my LuLuBelle is a bit lazy..only 6 but has done this from day one... happens 6 out of 7 days a week!

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