Advice on my cats behavior since baby

[Daston]

Hi guys,

We are at our wits end with our furry friend, he is a 10 year old house cat that we have had since he was a kitten. He is very laid back, loves attention (sometimes a bit too much) and for the most part gets on with our 8 month old daughter.

However he seems to have forgotten the use of the litter tray, he normally is a very clean cat to the extent where you can here him sweeping up his cat food that he thinks is on the floor. He will use the litter tray for wee's but most mornings we will find cat crap under our dining room table....even worse this morning he had crapped on it!

Now obviously this is not good when our girl starts to be on the move and it's driving both of us mad at what is otherwise a wonderful friend. He is fit as a fiddle and I am thinking its a territorial thing but is there anything we can do to minimize this? Or put him at ease?

[anonymous-user]

My only experience is my cat won't use his litter tray if it's soiled, he would crap on the bed.

So I just made sure the litter tray was cleaned at least twice a day, seemed to solve the problem

[bexVN]

Usually a stress related response not territorial or it could be a medical reason.

Get a pet remedy plug in (available on amazon) look at trying eg Zylkene and or Kalmaid and unless he has been to vets in last 6 months and had this discussed, get him a vet check, cats hide pain/ discomfort etc so needs ruling out (ie arthritis can cause pain and if he associates pain with defaecating in a litter tray, he will stop using it.

Get two litter trays and put them in discreet places (not busy areas) and ensure no cats outside giving him a hard time.

Also read this:

https://icatcare.org/advice/problem-behaviour/soil...

https://icatcare.org/advice/problem-behaviour/stre...

https://icatcare.org/advice/problem-behaviour/anxi...

This is an excellent website that is worth a good perusal.

[Daston]

Thanks for the advice guys,

He has been checked over and seems to be in good health, he is a house cat so could be part of the problem not being able to escape o have time to himself. We will try some extra litter trays and calming plug ins