Thread: Pooping in the bath? why?

I have no idea why they do that but I can tell you that my domestic cat Tashie ( now deceased at the tender age of 17yrs 10mths) used to poop on top of the shower drain in one of the bathrooms many years ago if she got really stressed ( i say that because she spent most of her life stressing about something) It seemed to be if something scared her and she felt she couldnt hide while on the tray where she could hide in the bathroom and go but that is just a guess.

I never did anything about trying to change it and just cleaned up the shower and eventually she stopped doing it on her own. I figured better she does it where I can easily clean it that trying to move her and have her go in a bedroom or something.

Not much help I know but not the only cat that has done it.

Could a second tray in a hidden spot help??

because hes too small yet to reach the toliet!!!! sorry couldnt resist that one!!!!!!

Have you tried two trays ,I have two cats who pee in one then hop straight into tray next to it for a poo,also although he can't scrap anything over it by doing it in the bath I do find that they do like the litter to be pretty deep,more clearing up for mum but great fun for them....

Yeah I would say keep the litter deep, and as clean as possible, but it would appear your doing that. If he doens't like the bath with the water in try keeping an inch of water in there all the time ? just a thought ;)

Funny creatures cats with their toiletry habits aren't they. Simba only has one litter tray and he has always been very good with using it. We always keep it quite deep and I clean it out twice a day. I don't clean out the whole thing, ie empty it's entire contents and put new litter in very often. Only done this once or twice since he came. What I find strange is that I'm trying to encourage him to go outside. During the day when he is out there most of the time it would seem the best idea, but no he will come running in from the bottom of the garden sometimes in quite a hurry to use his litter tray instead. I have even tried putting some of his litter in a corner in the garden but he is very stubborn. We have to keep his litter tray as he is shut indoors if we go out or at night.

I would ignore the bath pooping - think he will revert to his litter tray in the end.

Mine will always go in the bath if they get a chance, even though they would never go anywhere else normally!

Try as harrymc suggested and permanently have water in the bottom of the bath or just keep the bathroom door shut to deter him.

It is very common - one of our kittens that left for his new home a few weeks ago has taken to peeing in the sink too!

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.