Thread: Pooping in the bath? why?

Chester is almost 4 months old and he's been with us for 2 weeks now. He brings us great joy, but there's one little dilemma....

In the past 48 hours, he has 'pooped' in the bathtub twice. Here's what I can tell you about it

* he has pellets in his litterbox
* we flush the poos down the toilet after he's finished scratching around
* his litter gets fresh litter added to it each night
* his litter box is completely emptied and replaced after 3-4 days
* he scratches furiously in his litter tray, spraying it everywhere
* he loves jumping in the bath (when no water is in it)
* he loves scratching around in the bath like it's a litter tray or he's pawing at the bottom of the tub and sides for fun

The first time he pooped in the bath (saturday):

* he didn't have much litter in his tray as it had just been replaced
* it wasn't smelly or too soiled
* he'd moved his litter all to one side, ran into the bath and pooped in the bath

The next time he went to do poos (sunday night), he did it in his litter box as per normal.

Today (monday) he did a wee in his litter and then pooped in the bath-tub less than an hour after that. His litter was completely changed earlier that morning and it was like it was on Saturday - not heaps of litter in it, wasn't too smelly.

If you have any ideas why this is happening or what we can to do prevent it, I'd appreciate your thoughts.

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.