Making Your Cat Happy - Get Him to like His Litter Box

So, your cat is urinating all over your carpet, is he? Well, having had a male cat of my own who peed on rugs, carpet, and shoes, I do know how you feel, and it's definitely not happy! Through trials of my own, I have come up with some suggestions for you to try in order to get your cat to pee inside his litter box instead of on your floor.

Take Him to the Vet
First of all, take him to the vet. Ask your vet to check for illness and to test his urine. If your cat has a medical condition, medication may fix his peeing outbursts. But if your cat is in no way ill, then you'll know it's a behavioral issue that you need to help him change.

Question the Litter Box
Think about the litter box. How many cats do you have? And how many litter boxes do you have? Experts say to have one litter box per cat. Place the boxes in different areas if possible.

Does the litter box(es) have a hood on it? Take the hood off! Although I don't know about yours, my cat was a large fellow, and the hood over the box made him feel too cramped inside.

Is it smelly? Clean the litter box very well with some sort of all-natural or mild soap. I've used dish soap, Shaklee Basic H, and some pet odor eliminator cleansers. No matter what you use, make sure the cleanser is nothing that's contains amonia or vinegar.

Analyze the type of litter that you buy. Do you buy different kinds each trip to the store? Does it have any sort of smell? Does it give off dust? Is it as natural as it can be? I found consistent use of one natural type of litter that my cat liked helped greatly! My cat liked Cat Attract by Dr. Elsey, and I found it at pet stores and some grocery stores.

Clean Up All Trace of Urine
If your cat has peed all over the carpet in the living room, he probably will not stop peeing there [permanently] until every bit of the urine smell is gone. Yes that means what you think it means. You've gotta deep clean, whether that means replacing the carpet (after you've retrained your cat, of course) or somehow neutralizing the smell of urine in and under your carpet with a type of pet odor eliminator.

My husband ended up ripping the carpet up, spraying the affected areas with Kilz (that we got from Home Depot), and then laying laminate wood down instead of carpet.

It's unfortunate that this process can be pricey and require a bit of work. But, if you truly want to solve the problem and keep your cat, then cleaning up is what you will have to do.

Remove Floor Clutter
When we removed the carpet, my cat would find a rug or a shoe to pee on instead. After washing my rugs and shoes way too many times, I removed the rugs and never left shoes lying around. If your cat is peeing on whatever is available, then make nothing available.

Make Your Cat Happy
Is your cat unhappy? My cat became extremely depressed due to circumstances that I couldn't change. He was used to being an indoor/outdoor cat, and then he had to start staying indoors at all times due to HOA restrictions. If your cat is neglected or bored, make sure to spend your free time with him. Give him cat nip, drag a shoe lace across the floor, buy him ping pong balls and let him bat them around the house.

As much as I didn't want to, I had to find my cat a new home that let him roam outdoors - to make him happy. I hear he is now using his litter box very faithfully.

Re-litter Box Train Your Cat
If no other effort of yours really helps your cat's bathroom habits, you may have to completely retrain him to use his litter box. As awful as this may sound, one way to retrain him is to keep him in one small room with only his litter box, food & water, bed, and toys for a designated time. You may have to keep him in there several weeks to a few months. It will be sad, but keeping him in there should teach him to go to his litter box when his bladder is full.

Once you've figured out what is causing your cat to pee outside his litter box, you can start correcting the problem. And once you correct the problem, both you and your cat can relax together knowing that you are both finally happy.