Please help us, We got Jaffa about 5 months ago and he has always had a thing about taking a dump within 6 - 8 inches from his litter tray. We thought that he'd grow out of it as he became acclimatised to living with us but no joy, He'll quite happily take a wee in his litter tray but unless the litter tray has been changed that second then he'll crimp one off where he shouldn't. We change his litter tray once every two days but he still carries on leaving us a smelly present.

:help:

Do you think he'd use a hooded litter tray? Less likely to hang over the edge to squat with one of those. Is Jaffa an only cat or do you have other cats/ animals? It could be a territory marking thing.

Or, it could be he's objecting to the type of litter you use. Or possibly he objects to the smell of it- maybe you use some strong disinfectant or other cleaner to clean out the tray? Mind you, strange that he wees in it but wont pooh. Is it big enough for him to squat in?
I wonder if he is just so fastidious he objects to using it for poohing after he's weed in it?

We have several trays on the go, being a multi-cat household (all hooded, so they have a bit of privacy) and we've noticed that they all tend to use the same tray to wee in but they dont pooh in that one, so I guess it's possible Jaffa wants 2 trays because he is extra fussy - our norwegian forest cat is the forst oobject if things arent to her liking in the litter tray dept.

Another thing to bear in mind- if he's defecating in the same spot outside the tray, there must be underlying scent of pooh or wee still present, no matter how hard you scrub, it's not easy to get rid of it- don't use disinfectant or bleach- that only encourages cats to remark the area after you've cleaned it. Use washing powder solution and warm water and then steam clean the area when dry. Surgical spirit is good to dissipate the smell of cat wee- but test areas for colour-fastness before using this.

Or, it might be a sign of something medical- cats are normally very clean creatures and they use subtle and not so subtle ways to tell us something is not right- if you catch him taking a dump, does he look as if he is straining? Anything look not quite right about his stools?

If stress related, you could consider getting a Feliway diffuser or a Feliway spray (gives off pleasing feline pheremones that help to calm stressed cats). We use one when Alfie our barmy bengal becomes too much of a handful - it takes a few days but he becomes a much chilled dude eventually - doesnt stop him being generally barmy though...

http://www.feliway.uk.com/feliway_uk.nsf/Page?OpenForm

Have a look at canine chemists (they sell cat stuff too) or try evil (e)Bay - we buy it from whoever has it on offer at the time.

I'm sure you'll get lots of helpful advice on this subject, we've all been there.

My cats like to have a bloody good dig in the litter before having a poo. If the litter isn't deep enough for them to get a few paw depths down (and chuck the litter everywhere) they're not happy and have been known to poo over the edge of the tray instead. Maybe the edge of the tray represents the edge of a deep hole or something? I've stopped trying to fathom their furry little minds.

A-HA! A hooded litter tray - now there's an idea. As Hecate states, he does chuck his litter everywhere ...... Definite food for thought :thumbsup:

We had a hooded tray... and the damned thing still perched over the edge to do it..

Daft thing is, it wasn't even her litter tray! We got adopted by a stray after one of our own moggies broke the magnetic strip on the catflap and the stray kept weeing by the front door so the litter tray went there, so ours decided they had to use it too :rolleyes:

The things we do for our pets.

(May I add, that once we'd managed to get ours to go in the tray, the stray moggy moved back out again!!)

much easier to pick up and move about with a hood on, too. Might be worth a try, at any rate. Some of them come with a catflap fitted, but our gang never cared for the flap and we had to remove ours. Oh and heck the tat (poundland type) shops as sometimes, in the pet supplies you can find a mat that sits under the front of a cat litter tray and catches the stray bits of debris when a cat steps out again. If you buy similar from pets at home it costs the earth.

Oh and heck the tat (poundland type) shops as sometimes, in the pet supplies you can find a mat that sits under the front of a cat litter tray and catches the stray bits of debris when a cat steps out again. If you buy similar from pets at home it costs the earth.

we use a bit of flattened cardboard box under ours ;)

[QUOTE=Lotti;2220421]We had a hooded tray... and the damned thing still perched over the edge to do it..
QUOTE]

When we got our first wegie kitten, I bought a corner litter tray for downstairs as space is tight- all was OK until the day Aragorn (aka Raggy) decided to use the facilities and sat with his face pointing towards the corner of the tray and his bum pointing outside the tray...