Cat Litter Box Behavior and Spraying

Cat litter box behavior, especially spraying, frustrates patient cat owners. In many inappropriate elimination cases, cats deliberately urinate or defecate outside their litter boxes to alert their owners to a medical problem, and the litter box behavior corrects itself after the medical issue is resolved. Inappropriate elimination solely from behavior problems presents a greater challenge. Owners must always first investigate possible medical causes for sudden changes in cat litter box behavior before addressing the behavior itself.

Inappropriate Urination

Inappropriate urination is the most common of all cat litter box behavior problems and occurs equally as often among female cats as males. Owners should not rush to judgment that a change in elimination habits is necessarily behavioral, though, as many medical problems cause inappropriate urination. From a purely behavioral aspect, inappropriate urination can be broken down into two distinct issues: urine marking and spraying, and consistently urinating outside the litter box.

Urine Marking and Spraying

Cats mark or spray to establish territory or when they are threatened or stressed by a change in routine. Unaltered cats also mark to advertise sexual availability, especially during mating season or courtship. Urine marking and spraying is not limited to outdoor cats, indoor cats will spray also. Introduction of a new cat to a household will often trigger marking and spraying by both the new and the established feline. Crowded multiple cat households will almost invariably involve territorial marking and spraying.

Urinating Outside the Litter Box

A sudden aversion to the litter box may be explained by one of the following: dislike for the litter, location of the box or the box itself, stress, bullying by other cats, past negative experience with the litter box, physical inability to enter or exit the litter box, forgetfulness from dementia in older cats and acclimation of new kittens or a medical issue. Unfortunately, a pattern establishes itself once a cat eliminates outside the litter box: The misbehaving cat tends to return to the same location to repeat the inappropriate elimination.

Urine Marking and Spraying Solutions

Cats must be neutered or spayed before the age of six months to circumvent the development of spraying behavior, as unaltered cats always spray. Environment and behavior modification to remove the situation that causes spraying can effectively resolve the issue. Reduce tensions among household cats by separating them or adding multiple-tier cat trees for more territorial options. Repellents like orange peels, rubbing alcohol or mothballs in cloth bags discourage cats from returning to their favorite marking and spraying locations.

Inappropriate Elimination Solutions

The cat owner should use a fine-grained clumping litter. Cats prefer substrates that provide the most pleasurable digging sensation, such as clumping litter, over either sand or clay litters. The owner of a cat that exhibits a preference for the material outside the litter box can cover that surface with plastic, move the litter box entirely and clean the surface with cleaners designed specifically to eliminate animal waste odors. These solutions will not work, though, if the litter box is left dirty. The cat owner must keep the litter clean to prevent the development of litter box aversion. In multiple cat households, the owner should place several boxes around the house, with escape routes to prevent bullying. For location aversion, the cat owner should move the litter box to the location of the inappropriate elimination, then gradually move it to a more desirable location, a few inches per day, if necessary.

Medical Causes of Inappropriate Elimination

Medical conditions, such as colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes mellitus, hyperthyroidism, kidney or liver disease and feline lower urinary tract disease, increase the frequency of a cat's urination or defecation. Others, such as arthritis, cause pain upon entering and exiting the litter box. Seek a vet's advice if your cat eliminates outside its litter box after years of fastidiousness to determine whether any of these conditions could be the cause. Only after all medical causes have been eliminated should the owner investigate behavioral issues.