AIBU to expect 4 cats to stay in utility room/study?

Sorry anyone that doesn’t clean their litter tray at least once a day does not love cats and it not caring for them. He has caused this issue as cats are usually very clean. Who in their right mind lets a female cat out that’s not neutered when there are rescues bursting! Honestly if he treats cats like this I’d be seriously worried how he’ll cope with a baby.

Tbh your poor cats sound stressed. They are probably picking up on the fact that you don't like them. Try using Feliway plug ins. The one for multi cat households that works best, is Feliway Optimum.
Also, get your OH on side rather than moaning and get on top of it all together. He definitely needs to scoop poop and wee balls at least twice a day. Try also using hooded litter trays. Cat's Best clumping cat litter is amazing! I've kept cats for nearly 50 years and this litter is a game changer. Before baby arrives, get them used to using it in their OWN trays, in an area they can feel relaxed in. It seems expensive but works out cheaper in the long run.
Also, try and relax and make friends and play with them.

How are the cats behaving like this? I don’t understand it.

THIS. All of it.

As well as stress, they could be marking their scent. If they're male, have any of them been neutered? You can't keep them in one room all the time. Poor cats.

Ok, have only read OP posts, but they read like this is a DH problem. He’s always right, he can’t be told, he won’t clean up after his pets or ensure their living space is appropriate. His pets are shi*ting and peeing all over the house, that is not acceptable on any level! It will also destroy your home, cats’ urine is notoriously difficult to remove and can destroy fabrics and soak into floorboards.

OP pregnant women are advised not to change cat litter because toxoplasmosis, found in cats’ poo, can be fatal to an unborn baby (I know a woman who lost hers at 35 weeks 😢). If your DH won’t sort this out then he is being shamefully irresponsible to the point of malignancy, for all your health and also your possessions and your property. As you say, you don’t want to bring a baby into this environment, so what is HE going to do about it?

But OP isn't thinking of just confining them to one room at night/when away.
She is asking if the four cats can be kept in one room permanently if they have a cat flap.
Which is a completely different thing, and certainly not in the best interests of the cats.

I'm sure someone has said this but you need 1 tray per cat plus 1 extra so 5 .Cleaned out minimum of once daily and emptied and scrubbed at least once a week .Your house must stink .Just rehome them, honestly if you don't like them now you'll hate them after you have your child .They deserve so much better care than they are having .You can't just lock them.away and pretend they don't exist .

This thread is so so sad. Why do people who have absolutely no clue about domestic cat behaviour or basic needs take home multiple cats???

Cats are solitary predators. In nature they live alone. If they form colonies, like feral cats often do, it’s for opportunistic reasons such as access to food or leftovers from humans. The colonies have no complex social structures - felines are not canines - they lack the language of group communication, they don’t hunt together like dogs do. They live in a colony but not in a pack.

Because of all that, cats are very territorial. They hunt alone so unlike dogs or wolves they are not able to catch prey that’s larger than a cat. This means that they need a large territory to support themselves and their offspring. This also means that in nature cats don’t seek company of other cats and because they hunt alone they also eat alone (except kittens) so feeding cats together and forcing them to use the same litter box are two major sources of stress.

Cats are not as socially sophisticated as dogs and they lack communication tools to de-escalate conflicts that dogs have. If you have more than one cat in the house they need to have ways to eat separately, rest separately, do their business separately and be able to pass each other and cross each other’s paths in a way that avoids constant confrontation. This means having higher places and different levels and catwalks for cats to walk and rest.

This is all very basic, domestic cat 101 and your DH as a cat lover should know all that before adopting the cats. I second PPs who said rehome them. Rehoming DH also sounds like a good idea.

Confining the cats to the utility/study with cat fap. FINE

Letting them poo all over the house. ABSOLUTELY NOT FINE AND NOT NORMAL.

I have 2 cats that we shut in the utility room, a space considerably smaller than what you describe, at night and when we're not here. Otherwise they have the run of the house which is much of the time as, thanks to working patterns etc, they're not home alone too much.The utility room has a cat flap and they poo outside.I do feel a bit cruel sometimes, especially if we go away, and have tried giving them access to the adjacent open plan kitchen/lounge/diner but unfortunately they scratch the dining chairs and sofa despite having a huge cat tower/scratching post so can't be left in there unsupervised.

I put on disposable glove, scoop it up and pop it into a nappy sac and put in the outside black bin. Very easy to do.

Cats are very clean with their toileting, often they will not go in a dirty tray. When I say dirty I mean with previous toilets in it. Scooping daily should be fine, maybe he needs to scoop as soon as they have been. We use a multicat litter that stays fresher longer. Are you using a clumping litter? This would help remove wees as well as poos as non clumping just soaks the wees up and they stay there until all of the litter is changed.
It sounds like these cats are stressed. Have you tried a feliway plug?
Also for the one weeing in the bath, this sounds like a UTI, the cat needs to be taken to a vet. If fact maybe all of them could do with a check up to eliminate any medical reasons for this.

Put on some thick gloves (or get a friend to do it), scoop up the cat poo and put it on your husband's pillow. Sleep in another room yourself. He'll soon get the message.

The cats sound very stressed and unhappy
I think they would be better rehomed

The cats sound stressed. Pooing and weeing around the house is a common side effect of this. I know that our indoor cats got anxious when we had a baby.

Use Feliway plug ins in every room of the house to start off with. After a month or so, you may be able to get away with a couple on each floor. If this persists take them to the vet who can prescribe some anti anxiety medication. This worked a treat with ours and they no longer do this. We have a large covered litter box for each cat, so I think 4 sounds fine to me.

This thread has been haunting me. These poor cats are being dreadfully neglected and now face the prospect of being locked away in an unreasonably confined space.

It's no life for them. Please contact a rescue and start the rehoming process. Maybe they'll get lucky and go to clean, responsible homes where they get proper care and affection.

@notaurewhatusername

'Two of th poo outstide so we don't need five litter trays'

you either take our advice or you don't

but several of us have told you that you DO need 5 litter trays.

are you guaranteeing that these 2 cats always always always poo outside ? so you are watching their bottoms 24 hours a day
they are happy to toilet outside even in a storm ? and you have a cat flap so they can access the garden 24 hours a day

I find the recycled paper the best litter. For smells, the environment, absorption. Catsan and similar are awful. Smell like wee straight after a wee!

So you are exaggerating.

If it's happening once a week it's because the litter trays aren't clean enough. Clean out the litter trays every 2nd day. All of the litter trays. Properly. Use a quality litter not cheap crap from the supermarket.

Put them in different locations, not right beside each other. Keep them away from food bowls and make sure they have fresh water away from food and litter.

Basic cat care.

Take whatever one peed in the bath to the vet.

Poo should be scooped asap as it has been done (not by yourself if you are pregnant, due to toxicplasmosis risk - you cannot touch cat poo!)

I would also empty the tray every 3 days, cleaning thoroughly with disinfectant at least every 3 times (so roughly every 9 days)

There should also be one cat litter tray per cat and one extra.

This is not true. The house is their core territory (at least it should be) so they need litter trays there filled with cat litter they accept.

Toxoplasma is not a virus, it’s a protozoan. You can only get it from an infected cat but it’s quite unlikely, it’s more likely to get it while working in the garden or from eating raw or undercooked meat.

I agree with this.
There doesn't seem to be any quality of life for the cats, and there'll be even less if OP confines them to a very small part of the house indefinitely.
Out of sight out of mind.
OP clearly doesn't like the cats, and the cats will have picked up on this, which will be making them even more stressed than they are already.
While I appreciate that the husband is massively at fault here, and totally irresponsible to allow one of the cats to get pregnant twice, I do think OP needs to take some responsibility here.
She presumably knew there were cats when she moved in, and they seem to have been missing litter trays for quite a while.
While a cat getting pregnant once is the DH's fault, OP was living there when the cat got pregnant a second time.
There seems to be a possible animal neglect issue building up here.

Yeah I agree, pesky cats causing stress, just get rid. Infact, do a general declutter & get rid of all your old bags gathering dust too.

Then when Nana starts pissing herself, drop her off at social services.

Do they get any attention op? Where do they sleep etc?

Mine all love attention and fusses and play etc. They sleep in our beds come and sit with us at night. If you don't like them then they won't be getting the attention they need.

Poo needs removing as soon as they've done it really - but not by you!

Litter tray needs emptying every couple of days. Washing & disinfecting it.

Trays need to be away from their food & water bowls and away from each other in different rooms.

4 cats need more than 3 trays.

Do they not like the type of litter being used?

Your cats will be incredibly stressed - the new weeing could be signs of cystitis which can be caused by stress. Are they weeing frequently or straining/crying when they wee?

Do they have high places to sit/sleep?

Frankly, though, this is a husband problem - the cats are merely a symptom. It's totally unreasonable to have this many un-cared for cats. No, restricting them to two rooms is not reasonable at all.

It's also disgustingly irresponsible for him to have allowed one to get pregnant twice (cat sex also isn't a nice experience for the female!!)

Your husband sounds awful tbh.