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

Your DP is irresponsible in not having the cats he claims to love neutered. These 4 cats will become 16 cats by this time next year if you don't get them fixed. Get 4 of them neutered and microchipped. Put microchip catflap in so they can come and go as they please, but random cats can't get in. Put 4 litter trays outside the house and see if they start to use them. Without knowing the garden set up, can't say if it's a good idea to eventually remove the tray and let them go in the wild. Confining to those 2 rooms would be a good idea for a period as it cuts off their access to all their other "toilets" around your house, making it more likely for them to want to use the fresh litter in hooded boxes outside. Cats are crepiscular, meaning their "giddy time" will be as you are putting baby to bed, so you don't want to be in a position of having to let them in and out. They will be happiest if they can come and go on their own schedule.

They would only shit and piss outside the trays if (a) the trays are dirty (b) already used by other cats (c) there are not enough trays for all the cats.

Insist that your husband hire someone to come in and change the trays once or twice a day.

It sounds awful, just awful! Worse that you are bringing a child into this mess.

Why on earth have you allowed yourself to get into a situation where you have FOUR cats (an excessive number of animals really) when you don't even like cats?? They're your DH's, I take it? Why did he introduce 4 of them when you don't want them? Is he an animal hoarder?

Rehome them, FFS. They won't be happy confined to two rooms when they've had the run of the house and will constantly try to get out of those two rooms every time you open the door. You don't like or want them and your DH seems pretty feckless about them - and you'll both have a baby to look after.

I love cats and we have two. They are a PITA and get in the way/take up lots of attention/make work/shit an unfeasible amount in their litter trays - we do all that for them because we love them. I can't imagine having to do that for four of the buggers if I didn't even want them in the house!

I've never had a cat do this as others have said could be stress are they nutured? May be territorial issues so all marking their territory or if one cat is afraid of the others it will not use the litter tray and go elsewhere if the litter tray has their scent.. can you not leave a window open in the day time to let them out you need to encourage them or put them outside frequently. I have two cats and no little trays and I never had one accident and I work long long days there is definitely something more going on here

But what is really worrying is that your DH doesn’t seem to see the fact the cats are randomly toileting round the house as a problem. Does he think this is normal and an okay way to live?

OP, you need to rehome the cats, for them and for you.
Four cats who are quite stressed already cannot be confined to a very small part of the house indefinitely.
You don't seem to have much of a bond with them now, and when your baby is born it seems as if you would resent them even more.

You need 5 litter trays. One for each cat plus one extra.
Get clumping litter. I like Cats Best Smart Pellets because it doesn't stick to their paws and end up all over the house.

Then the poo and clumps of wee need to be removed every time you spot them. I have a small lidded bin with a handle for this purpose and go round each tray fishing stuff out. The bin gets emptied every day.

With the Smart Pellets the litter trays don't need to be completely emptied every day. I normally do this twice a week. It really depends on what litter you are using. Some litters absolutely stink and have to be completely changed every day and other litters can go much longer as long as you take all the clumps and poo out (Smart Pellets claim you only need to change once a month which is utterly ridiculous and revolting).

When the trays are emptied they need to be washed and dried. You can get sprays for this purpose or just wash with dish soap and water.

Cats won't go in dirty trays. If the trays aren't washed out and DH just puts clean litter in them the trays will still smell and the cats won't use them.

The cats obviously don't like the litter trays and have got into the habit of shitting wherever they fancy. Once they start shitting somewhere they will continue to use that place unless you get rid of the smell completely and prevent them from shitting there again i.e. by stopping them using the room they are shitting in.

DH needs to sort his act out and stop this.
I love cats and I have 4. There is no way in hell I'd put up with living in a house (baby or no baby) with cats shitting everywhere. They are usually clean animals so if they are doing this they are really unhappy about something (could be the litter trays, could be internal dynamics in the group, could be not happy with you being there...)

Solution to try first is DH takes cats who are having accidents to the vet and seeks their advice on why this is happening. If there are medical issues he pays for medication and makes sure cat takes it if there is anything ongoing that is needed. If vet says there is nothing physically wrong with the cat, he asks their advice on how to reduce the stress in their environment.

Look on the Battersea or Cats Protection website - they have lots of advice on cat behaviour including toileting problems.

They're getting more and more unhappy is the reason. It's no mystery.

You’ve been given the solution already by numerous posters.

But I’ll repeat it…

Put your foot down and tell your DH you will leave him if he doesn’t sort out the cat problem.

You've had loads of advice.

Robot litter trays, more regular cleaning, deep-clean the house to get rid of odours and soiled items, feliway, vet checks, animal behaviouralist, create dug over area in the garden etc etc.

If the trays were cleaned daily the problem wouldn't exist. Cats are very clean animals.

As well as not being pleasant for you to live in a shit hole, it won't be pleasant for the cats, I'm sure.

The only one who doesn't seem to mind is your husband!

Seriously, for your health you shouldnt be living in such dirty conditions. Have ypu anywhere you can go, even temporarily until this mess is resolved?

FFS get the cats spayed/neutered for a start. The whole thing sounds like serious animal neglect. It's no wonder they're peeing/pooping everywhere when their trays are dirty. It's also a sign of stress and unhappiness.

Posters are only reading your OP because it made it sound like he left the litter trays entirely for 3 days.

In the updated story, the frequency of cleaning is normal but the frequency of toileting around the house is far from normal and can’t be ignored, either for the cats’ welfare or for
yours.

Another thing you can do is let all the cats poop outside. Just let them all out.
(In my view, there isn’t really such a thing as indoor cats really… I own two breeds often considered Indoor but they love the outside). It could help with their stress.

How about neither of you flush the toilet for three days and see if he doesn't mind using it?

Three days is far too long. The litter tray should be changed daily and poo and urine lifted out of it as soon as you spot it.

With four cats they are not doing go like sharing one tray and ideally you need four trays.

I don't think it's going to work confining them to two rooms.

This should have been sorted out before you had a child together.

If you are not a cat person it's going to get worse when you have the baby.