Burmese Cat - 2 mistakes!

[doobeedoobeedoo]

I have two beautiful chocolate Burmese cats, nearly 2 years old. They are very friendly, affectionate and settled. They are both neutered. One has just started to urinate (twice) on the front door mat. We replaced the mat immediately - but both had rubber backs which I read can imitate the smell of ammonia and he might think it was somewhere to urinate. Two questions - I have wiped tiles with a weak white vinegar solution - it is only this area - what can I do/spray to stop him doing it again?

Wait and see if he keeps doing it. If he does you need to work out why he's doing it there.

My friend has a terrible time with her cat peeing everywhere. In the end they got a cat psychologist in - which isn't half as ridiculous as it sounds, honest! My friend followed her advice and her cat did actually stop peeing everywhere.

I won't go into all the ins and outs, but basically one of the things they learnt was that cats like to feel safe when they use the toilet. For us humans that means going in a private space, and so we often put cats litter trays in a place we might like to have a toilet, were we cat-sized. But cats couldn't give a stuff about privacy.They care much more about being able to see whether there's danger about, so they want their litter tray in a place where they have a good vantage point. So, if you have a litter tray put it in a place where they have the advantage over any (imaginary) predators / other animals.

If on the other hand you have a cat flap, have a think about whether they feel safe when they go out of it. This means again making sure they have the upper hand when it comes to seeing what's what. If it's in a place where they will feel exposed when they go outside, it can help to provide cover for them to hide behind while they survey the scene and check they're safe - like a couple of pot plants for them to hide behind.

Or it could be something completely different!! But hopefully some food for thought.

HTH

Theres lots of really great advice about cats soiling particularly in a multicat household like yours at www.fabcats.org.

Thanks lowrib and lizcat. Both useful - cat was definitely urinating and not spraying and I think the fact my husband was decorating the entrance hall/porch where the doormat is that he wee'd on might be part of it - there was lots of big plastic bin bags around, paper stripping paraphernalia, step ladder etc so maybe he felt a bit unsecure (they never like noises like steam iron, hoover, wallpaper stripper etc.) I have got two different types of Get Away type spray, a Feliway Diffuser (not cheap!) and a new floor mat which has no rubber backing in case its the rubber backing that spurs him on - fingers crossed!