Cat using nursery as litter tray - any advice?

[dizzy77]

Our lively 13 year old cat has developed a crush on the new carpet in the baby's room, and keeps leaving us little gifts. We thought if we let her mark it she'd stop, have tried Feliway (she just went right next to the diffuser, gee thanks) and now it's getting tiresome. Yes we do our best to keep her out of there but we'll have our hands full when LO arrives in ~7 weeks or so. Any ideas?

ginger, pepper, bleach, chilli power
^all supposed deterents but tbh having tried them all I found that just keeping the door shut worked...

is this common? We have a cat and she is very good but I'm not sure how she will react to baby as she's very nervous and doesnt like anyone touching her except me or husband. x

it's quite common when theres a new smell especially if its a boy cat I've found. My cat mainly does this if he can smell other animals though not humans otherwise he would've shat on the PIL when they came to stay... haha

Anything that smells of lemon and strips of double sided sticky tape across the floor, as they hate the feeling under their paws - might keep him out of there!

Thanks for tips guys like the idea of citrus/lemon presume once we actually start using the room it will start to smell more familiar. Will be more fastidious with door...

you'll have to keep the door shut.

that's the simplest option.

and don't touch the poo!

Just hope it doesn't pee... That's when you'll have a really bad problem on your hands. I too would just make sure I keep the door closed (and do now with regard to mine).

You let a cat mark on the carpet? You actually LET it? Just shut the bloody door.

Hello - a few ideas...
Does she use a tray indoors? If yes address any tray issues, i.e. keep it ultra clean, ensure it is deep filled (old cat = sensitive feet) and large, lots of cats prefer the enclosed trays, if you can offer a 2nd tray. If she goes outdoors think about offering her a tray under the above guidelines somewhere suitable for you.
Is she marking (spraying?) or urinating? Any straining? If it is urinating it may be worth a trip to the vets to rule out a uti (not uncommon in cats over 10yo). If she is spraying then it is more likely stress, probably still worth a vet check incase it's through dental disease etc, if it is truly behavioural then persevere with feliway, it is reassuring, plug in another where you wouldn't mind her urinating.
Go to the pet shop and buy a detergent designed to remove cat urine, otherwise you just use smells which mask the urine smell to you, but she will still smell the stressed markers in the urine and be attracted back there.
Look at the room from her point of view and try to detect sources of stress, it could be the moving of furniture, a loss of a previous 'safe' space, or just lots of new objects, even the view from the window (especially if other cats are looking in). Try to correct the stressful stimulus. Offer her lots of safe places (esp higher up) in other parts of the house. And if it is just 1 place you could put food down there as cats wont wee where they eat (even for a short time it may break the cycle).
Hope something here helps!! Good luck.

Assuming you are in a house, not a flat, and that the baby's room is upstairs, a stair gate may be your simplest answer. Or even a stair gate on the room door.

Our cat is around 11 years old (adopted from a former neighbour) and is fond of using the bath as a litter tray and sleeping on DD's bed. So I either keep the bathroom door shut or close the stair gate, and for whatever reason she can't/won't jump over it. And closing the stair gate is something that's habitual anyway (DD1 is a toddler). Something you'll likely have to do as well in months to come!

We also have to keep the litter tray very clean. (That is obviously DH's job, not mine, with DC2 on the way.)

Good luck!

is there a cat on this planet who can't jump over a stair gate?

Get some ramekins or other litt dishes, and put down about 12 of these full of her favourite food. They won't poo where they eat.

shut the door
shout really loudly every time she attempts to goes in there
repeat until the cat gets the message!

that's what we did & it worked on our 2 (nosey) cats!

Tin foil works too - they won't go near it.

Not sure why you've left the door open. Once would be enough for me.

Yep, colditz, our cat is far too old, fat and lazy to be bothered negotiating our stair gate, believe it or not!

Thanks all will try putting food in there - we're rubbish at shutting doors in our house (only just got some that actually close!) and would like her to feel comfortable in there - when LO arrives no doubt she'll be unhappy with more new noise and smell so would be good if she's at least relaxed with the space too. The good news is DH is totally in charge of all cat excretions and has been since BFP. We've had loads of work happening on the house (also just replaced kitchen) so cat is understandably stressed.

Glizzle thank you for the points: we had her treated just after Christmas at the vets when she was very stressed indeed and "self harming" overscratching. They confirmed with blood tests that outside this, she was in rude health for her age, think we'll have a go with another feliway and use the proper cat stain remover to remove any stress smells. She's always liked watching the birds from the window in there so will replace furniture to make it easy for her. Geepers we thought if we let her make it smell of her in there, she'd be less likely to go back and do it again: we now see the error.

My vet told us to wash the soiled area with non bio washing liquid( 1part non bio/2parts water) mop dont rub with kitchen roll and then repeat with a mix of surgical spirit and water (1 part surgical spirit/2 parts water ), They dont like the sound of the spray bottle I use as well which helps.

Biological, NOT non bio.

The reason for this is that the smell of the cat wee is carried by a protein, which non-bio won't dissolve but the enzymes in bio will.

She told us to use non bio and it has worked in a 4 cat household for many years. Best of luck Dizzy, I am sure the cat wont want to go in there once the baby moves in, x

Hi - my cat gets stressed very easiliy and started soiling the carpet right after I figured out I was pregnant. She peed ON the Feliway defuser .. so I guess that wasn't much help. What I have found to be great to calm her is a peaker full of Bach's Remedy in her water daily. Its like she has smoked somehting ... Smile.

Worth a try

My cats can’t jump stairgates 😆 I have Ragdoll cats and they just aren’t springy.. they can’t get out the garden either, they just slide back down the fence when they try! It’s quite funny! They are predominantly indoor cats but they do love being outside with us in summer.

Sounds odd but try putting her food in the nursery for a few days.. we had an issue with one of the cats pooping on the front door mat & the vet suggested they won’t poo where they eat. So that’s what we did & it worked! After 5 days, we moved the food back to the kitchen and no more pooping on the mat! I still throw treats down onto the doormat as a bit of a reminder as well!