Help!!! I have just come downstairs and my 5mth old kitties and wee ed & poo ed all over the floor and the litter tray is untouched....why??

[simpson]

Basically title says it all. I have two 5mth old kitties.

One kitty is very nervous (I think due to being badly handled by a small child when she was tiny) not my child BTW!!

We have had a few wee accidents (which tbh are starting to annoy me as I have 2 young kids) and she will wee on anything left around laundry, old coat etc.

However she has got much better lately after some TLC

But then I came downstairs and the was literally poo/wee everywhere I don't know for sure which cat it was but can guess iyswim. The litter tray is untouched

Cats have got a clean bill of health by vet BTW and are due to be spayed next Monday.

sounds like a domestic to me. One kitty- probably the bolder- has been defending the tray and shy cat has been beaten up when she tried to use it so went elsewhere. Bolder kitty got cross and copied, trying to intimidate the other one by marking the house as territory.

my aunts two cats did this when she got them, and the vet suggested putting more litter trays around the house, so they didn't fight over a single tray as territory. It did work, but took a few days. Do the cats go outside? If so maybe they are frightened by another, bigger, more dominant cat and its stopping them going out?

They do go outside but have not twigged they can wee/poo outside yet i think...

So if I got another litter tray would that help?

This is starting to drive me mad tbh and am rather lacking in cuddles for them atm They have both been put in garden right now...

Move the litter tray near the door they use to go outside. Sprinkle some litter somewhere outside where you don't mind them pooing. Take them to it.

Do you shut them in a room at night?

Yes they are shut in kitchen/front room at night.

I tried just having them in kitchen but they managed to open door to front room as it does not shut properly

Petsathome had another litter tray on special offer (was going there anyway for worming tablets/cat food etc) so I have got another one now.

Once they are spayed I will make a real effort to get them going outside I think....

Although I guess I will still need litter trays for overnight.

Is it really necessary for them to be shut in at night? (I confess, I've never shut my cats in, and don't know why people do) Not judging, just curious.

Have you changed the type of cat litter at all? I did and the same thing happened, they just didn't like the new stuff. Just a thought

They are shut in because otherwise they are scratching outside my bedroom door all night & they can get into DS's room and wake him up & get gets up early enough in the mornings

Cat litter was changed a couple of wks ago because they did not have the usual one in stock. I did that of that actually (great minds think alike!!) But this was over 2wks ago so I would have thought they have got used to it by now

Were there fireworks going off? We had a really loud lot go off last night and my cat promptly peed over the bathroom floor.

She did also poo on the sofa once when the smoke alarm went off.

Feliway. Local vet.

When in doubt go for Feliway.

What is Feliway??

Is that the stuff you plug in and it gives them happy vibes??

That's exactly it; it works. We had a kitten who was led astray as it were, by our very old senile cat who had forgotten where her loo was. Plugged in Feliway, not only did it calm down all the cats and stop them scratching furniture, but the kitten kept strictly to the tray or went outside. (The senile one was happier but was still getting caught short and confused, bless.)

It's expensive from the vet though, but you can get it cheaper over the interwebs.

Thanks for tip on looking for it online

Some things are starting to make more sense now like for example one kitty hassling me for food when there is still some in one of the bowls....but having watched them I have twigged its the other kitties bowl iyswim.

Well, no accidents last night although they both seem to be using both litter trays but hopefully they will sort it out themselves