Urgent help my cat is weeing all over my new house!

[tobytomcat88]

I have just moved into our first family home with my son bf and my cat.
He has never used a litter tray before as we had a cat flap at our old house and he's always used that. I am planning on getting a cat flap but I need to keep him in until he gets used 2 his new surroundings.

at the minute the litter tray is in the utility room along with his food. on his first night here he pooed in the litter tray I was over the moon. It has never happened since.

when he goes anywhere else I take him straight to the utility room and lock him in for 5 minutes. I don't like the idea if locking him in there all night / day any advice??

Is he using anywhere else to pee? (I know you said 'all over' but it migt be more restricted than that.) I'd temporarily move the litter tray somewhere else - or move his food to a better distance - and maye even get a second tray for him. (They like to have two trays and they're only cheap.)

When did you actually move in to the house - and is it genuinely split new or just new to you?

*anywhere in particular

(I need some calories.)

I'd move the tray from the food, add a cheap tray in each room & get some zylkene from Amazon.

Mine did this when we moved. We got better at spotting the signs.

He will only wee on something soft. its no where in particular just somewhere soft in the room he's in :(

Just to check - Has he been neutered and seen the vet recently etc?

He very possibly won't be thinking 'I get locked in the utility room which is where I should toilet'. Instead he'll be thinking 'I don't like it when I'm alone in the utility room' - which might mean he's avoiding going in there, and thus using the tray.

Does he have usual toileting times? You might have better luck putting him in with the tray (and btw agree on moving tray away from food - some don't care but some really, really do) before he goes, rather than after.

A lot of cats get weird about toilets in new houses and usually they calm down - bit of a mix of confusion, stress and marking territory I think. There's no harm in keeping him to a few rooms, if you can, to limit the damage a bit - or only letting him free range when you're there to supervise.

Multiple trays in multiple locations can help. What litter are you using? And how deep is it? Apparently outside going cats often like finer litter, and I suspect they like to properly dig, so maybe something deep-ish.

Good luck!

yes try lots of litter trays around, and far from his food, and with litter hes used to, and get some feliway spray and a feliway plug in.

I think it likely that locking him in the utility room is disorienting to him and stressful and likely to result in further peeing around the house!

He may do better if you fill the tray with earth, if he isn't used to litter.

Or you could get some puppy training pads to put by the tray if he is using soft items.

A Feliway spray might help, you can use it where it is needed rather than just rely on a diffuser which can take a while to work, and although it might relax him, it never stopped mine from peeing where he wanted.