How do I stop one of my cats pooing behind the TV?!

[SunnyAgain]

Both our new cats had been happily using litter trays, in fact they had stopped using the one on my bedroom (hooray!) and seemed to prefer the one downstairs, but in the last couple of days there have been 3 poos behind the TV, tucked away in the corner of the room (on the carpet). Any tips on how to prevent this becoming the norm please?

Wash the area with biological washing powder to remove the traces that are attracting the cat back to that spot. Put something in the corner, like orange peel as a deterrent or a physical barrier so the cat can't get in there.

Thank you, will let you know how I get on. There were a couple of incidences of poo in the shower tray in the early days, which were preferable to the carpet!

I'd recommend moving the one from the bedroom to another accessible area. It may only be one of them that is poo-ing and, for some reason, it is no longer happy with the bedroom tray. Get another tray in as well. It's usually one per cat plus a spare.

As previous posters have said, clean the area with biological washing powder to get rid of the smell. I would then put a small bowl of cat food there as cat's rarely poo where there's food.

Put the TV on the wall?

Agree, clean the place behind the TV, apparently putting something noisy there, like foil is meant to put them off.

It may be because you don't have enough trays, the general rule is one per cat and one spare, some cats will only use a clean one.

So far so good, they have both been using the downstairs tray, and the corner behind the TV has stayed clean. Fingers crossed! I will move the bedroom tray, to see if it gets used elsewhere. Struggling to think of a space for another one to go in though.

Is your bathroom a possible spot? You can get corner trays with a cover which might fit your set up. Pets at home sell them (aka Largest Ever Pet Shop for all those with DCs that love The Littlest Pet Shop).

Unfortunately I don't think there is enough space in the bathroom. Potentially one could go in my son's room, so if the poos in odd places continue I may do that, but would prefer not to. By the way, Sparkysparkysparky, one of the cats is called Sparky! (I think it's the other one that is pooing where she shouldn't!)

Sparky is a fab name for a cat!
Take a look at the litter box options at pets at home or online and have a creative think about nooks and crannies at home. A good idea might come to you.
Good luck

I have managed to move the bedroom litter tray into the bathroom, and have seen Sparky (sorry, it turns out this one is the culprit!) using it, but unfortunately also still weeing and pooing behind the TV, even when the litter tray is clean and with fresh litter in.

Hi again. You might need to get you errant one checked out at the vets. pooing/wee ing outside the box may indicate a health problem - doesnâ??t necessarily mean a big one btw.
I know you're tight for space but another litter tray might help if using one has turned into a competition.
Also, and this is a bit out there, is there some kind of cat world threat that the cat is picking up on, say, some big bruiser cat wandering outside the window that is freaking your cat out. My old cat was very indignant to discover that there were other cats in the world

How many trays do you have? You really need one per cat plus a spare.

I have two litter trays at the moment. Sparky has just weed behind the TV again just now so I am going to order a corner tray that will hopefully fit in that space. I might have to pull the TV unit forward but it will be worth it not to have to keep cleaning the carpet! I don't understand why cats apparently won't use a little tray is it is soiled, but will return to a spot on the carpet that they have previously used, if they can still smell their poo on it, it's doen't make sense to me! I have been cleaning after each episode but she is still going on the carpet, and the litter trays both have unsoiled litter in. Sigh.
There are other cats around but none that I have noticed my cats being wary of through the window.
We are due to go to the vets for booster jabs in a week, so as long as she seems healthy in other respects I will hang on til then but will mention it when we go.

Cleaning with a solution of bio washing powder or anything with enzymes in it should neutralise the preferred spot in terms of poo wee smells.

I have been sponging the area with bio washing powder solution, and sprinkled it with bicarbonate of soda too. Sparky pooed there again this morning. I'm starting to feel a bit stressed about it now! I have made the litter tray in the bathroom a bit more enclosed by screening it with a couple of pieces of cardboard (it is a covered one but I thought perhaps still not private enough, as it just sits next to the bath) so will see if it continues to be ignored. I have also ordered a different type of cat litter. I do hope we find a solution to this!

Are you sure my name sake isn't poorly?

She is eating and drinking, being active.....do you think I should get her checked out? Actually one thing is that when I have blotted up the wee it is on the darkish side, but it's hard to know if any colour is coming out of the terracotta carpet.

My weak knowledge of this is that peeing outside the litter tray tends to mean a health problem or some sort of territorial issue.

Actually thinking it was more of a peachy colour, worrying now, could that be blood in urine? I think I will leave clean kitchen roll over the area to see if she wees on that so I can see the colour without carpet contamination.

I will phone the vet in the morning. My car is being repaired but
I should have it back by lunch time so I can take her in to be checked.

Wise to get it checked out. Have a think about whether there is a territorial issue of some kind which means Sparky wants to put a marker down.

She does seem to be the dominant one of the pair (they are sisters) and in the chasing and play fighting she tends to be the more aggressive of the two. Are females territorial?

Kinda, it's a matriarchal species. Male kittens get kicked out of the group.

The majority of inappropriate elimination (toileting) issues in cats are behavioural (assuming wee and poo otherwise normal) cats are territorial and don't like sharing resources.

Unfortunately it sounds as if you have 1 tray in a preferred location downstairs, and a 2nd in an undesirable location (bedroom/bathroom). Your cat has decided that the spot behind the tv is preferable to either dirty tray 1 or inconvenient tray 2.

The only way to address this is to ensure that tray 1 stays scrupulously clean (and thus available) at all times and to provide more trays (1 per cat plus 1) Can you fit one behind the tv?

It might also be that your other cat is resource guarding the available trays to some extent so Sparky doesn't feel able to get to them, or that they're too close to food/sleeping areas, too noisy or exposed for Sparky to feel comfortable using them. Using covered litter trays well away from food can help with this.