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The litter tray

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Cat dominated household. Spraying and constant begging…

2 replies

Geoguillo · 14/04/2022 20:18

Hi all,

I’ve had cats all my life 26+ years, never had ANY issues. Recently I have two younger cats who completely and utterly dominate the household. A young male and female (both neutered), who constantly spray everywhere…on walls, radiators, the side of the bath, doors and even up on the kitchen work tops. We have had to throw out 3 toasters as the male cat sprayed on it due to the strong smell.

It is outrageous, disgusting and unhygienic. We have obviously thrown the toasters out immediately and immediately clean with enzyme cleaners and disinfectant on doors and walls etc.

We have tried expensive plug ins for calming, we have tried cat nip, we have introduced more litter trays - sometimes up to 5 or 6 in one 3 bed house.

It is completely a choice for them to spray instead of using clean trays.

I’m wanting to start a family within the next few years so cannot have any kind of spraying or cat domination in the household.

We are resorting to keep them out all night, feeding them outdoors and letting them in during the day when they are tired for a big sleep and then out all night again. The stricter we are the better it is, but it’s hard as we live in a very cold, harsh climate and they are such cuddly lovely cats (minus the spraying and constant demands of food!)

Please any advice is welcome, or do we continue to keep them outdoors for all night where they do the toilet in our woods and eat outside? They love being indoors though, but the constant spraying is killing us.

OP posts:
fairylightsandwaxmelts · 14/04/2022 21:14

I would be tempted to rehome one of them as I suspect they're just going to constantly mark each other's scent otherwise.

AnnaMagnani · 15/04/2022 22:05

Spraying is a different issue to weeing in the house so having lots of litter bins isn't going to solve it as you have found. Spraying is all about distress and marking territory, not just doing a wee.

Mine have only ever sprayed when they had crystals in their urine so my first suggestion would be a vet trip.

Unfortunately the next suggestion is that something is making them unhappy and given this is most likely another cat - do they actually like living with each other?

Is there cat bullying going on between the two resulting in a need to show who owns what territory? Rehoming one may be the answer.

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