Pooing outside litter tray

[MyfanwyMontez]

I am looking after a friends cats . I’ve looked after a few times in the past , I have no cats myself.

Yesterday morning, I went to feed them , give fresh water and found poo on the floor instead of litter tray . I changed the litter tray because there was poo in it .

Should I be worried? My friend is on holiday abroad and I don’t want to alarm her. Is it possible that the litter was soiled already and it sort off put them off? All was fine , this morning, no ‘presents’ waiting for me .

I change the litter regularly.

A few reasons

Already poo in tray
Tray too small
Stress
Cats are arseholes

I certainly don't think it's anything to worry about unless there's other signs of distress or the poo looks abnormal.

Thank you so much . The tray is shared by 3 cats , it’s is quite large but possibly there was poo in tray . They were sleeping contentedly on the sofa this morning, apart from who is bonkers. She’s a Devon Rex and she’s always a bit eccentric.

I agree, some cats are really fussy and you have to clear up the poo each and every time.

Cats might also do this if they are stressed. And their owners being away, might be enough to stress them out.

sometimes cats just miss, especially if elderly.

If it’s an indoor cat, and you are only visiting, then it might be bored or lonely.

Unfortunately 1 tray shared amongst 3 cats is always going to cause problems. 3 cats need at least 2, ideally 3 if they're inside a lot.

There's usually at least one mad cat in a group 😁

Cat expressing disgust at either a) unclean tray. b) owners going on holiday c) anything the cat feels at that moment isn’t to their liking.
Could have been worse - a poo in a shoe.

Thank you all so much , I’m slightly reassured now . This is the longest I’ve looked after them and they’ve never done this before .
I’ll have be extra scrupulous with the tray . If anything were to happen to them , I would be devastated and I know the owner would be heartbroken.

Do they only have one litter tray between 3 of them?

Cats don't like to "share" a litter box. If you have 3 cats you should have 4 trays. Also, if the tray isn't "emptied" often they will poo outside the box or wherever they see fit.

Very helpful replies. I will mention the shared litter box to my friend.

You can use an old washing up
bowl or storage box as a litter tray, or put a cardboard box inside a bin bag and put some litter in the cardboard box. The
bin bag means you can just bag up the entire lot when the box goes soggy/smelly. Should be a ‘free’ and easy solution until
your friend returns and save you spending £. Old Amazon boxes are sturdy enough for a day or two, pop some odd bits of cardboard in the bottom to help it last.
Don’t put a bin bag inside the box - the cats will just shred it and you will be clearing up used cat litter for hours.

It's spelt "poohing"
FFS

That’s such a good idea. I’ve lots a cardboard boxes in the cupboard of doom !

One tray per cat is the minimum, with 3, I'd have an extra.

@MyfanwyMontez I cannot guarantee it’ll work. But if you put a scoop of litter from an existing tray in the new box, it should encourage them to treat it as another litter tray.

Alphabet1spaghetti
It’s certainly worth a try Thank you.

I did not ask for comments on my spelling , ffs!

No, it's bloody not.

The thing is with facts is that they are quite hard to argue with.

Facts are quite hard to argue with, you're not wrong there 😁

Have some decorum

Even the cats behave better, except when pooing outside their litter tray. DCat tells me to clean hers by doing a massive wee alongside her box.😹