Cat peeing on bath mats

[IndigoSkye]

Hi, I wonder if anyone has any ideas. My cat has taken to peeing on bath mats, actually any fabric that’s left on the bathroom floor: I have thoroughly cleaned the bathroom many times but she still seems to do it. The problem is I have two teenagers who keep leaving towels and clothes on the floor, let alone pick up the bath mats after use. Has anyone any ideas how I can stop this? Anyone found any really good cleaning products that might help deter the cat or any suggestions at all really? It’s really getting me down as I keep coming home to it and I keep having to throw towels and bath mats out as I can’t get the smell out. I have thought about rehoming my teenagers but my husband won’t let me!!!

train the teens to keep the bathroom door closed? unless you have a smart cat that can open doors.

Put a litter tray in the bathroom.

We once had a cat who would get in the bath and pee down the plughole, and I have heard of cats who have trained themselves to perch on the edge of the toilet to do their business in there. Some cats have figured out that the bathroom is the place where humans go to do their business, so they do too.

Our last cat toileted pretty much exclusively outside, but if was shut indoors and had access to the bathroom she’d always hop into the bath and go there. If she was shut indoors and the bathroom door was closed, she used the litter tray (one of three to choose from) perfectly fine. Per pp, I think knew that was where we went to do our toilet.

We also once had a night where she had obviously eaten something dodgy when she was young, and she came crying into our bed at about 3am - she’d been very, very sick, but again, had got in the bath to do it. Smart girl.

I have a cat who is behaviourally incontinent- the vet can’t find anything wrong, she’s just a twat. I’ve found the best way of cleaning is to dissolve a biological washing tablet in a bottle of warm water, and after I’ve cleaned and disinfected I pour that all over and dry with kitchen roll. Kills the smell entirely which deters her from doing it again! Use biological powder in the machine and that should tackle the smell for your towels, mine also likes the occasional bath mat. Weirdly mine will pee on puppy pads, so she has a litter tray with one in that I change every time she uses it, works about 80% of the time…

I would let the teenagers try to shower with the wee-soaked towels and bathmats and I reckon that will teach them to hang them up like adults do. Too mean?

My cat is the same. Teenager has not yet cottoned on he needs to pick his towels/clothes up.

My cats like to pee in the shower, their litter tray, the laundry basket...
If they're healthy it's behaviour and all you can do is make it harder for them to pee where you don't want them to. I've changed my laundry basket and cannot leave wet but clean clothes unattended.

Have you tried Feliway plug in? Our cat weed on the kids’ stuff and the vet suggested this and it worked. Worth a shot

Shut the bathroom door so the cat can’t have access.

https://amzn.eu/d/bXpJ6Ls

this is the best thing we’ve ever used! Stops our cats going anywhere we don’t want as it properly destroys the smell (normal cleaning products leave enough of a smell that the cat wants to go there again)

Possibly a silly question but have you tried putting a litter tray in the bathroom if that’s their preferred toilet spot?

It will probably be easier to train the cat to use a litter tray in the bathroom than to train teenagers to shut the bathroom door!

We had a cat that thought bath mats were for pooing on. Even if it was hung over the edge of the bath she's just drag it onto the floor and carry on.

In the end we got some of those bath mats that are like heavy thick towels, so can be boil washed if necessary, and made sure they were hung up out of her reach on the towel rail EVERY time.

The teens should be clearing it up if they're the ones leaving towels and clothes on the floor.

Outdoor cat or indoor cat with a litter tray/s? If the latter how many trays and when were they last replaced? How old is the cat?

I think you'll need to shut the bathroom door.
Our previous cats always got high on cleaning fluid smells and toiletries and pooped close by. In the shower, in the bath, in the basin, on the bathmat. The new lot do exactly the same. There must some connection.

Ha, probably.

The issue is though that now the cat has started peeing on bath mats, she may not stop even if there's a litter tray there.

Hi All, thanks so much for all your suggestions. We have two cats who go come and go in and out as they please and 3 litter trays which I change regularly. The cat in question doesn’t go out much to be honest, particularly this time of year.

I would happily let the DC learn by natural consequences not to leave things on the bathroom floor but this seems to be taking longer than I would like and also it makes the whole house smell which is really unpleasant and they are not the only ones using the bathroom!

i do try to shut the door and wondering about putting a spring on the door to keep it shut! I have also just ordered some stone bath mats although I can still see towels being left on the floor

i am definitely going to try cleaning the floor with biological laundry detergent. It’s vinyl so is shouldn’t really have left a lasting scent but I do wonder if it has and the cat can smell it even if I can’t! I also might see about getting a small cat litter tray to put in there. There’s not really enough room but it may be that we can move it in and out as needed.

I think it largely happens at night and unfortunately dc now go to bed later than me which means even if I close the door it may get opened again!

thanks again for contributing it’s given me some things to think about

When you say you change the litter trays regularly are you meaning you change the litter or the actual physical boxes? Because apparently they get micro scuffs on the inside which traps odours and to a cat they start to smell like a dirty public toilet and it puts them off using them. I read you should change the actual box yearly.

Pet odour neutralising spray.
pee away is good. Like £2-3 from b&m
Prevents any lingering smells they may detect.- humans can’t but they can. Lingering smells means they will mark their spot again.

You stand the litter tray on the bath mat.😁

See, mine would just stand inside the tray and pee over the edge if I did that 🤣

Honestly, you don’t want a litter tray in the bathroom! There will always be litter that escapes and getting out of the bath shower with litter underfoot is not fun!

I had a cat that did the same with bath mats and towels so just had to stress to the kids to not leave stuff in the floor.