Cat weeing outside of the litter tray, at the same time every morning.

[imay8]

Hi all,

So I have an issue. My cat, has started weeing on the floor outside of her litter trays (we have two as I have a kitten too) around 6am or in the early hours, I know as I have a camera set up. She uses the litter trays fine in the day/evening with no issues.

Which is why her having a UTI/illness doesn’t make sense. She was doing this a few months ago and shaking her leg after weeing, so we had her wee tested and she didn’t have an infection. At night, my cats are in the kitchen/diner room, they have everything they could possibly need. I can’t have them out at night due to me and my family working and they would keep us awake.

She is a very clean cat, after going to the toilet she wipes all the toilet door and floor outside of the toilet. But she does smell like wee sometimes so I bathe her (luckily she is very good for me!) and have wipes and non-wash out shampoo too. I clean the toilets every other day and I have the powder thing to rid of any smells if needed. I tried things like putting the two toilets next to eachother (as they are in different areas usually) but she just weed somewhere else and I’ve tried those puppy pads a few times, which she then uses to wee on in the night so I stopped as I don’t want her to be reliant on them. I have just bought the calming plug ins too. No luck.

I have tried googling and it just comes up with UTIs/infections. Any ideas? Any similar problems?

She turned 1 the other day! Here are some pics of her, and her little brother (not related) both ragdolls!

Are the trays near each other? We have one upstairs and one downstairs and our cat was pooing on the floor beside the litter downstairs. I read online that if they wee in the litter and then need to poo (or vice versa) some won't go in the same litter. Anyway we have the too litters beside each other now and it seems to have solved the problem. Might not be relevant to your cat, but thought i would share

Sorry I didn't see that you had tried that. Apologies

We had a similar issue with our cat doing this in the small hours when we had to keep him indoors for quite a while after an operation, which I was convinced must be a UTI. Like you, I too tried Feliway plugins, multiple litter trays, but nothing worked. We were still under the care of specialist vets referral centre after the operation, and after a lot of tests, and no problems found, the vet there was convinced it was caused by the stress of not being allowed outside, and they amended their previous advice and told us we could start letting him out again, earlier than planned. It stopped the issue immediately- so my first thought with your cat was that the issue might be caused by the stress of being kept in- the sort of time your cat is doing it is the sort of time my cat often takes himself outside for a loo break! And that sort of time of morning is when cats REALLY want to be outside exploring! I know you say you can't let them out at night, but would something like a timed catflap with a curfew work, even if it was just for her? (My catflap lets different cats in the house have different curfews) That way you could unlock the catflap just before you know she's likely to wee outside her tray.

@Texy2 Thank you so much for your reply! However my cats are both indoor only. Neither of them have ever shown any desire to go out, they don’t even go near the doors really. I could never let them out due to the breed and their safety (a personal preference too). I’m glad you managed to find a solution though

You need to have three litter trays, one per cat plus one and ideally in seperate areas (so not just put together)

Feliway diffusers

Has the litter changed?

Keep the trays clean at all times

Stress with cats goes to their bladders so is there anything new that could be upsetting her. New kitten would be my first thought.

@Hallelujah2020 I have diffusers, the litter hasn’t changed since I got her. We have had Chester since the end of November and she has only recently just started doing it again, the time before was before we had Chester. I also did try a third litter tray just at night, one with an open lid and she did wee on the floor still. Last night she didn’t, but rarely some nights she doesn’t. Litter trays are done every other day and always cleaned ASAP when one of them poo’s. Chester has no problems. Thank you for your reply!