A small percentage of house cats will have cat urine issues at some point in their lives.
It’s a small percentage unless your cat is the one out of ten with this problem. Cat pea has a very high concentration of urea. This is about twice as much as dogs and other fur covered pets.
It’s what gives the urine such a strong smell. This is why feral cats use it for territorial marking. This concentrated fluid gives it a long lasting staying power that can even survive heavy rains in an outside environment.
Inappropriate urination is twice as likely as inappropriate defecation in indoor house cats. A feline urinating outside of its litter box is one of the major problems reported to pet behaviorists from pet owners arounf the world.
Urinating Outside The Litter Box
Why does this happen? The most common cause of a cats bad urine behavior is the owner’s failure to clean the litter tray as often as your cat would prefer.
Some cats are very sensitive about the state of their box and others couldn’t care less. Felines normally bury their feces, which is an activity related to territorial confidence.
So what if your kitty doesn’t feel safe using the litter tray. They may find a better place to go. In addition indoor or outdoor male cats may be less at ease with urinating indoors.
However, generally speaking cats allowed outdoors are less likely to be a problem when it comes to urine issues inside the home.
With that said, both confidence and weather can change the outside cats urine behavior. Frost and snow can restrict digging, but some cats will use snow as if it were dirt.
Urination problems may also be caused by confinement stress. In this case you need to tackle the problems of your cats environment. Some use the Feliway pheromone to reduce stress.
Confinement stress can be the major cause of cat behavior problems. When you keep your cat indoors the indoor space of the house is much smaller than their territory would be in the wild.
Small can equal insecure to some cats. No where to run or hide is a bad thing to kitty. Experiment with the possible litter tray locations. Locate the litter tray where your cat feels safe using it.
Always challenge your cat by keeping them entertained. This can also help reduce confinement stress considerably. Keep in mind that serious medical reasons can cause cats to urinate outside the liter box.
Please explore these with your veterinarian. Some urinary tract infections and diseases like cystitis can cause pain while going in the box. This disease affects mostly middle-aged female/male cats and can cause urinating outside the liter box.
Solutions For Cat Urine Problems
Another idea is a cat litter tray hood that might provide a sense of security. You’ll have to experiment with this, because some cats can actually be claustrophobic.
Also avoid placing the litter box near the cats food and water bowls. Obviously, you wouldn’t like to eat dinner in the bathroom and your cat could feel the same way.
Another good thing to try is to increase the amount of litter boxes and place them in strategic areas around your home.
You can then monitor the litter box usage and find out which box your cat prefers and then eliminate the unused ones. You can also try different brands of cat litter in each to see if that makes a difference.
The multiple box method can often speed up finding the perfect location for the rest room and therefore reduces cat urine clean up. Here is my last suggestion before I move on to additional pages about this subject.
You may feel very angry about cleaning up cat urine. Any punishment or show of aggression can increase the cats anxiety and the likelihood that their issues will continue on for a longer period of time.
Dog owners might try to use tactics they found successful with their dogs on feline pets. I have never seen this work, because the cats instincts are so different. Instead dig in and analyze why the problem has occurred like a detective. After the mystery is solved then you can address the root cause.
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Cat Health Behavior.com Cat Urine Articles
Potty training your cat correctly from the start can avoid problems down the road. See some new tools and information about litter box training.
People ask what kind of litter they should use. The question is so important we will teach you how to ask your cat for the answer. That’s right see how to get your cat to tell you whats the best kind of litter. More information about the cats urinary tract issue known as cystitis or inflammation of the bladder on this next page about the cats urinary tract. If your problem is cat urine spraying then learn from this article about why they do it and how to stop a cats urine spraying. More about how to handle and what to do when your cat has urinated outside the liter box. Learn about cat urine removal.
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