Mary Allen
Sudden uncleanliness in cats can have a very simple cause: the litter box. Sometimes house tigers simply have a problem with the toilet and wouldn’t dream of using it. We would like to describe common reasons for this below.
After your veterinarian has ruled out health causes for your cat’s sudden uncleanliness, you should thoroughly examine the toilet in your home. The location of the litter box plays an important role in this.
Location: Privacy is Important
First things first: A litter box should never be placed next to the food bowl and the drinking or sleeping place. It is also not in good hands in a passage room.
Place it in a quiet, draft-free place that is freely accessible at all times, preferably in a corner. You want to avoid allowing your kitten to be startled in the toilet, whether it’s a shrill doorbell ringing or children running by all the time. Sudden uncleanliness in cats is often caused by a fright that makes them no longer dare to use the litter box.
Important: Quantity & Quality of the Litter Box
Uncleanliness can also result from power struggles between two cats – not all share their litter box as brothers. Being chased away from the litter box by a higher-ranking animal is enough for most house tigers to avoid it from now on. Therefore, set up at least one litter box per animal.
A litter box should also be large, stable, easy to enter, with or without a roof depending on the cat’s preference, not wobbly, and always clean. Cats love cleanliness: Many of them no longer step into a dirty litter box and prefer to do their business on the clean kitchen floor. Nevertheless, you should be careful with deodorant and sprays for the litter box, because not all cats like that either.
If you suspect that the litter box is the cause of your cat’s uncleanliness, try it out: Try a different litter box, several litter boxes, a new location, or a new cat litter!