Rather than step into his litter box, that stays clean because I know how picky cats are, he'll crap on my bathroom rugs with his litter box not a foot away from him. Is it a territorial thing? Would he stop if I bought new rugs? I'd have already thrown his butt outside, but he's declawed. I hate having to keep my bathroom rugs folded over all the time because of the little stinker.
Lose the rug. Buy some cat attract for the littler box. Wait about a week or so and replace your rug. Works all the time.
Try this. For a few days put the rug underneath the litter box. When he starts back using it, place the rug back in it's real spot. One other reason he's doing this could be he had a very painful poop in the box now associates it with pain. Good luck
We have an 8 year old cat who started doing this after I rescued another kitty and she started coming the house. I tried everything I could think of, from picking up his poop and putting it in the box. My vet says he's just trying to get the point across to me, because he was the head honcho for 5 years, and all of a sudden he had to share us. I did, however, realise that there are some kitty litters that he just doesn't like. He hates the clumping litter, and doesn't like Tidy Cat clay litter. So I started buying Fresh Step clay litter, and during the warm months when the other cat is mostly outside, he uses his box 100%. Sometimes it just takes alot of patience and waiting for cats to come around. Try changing the litter brand? He may just be trying to adjust to a new home....you probably don't know it's history, so who knows if there is any abuse in it's background. Cat's pretty much do what they want, when they want...all we can do is be loving and patient. Best of luck to you. BTW- don't you just love all the idiotic answers you get. You are trying to ask a legit question, and you get brain-dead people answering. I sure hope they aren't animal owners.
I went through this exact same problem. I moved my cats litter box from the bathroom to the office about 6 months ago. She started going to the bathroom to use the restroom and used the rug instead. The vet told me that I shouldn't have moved the litter box, so I won't do that again. I found that a cat will not go to the restoom on reynolds wrap. Just lay it out flat and leaving it laying there for awhile. It takes several weeks to get them back into the habit of going in the correct place. Also, clean the rug well or remove it from the bathroom. I actually threw the rug out and bought another one. I figure there really is no way to get the smell completely out of the rug. Good Luck! ( oh I also kept my cat in the office for a few days so she would get use to going in the litter box and not in the bathroom. )
Remove the rugs for now, possibly you can put them back when he's using the box again but chances are he won't like using the tile floor. Then after a while you can probably replace them -either clean them *real* well or buy new ones, for if he can still smell the stink he'll be more likely go back to the rug! Is the declawing recent? Even if it is not, check his paws. Quite a few declawed cats stop using the box because it hurts them. Even if it has healed at first, sometimes even years later they'll get a regrowth or such that can be bothering him if he steps in the litterbox. Other stresses may cause a cat to act up too; did you bring in a new cat? Has your own schedule changed a lot?
