Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 2/24/2011

Question
Hello, I need some advice about why and maybe how I may stop my ten year old Siamese male cat (Demon) from defecating on the floor instead of the litter box. Since day one as a kitten, Demon has done this, and despite all efforts, he keeps doing this. We clean the litter box regularly, and often multiple times each day. We now do a complete litter change every other day (this is very expensive), and even tried multiple types of litter, but, no change. The litterbox gets replace with a new one every few months as well.

We feed him Science Diet:Indoor Care cat food. We have one dog, and just the one cat. The vet cannot give us a reason why he does this, they just suggest we continue doing what we are doing. Please, any advice you can give would be very gratefully accepted. Thank you.

Answer
Hi
if there is no medical reason for this then this behavior is known as Middening and is all to do will territory and scent marking and feeling anxious. It may simply be that your cat has never felt comfortable living with a dog and feels the need to always scent mark his territory. Some cats are just more highly strung than others.

If he has always done this it could be a hard habit to break. you could try the litter retraining confinement approach but may have to do this several times. You could also try anti anxiety medications to help relax your cat about anything which may be upsetting him..

Please find more information about both of these things on my site here

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-poo.html

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/scared-cat.html

best wishes Kate