How To Stop Cats From Urinating In The House

Cats natural instincts lead them to urinate only in “designated areas.” For healthy house cats (feral cats are an exception), that “area” is the litter box and only the litter box.

Mother cats pass this knowledge down to their kittens, so even young kittens usually use the litter box with little coaxing from their human caretakers. When a cat stops using the box or starts using other areas, it’s a sign something is wrong. While our kitties can be manipulative at times, urination isn’t something they use to get “revenge” or attention.

Get to the Root Cause

In order to stop cats from urinating in the house, you need to know why they’re peeing outside the box in the first place. One potential cause is a health problem. Some health conditions cause painful urination, frequent urination, or urinary urgency–all of which can interfere with a cat’s normal litter box habits.

Cats can also start urinating in the house when they’re under stress. What stresses a cat can be very different from what stresses a human. In general, any change in the environment or daily routine can do it. It could be anything from the death of another pet in the household to neighbor’s new dog. It could even be a new piece of furniture, boredom due to lack of attention or your own stress level the cat has picked up on.

The type of litter box, the litter you use, and where you put the box also matter. A litter box set-up that’s inappropriate for the cat can also cause her to avoid the box.

In Cat Urine Problems Eliminated, I’ve detailed the possible causes for a cat’s inappropriate urination (I came up with a total of 11!) to help you pinpoint why your cat is having problems.

Make The Necessary Changes

Your first step should be to take kitty for a vet check up. If she checks out healthy, then cause of her inappropriate urination is likely stress or some problem with the litter box. Some causes of stress you can get rid of. For example, teach your toddler not to sneak up on kitty when she’s in the box. Or if one of your cats is bullying another, get a separate box for each cat. In fact, it’s always a good idea to have one litter box per cat just to head off any territorialism issues.

When you’re not able to eliminate the stress, feline pheromone products or Bach flower remedies can help. So can creating a private hideout somewhere in the house where the cat can, well, hide out with a bed, food and water. As for the litter box, the problem could be location, type of box or litter, the way you clean it, or a number of other things.

Indoor/Outdoor Cats Need Litter Boxes

One thing that must be said is that almost all cats who spend time in the house will need somewhere in the house to go to the bathroom. Unlike dogs, cats won’t let you know when they need to go outside for a bathroom break. They typically won’t just “hold it” until it’s time to go out, either. (Some will, but most won’t wait long.) Instead, they’ll find what they consider a suitable litter box alternative, such as the carpet or a pile of clothes. If your cat’s indoors often, make sure she has a clean, easily accessible litter box indoors.

There are many reasons a cat might start wetting in the house, but they all have practical solutions. Learn more about feline urination behavior and find out exactly how to stop cats from urinating in the house.

Learn How to Completely Eliminate Your Cat Urine Problem

You love your kitty, but a cat urine problem can quickly become so intolerable you consider re-homing her. When your house smells of cat pee and every morning or when you get home from work you find another wet spot somewhere in the house, it can drive you crazy. Eventually, you may even stop having people over because of the smell. That nasty odor isn’t good for your health either. The ammonia content in cat urine can irritate your airways and may eventually cause breathing problems. With a little patience and understanding of feline behavior, though, you can get rid of your cat urine problem for good.

Get to the Root Cause

By instinct, cats choose one place to do their business and consistently do it only their. Its not natural for a cat to pee all over the house. If your cat’s doing this, something is wrong. Unless you find out why your cats urinating where she shouldn’t and solve that problem, the most effective cat urine odor removal product in the world wont get rid of your cat urine problem.

Your first step should be to take your cat to the vet to have him checked for health problems that can cause inappropriate urination. If your cat turns out to be healthy, the cause may be stress. A change in a cat’s environment or routine, no matter how small, can seriously stress a cat. If nothing’s changed (not even a new cat in the neighborhood), something may be preventing your cat from using the box. It could be the litter, the box’s location or a cleaner you’ve used on the box, a child who likes to bother kitty when she’s in the box or another cat bullying her away from the box.

Keep in mind, too, that your cat may not stop wetting in a particular area until you completely neutralize the odor of cat urine there. This means you may have to clean a few times while your getting your cat back into the box-only habit.

Get Rid of That Cat Urine Smell

Cat pee–there’s nothing quite like it. It reeks to high heaven and it’s seemingly indestructible. Sometimes you feel the only thing you can take comfort in is the fact that house cat urine still isn’t quite as bad as bobcat urine. 🙂 As stubborn as cat urine odor might be, though, you can clean it up and eliminate that smell from your house.

You have two basic choices–homemade cleaners and commercially made enzyme-based cleaners. Both can eliminate odors from a cat urine problem. For homemade cleaners, you’ll need a proven-effective recipe because some only eliminate the odor you can smell, but leave a trace the cat can smell. The risk is the same with enzyme cleaners. Some do work great on cat pee, but others are only effective on lighter odors like dog urine.

Using the right cleaning procedure is also important. With the homemade cleaners you have a bit more flexibility and they should work as long as you follow the basic procedure. Enzyme cleaners, however, contain natural proteins (enzymes) that are affected by chemicals and temperature. It’s essential to use these products exactly as the manufacturer directs to allow the enzymes to work. At worst, you could kill the enzymes and the product will be little better than water.

You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.

Stop Your Cat Urinating Where She Shouldn’t

The only way to stop your cat urinating where she shouldn’t is by solving the problem that’s causing her to go outside the litter box. The cause could be a health problem, stress, or something wrong with the litter box, among numerous other issues. While nearly all problems that cause inappropriate urination behavior are fairly easy to solve, it may take time to accurately identify the problem. Once you do, though, there are some other things you can do to help get your kitty back in the litter box habit.

Make the Litter Box Attractive

The goal isn’t so much to discourage the cat from using the carpet, the furniture or the bathroom sink. It’s to encourage him to use the litter box. Make sure the litter box is large enough, such as a box of 25 inches by 19 inches or larger. If you have a covered box, try an uncovered one. Some cats dislike confined areas, while others dislike the concentrated cat poo smell inside the box. Try different litters, too. Fine-grained, unscented litters go over well with most cats, but some require softer or grittier material. Location also matters. Keep the box away from the cat’s food and water and clear of any foot traffic or noisy household appliances. There are a number of other considerations and just to confuse matters, believe it or not, long-haired cats, declawed cats and tail-less or stubby-tail cats have their own litter box needs. Fortunately, changing things about the litter box is easy and just making the litter box more appealing may stop your cat urinating around the house.

Make Other Areas Unattractive

Many cats dislike the smell of citrus. Rubbing orange or lemon peels on the carpet or furniture may help, but the smell fades fast. Another method is to freshen up your carpets and furniture with a citrus-scented air- or fabric-freshened. Clean floors and other wood items with Pine Sol or Orange Glo, both of which repel many cats. If there’s one spot on the floor you cat keep kitty away from, cover it with foil food wrap until you can stop your cat from urinating outside the box and get the spot totally clean. Most cats won’t walk on foil, although some will just pee right next to the foil. There are also a number of products available to keep cats from marking (peeing) where they shouldn’t. No-Mark Spray by Pet Organics is one of the more effective formulas.

Retrain Kitty if Needed

Usually mother cats show their kittens how to use the litter box as soon as the kittens are physically able. Sometimes, though, the mother cat isn’t able to due this because the litter box isn’t easily accessible from the kittening box. Other times, humans interfere with the training process. They common method of putting a kitten in the box and taking hold of her paw to dig in the litter can actually put some kittens right off the box. There are a number of ways to do this, but they all involve positive reinforcement. Punishment does not work on cats the way it works on dogs. One way to start is by carrying your cat to the litter box after meals or when she wakes up from a nap, times she likely to need to go. Speak gently, pet her and maybe even giver a build your cat’s good associations with the litter box.

You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.