I have taken 6 aspects of this euphemistically described form of bad cat behaviour: ‘inappropriate elimination’. It is a very misleading piece of terminology in the cat world. There are other examples such as ‘euthanasia’ at shelters which means ‘killing’. From the cat’s perspective peeing outside the litter tray is not inappropriate but entirely appropriate 😎✔️. Cats do it for a good and logical reason. You just have to find it. That’s one of the classic cat caregiver tasks. I suspect without knowing for sure that many cat owners automatically think that their cat is behaving badly when they pee outside the litter tray which is very definitely bad and incorrect thinking.
They might even believe that their cat has got it into for them because they are in dispute with their cat over some minor issue. It would be crazy to think that because cats don’t rationally think: “I’m going to annoy my owner and pee on the carpet”. That is an impossibility even if you do think that it happens.
In the inimitable words of Jackson Galaxy, you’ll need to do some ‘detective work’ to figure out the cause. The most common are listed in the infographic but there will be other potential causes.
CAUTIONARY NOTE: I have to add a note of caution. My experience in writing for this blog tells me that lightweight litter, although convenient for the cat’s owner, is likely to cause health issues as cats scrabble around in the substrate and kick up clouds of dust which they inhale. The dust passes into a moist interior: the larynx and lungs where it clumps. Please think about that possibility. It can also do the same thing to humans when they clean litter.
Below are some articles on this topic.
