So my cat is 2 years old and I have been having problems with getting her to use the litter box since I adopted her as a kitten. I cannot get her to effectively use the litter box. It started off with her urinating on the carpet in our dining room. I moved her litter box to the corner in the dining room (not an ideal location, but I'm picking my battles) where she most often urinated at, and this caused her to move to the other corner of the room. I currently have four litter boxes in the dining room for a house that just has one cat.

The kicker is, when she does "use" the litter box, she kicks the litter out and urinates on the litter outside of the box. When I say she kicks out the litter, I mean she kicks out 75-90% of all the litter that was in the box. I would clean her boxes out, and 10-15 minute later, I would go back into the dining room and at least one of the boxes has been emptied onto the floor.

-The litter boxes are all a variety of different lengths and sizes with the largest being a DIY litter box made from a storage container.

• I have tried four different litter brands -I have tried varying the depth of the litter -she does not have a UTI, and besides the litter situation, she is great. -I clean the litter boxes at least once a day, if not twice. -I disinfect the litter boxes once a week -she will defecate in the litter box with no problem (even if she has already kicked all the litter out of the box and there is barely any litter in there). It is only urinating that she does outside of the box.

My husband and I are so lost with what to do that we are looking into spending a nice chunk of change on new tile flooring because the carpet has been destroyed in that room, but we are afraid she will just move to a different room and start the process in there. I'm paying for grad school out of pocket and cannot afford to install new flooring for my entire house at this time.

I was wondering if anybody has any recommendations or ideas about anything else we should do or try?

Wow, I've never heard of this before... I'm curious where you got the cat? Was it a pet store, a home selling kittens, adopted from the humane society? Every once in a while, one of my cats will go into the box to defficate, but then hang his butt over the edge and poop all over the litter mat. Totally gross, but he's overweight and the box is small. But kittens are so small, that shouldn't be a problem (especially since you are providing different box sizes). I know this solution costs money, but maybe having a box with a lid would keep the kitty from kicking out all the litter? Of course, that wouldn't help with the cat actually using the box to urinate... Sorry for your kitty problems! Pets are great, but when they start having issues, it can be a huge stressor.

She might want a bigger catbox. Most litter boxes aren't really big enough for all breeds and some kitties just won't use them unless there's no other choice. I had that problem with the cat we kinda stole from a neighbor. Kitty was used to having the whole outdoors to pee in and she wasn't about to sit in that cramped little box to pee lol. She'd kick the litter out like that too.

If that's the reason your kitty doesn't want to use the box you could try one of those shallow under bed storage containers as a catbox.

Edit: Hmm. If it's not the size of the box or the type of litter maybe she just smells it in the carpet now. I know they say an enzyme cleaner will get that out so they stop peeing there, but that's not been my experience at all when it comes to carpet. I think the urine gets in the padding underneath and they just smell it forever

Have you taken her to the vet? Like this is in no way a medical issue?

But, random thought, is this a brand new house or were their people that lived in it before you? Do you know if anyone else has ever had a cat in that property? This is probably a long shot BUT if people before you had a cat, that cat could have also peed on the floor in the spot she is going. Cat urine can do a looooot of damage. One apartment I lived in had cats in it before me that peed in the corner of the room. The urine smell soaked all the way into the sub-floor. I'm pretty sure all the apartment managers did was replace the carpet and carpet padding but not the sub-floor. You could still faintly smell the cat urine if it was muggy and hot outside/in that room. Maybe previous owners/occupants had cats and just did minor repairs to do a quick fix on the problem and while you can't smell the other urine, your cat can?

IDK, that's my best uneducated guess.

Is your kitty declawed? If so that right there is your reasoning, many declawed cats have a problem with litter.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that's not the problem though and maybe recommend a litter alternative, such as corn or wood pellets that they might prefer. She may just hate the feel of the litter in general. I do agree though that the smell that has soaked into the carpet is probably encouraging her to keep going in the same spot. My own cats are litter box trained but we no longer have a box, so sometimes they don't make it outside in time and squat somewhere, and then they tend to try to go to the same spot later.

In the meantime, have you tried laying puppy pads down where she likes to go? If anything you can try and spare what carpet you have left. My cats will sometimes borrow a puppy pad because they feel like they can bunch it up and "cover" their poo with one.

EDIT: Well it's certainly weird she doesn't mind pooping in there but won't pee. Sounds like an UTI but if your kitty's been doing it since kittenhood it might be behavioral. Also, have you tried both covered and uncovered boxes?

is the cat fixed? My mother in law had an unfixed male cat who rarely peed in the designated spot. :( did you try leaving some used sand/litter IN the box? if the box doesn't really smell like pee, the poor thing might think it's not for that.. o.o weird thinking, i know.

A long time ago i read about how to 'train' cats to use the litter box. leaving some of their urine in the box is one of the tricks- disinfecting it might not be to the liking of the cat - worth trying since you have so many boxes. leave one of them more dirty, so say, as opposed to the clean ones. Then take a piece of old towel, make it damp with water. take the cat, place her in the 'dirty' box, and gently rub her butt with the towel - for her it would feel like her mom's tongue, when she was a kitten. rub for a few seconds. then when you stop, grab one of the front paws and move it from the front to the back, IN the litter, mimicking her covering her own stuff. you should try this maybe twice a day, for a few days. i recommend maybe up to 2 weeks? at least. she should understand the message this way.

you could even try taking her outside (on a leash) for her needs, if you know the approximate hour she needs to go.

of course, i don't know what are your general living conditions, and how busy you are during a normal day, so adapt this advice to your routine. and have your husband to help you with the practice i mentioned earlier.

My fixed cats -both male, pee in the same box, no problem. sometimes they might poop on the edge by mistake. -i actually have to replace the litter box with a larger one. Before getting them fixed, i had issues with them peeing everywhere. NASTY! D: