Â
Once they learn, and as we have said they do it from a very young age, to relieve themselves inside the sandbox, it is very rare for them to start doing it outside. For this reason, at the moment when we begin to see you step outside, we must act.
Why does he pee out of the sandbox?
There are several reasons why a house cat can start to pee in places other than the litter box.
1. Territoriality
The first moment in which we can begin to see it is when our male cat reaches sexual maturity. It is at this moment, when he begins to use pee as a marking and territorial signal.
Cats are very territorial animals . They mark their territory in different ways. They can do it with feces, without hiding it, leaving it in sight and smell of another possible competitor cat in the territory. They can do this by scratching different surfaces or through urine marking. In all these situations, in addition to visual signals, olfactory signals come into play through the pheromones that permeate feces, scratches and urine.
The cat, when it reaches sexual maturity, may begin to mark the house in different parts. We will notice a characteristic smell of urine. Stronger. This smell, in addition to the pheromones that humans are not capable of detecting, will be the ones that indicate their presence to other males.
Territory marking generally tends to be done in areas that delimit the house, under a window, at the entrance door, and it will be more accentuated if there are other cats hanging around the neighborhood.
The cat, in times of heat, may also begin to pee outside the litter box, as a result of heat, in order to “warn” a possible male of her reproductive status.
2. Lack of litter box hygiene
Another of the most frequent causes that we find in the daily clinic is precisely this.
The litter boxes should be cleaned with such a frequency that they always have a clean place available to the cats . Generally, daily cleaning consists of removing urine and feces, while weekly cleaning will remove the litter completely by washing the litter box well to remove traces of odor and dirt.
On occasions when this cleaning is not so frequent, and since cats are very clean animals, they may begin to pee outside the litter box. They may pee nearby, they know that this is their place to pee, but they prefer to avoid going in because of the dirt and the smell.
This is more evident in covered litter boxes , and it is even worse if they have a door to enter. These covered sandboxes, no matter how much they have an odor filter, prevent the smell from going out so that the house does not smell, but inside the sandbox the smell can be unbearable. Now let’s imagine we have to go in to pee, you probably wouldn’t go in either.
3. Insufficient number of sandboxes or wrong locations
The number and location of the sandboxes will be very important when it comes to making good use of the sandboxes.
If, for example, we place the litter box on the clothesline, where the washing machine is also, our cat may get scared while it is inside because the washing machine starts to spin, and it becomes afraid to use it.
On the other hand, in a house where several cats live, it is necessary that there be several litter boxes , to avoid confrontations, or that one cannot access the litter box because another is blocking the way. Traditionally, it has been said that the number of litter boxes should be the same number of cats plus one. Today we know that cats at home are organized in groups, so there should be at least one litter box for each social group, even one more. To recognize social groups, it is essential that you contact a veterinarian specialized in behavior, since we are what we are going to be able to determine based on the interactions that we see between them.
4. Aversion to litter box or sand
Not all litter boxes are equally pleasant for cats. At this point we must respect the preferences of our cat(s) when choosing one, rather than thinking of our own benefit. The same goes for the type of sand, not all of them are equally hygienic or pleasant to step on when entering.
In general, cats prefer uncovered litter boxes, large enough to turn on themselves and with clumping litter. This sand, when peeing, will form a ball that will be easier to clean, leaving the rest of the sand clean. Silica pearl litters (the ones that are white and blue) don’t absorb pee, so it will fall down to the bottom. If we want to compare it to something, let’s think about the latrines of the concerts and the wet floor that we sometimes found, often linked to the bad smell. In that case, many of us have preferred to do it elsewhere. Our cats, who have a better sense of smell, even more so.
5. Disease
Lastly, peeing outside the litter box can be a sign of illness. Our cats suffer from different diseases such as diabetes, urine infections, kidney disease, idiopathic cystitis, etc. that can show signs such as urinating outside.
And in some of these cases it is due to pain, so to prevent your cat from suffering, you should go to a veterinarian to rule out any disease.
It is important that in no case the cat is scolded. It is useless, we have already seen that in many cases it is not even the cat’s fault, and we may even favor later aggressive behavior.
