Question from a friend

[CathyW]

about a month ago a friend of mine got a cat. he is approx 1 years old. (rescue cat) not he will quite happily do a wee in his tray. but wont poo in it. shes tried all sorts of litter and he does the same. he will go out,but comes in the use the litter tray. obiously its driving my friend a bit nuts.
any advice on what it could be??

[angieh]

Sorry boys mum - I've not come across this problem with any of my cats. Mind you, they have all been outdoor "goers" unless the weather has been hard or a cat has been poorly.

I am sure I've read about similar problems here on the forum in the past - have you had a search through old threads?

[mad cat woman]

Try getting an enclosed litter tray, he may feel a bit vunerable, you can get litter that attracts cats to it, they tend to prefer fine clumping litter. Try putting catnip onto the litter that might help. He may not like to wee and poo in the same tray so two trays might be an idea. Also the trays need to be cleaned as soon as he has used it as he seems to be quite particular about his cleanliness.

I have several cats and each one is different with their toilet, my girl wont go in the tray if its been used by the others she will meow for me to clean it if I dont she will go in the laundry

[Elaine]

Sorry if I have misread the post but does he poop outside or does he come in and poop on the floor?

It may be a case of middening, whereby he is marking out territory but that's what behaviourists and vets always said it was with Eva, sadly that turned out to be much more serious.
Does he have bouts of runny poo at all?

My advice would be to get the vet to give him a thorough check up and check for specific things such has pancreatic function.

[CathyW]

Sorry if I have misread the post but does he poop outside or does he come in and poop on the floor?

It may be a case of middening, whereby he is marking out territory but that's what behaviourists and vets always said it was with Eva, sadly that turned out to be much more serious.
Does he have bouts of runny poo at all?

My advice would be to get the vet to give him a thorough check up and check for specific things such has pancreatic function.
he will come in a poo on the floor,wont do his *biz* outside. ill say to her about 2 trays, and ill ask about weather its runny or not.
hes a nervy cat,she says if anyone comes to her place hes off and in hiding. and he dont come out till they have gone.
and cat nip good idea.

[pamela81]

i had the opposite problem with Harris, he would poop in the tray but not wee, we spoke to the vet about about it and he advised putting a few trays out with different litter in them to see which he preferred, he also suggested putting compost in 1 of them as he was found wandering outside as a very young kitten. as soon as the compost tray went down, he had a sniff and proceeded to use it for weeing!! Maybe worth a try if he is used o being outdoors? We eventually weaned Harris onto gravel and then woodchip when we got Skye.

[Elaine]

Eva too was a stressy cat, if the catnip and two trays etc don't work, she should seriously look into medical issues.