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Originally Posted by dandysmom
Cool! I wonder what made them decide?
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If you look at the behaviour of feral cats & their wild counterparts, you can get clues as to why cats decide on
where they poo/wee. In normal feral cat colonies & with wild felines, urine & faeces play a HUGE part in scent marking territory. Scent-marking is carried out primarily on the territory boundaries as a claim to that territory ~ a big "this is mine" signal, that is intended to inhibit other cats from entering. It needs to be patrolled & topped up regularly & checked out often to see if there are markings from other cats in the area ~ is anyone challenging the claim to territory?
Conversely, there's no need to scent-mark with the core part of the territory as the boundary markings should keep the core territory safe from competitors. And also, keeping urine & faeces away from the areas they eat, sleep, rear young & relax in, is better for hygiene purposes.
So if we look at our pet cats, it makes perfect sense that they don't like using a litter tray that is, e.g. next to their food bowl or next to their bed ~ it's not normal! They would prefer, given the option, to use a litter tray as far from their "core territory" as possible. So this is probably why Tim & Amber have decided that the litter tray in the house is now redundant & they prefer the tray further away
And it just so happens that the domestic cat's natural toiletting habits happen to be very convenient for us humans!
