Now that she's done it once, she will continue to go back to that spot regularly because her scent is there. She now recognizes that as her place. If you want to discourage it, you've gotta get it completely cleaned, all the way through the padding, and make sure her litter box is kept clean all the time to encourage her back that direction more often.

My older cat is doing the same thing--she'll use the bathroom floor instead of the litter box sometimes when she poops.

She really started this when we got a second cat. Although she loves her dearly and the two are best friends, my older cat apparently doesn't like to share her litter box!

Both of my cats pee in the box, but our 13 year old Manx Tabitha does not poop in the box. She poops on the bathroom floor. I think it might have something to do with her not having a tail and not wanting the litter to touch her butt. However, my ex roommate had an older cat that would poop all over the house as well. I am starting to wander if this is something that cats just do as they get older.

My cat pees and poops out the box when it isn't perfectly clean. The problem is that we have 2 cats so if one uses it then she won't go into it because it is used. She will be play with it at first but if we don't clean it 2 times a day then she poops. I want to get some money together and get the automatic one.

My cat is getting older, she's 16, and sometimes she's a bit constipated and has trouble eliminating everything. So she "walks it off" and leaves little poop balls around the apartment. Thankfully this is a rare occurrence.

My cats don't use the box, or I should say one of them isn't and I have yet to find out which one that is! It gets really annoying. We have to line the walls in the "cat room" with puppy pads for whoever is doing it, because they also like to pee against the wall. They're all fixed so I'm not automatically pointing fingers at the boy cat. The big problem is with cat poop, though. They do it right outside the box! It's maddening.

cat not using the box
 

My cat decided to go to the bathroom in my bedroom. The litter box is clean, and she still uses it, but had went in my room a few times. She seems healthy so I am not sure why she is doing this. How can I make it stop? I cleaned the carpets but that didn't seem to fix this. Any ideas?

Oh gosh, I had the same thing happen to me a few months back.

I figured it was a behavioural issue and thought about ignoring it/trying to "convince" him to use the box. But then I went online and did some research.

I decided that I had to take my cat to the vet first to rule out any medical issues, but it was a weekend. So I suffered the mess for another day. By Monday, I take my cat into the vet and asked them to see him without an appointment. They did after some convincing. My poor kitten was very blocked up and if I had waited any longer he'd have gotten very ill. But the thing was, he was acting normally and eating normally except for the out of the box urination.

He had crystals (and this meant a long course of antibiotics and food changes). Once the crystals were clearer up, he happily went back to using the litter box. I guess when he tried to pee it hurt (I can only imagine!) so he associated the box with pain and stopped using the box.

Is your cat peeing in the sink or the bathtub?

I am on my second cat that poops on the floor. Sheba was doing it after age twelve, and Tabitha is now doing it at age thirteen. I guess it does not matter whether or not you have carpeting because we had carpeting when we had Sheba, and we now live in a place with tile floors.

When your cat is really worried about a clean box, one easy solution is to get your cat two or three boxes.

Some cats will only pee in one box and poo in another. Give that a try. And report back!

My older cat Tabitha does number two on the floor very often. The only thing that I have been able to do to stop it is to make sure I scoop the litter box several times a day. Cats are picky. They want things in order.

It sounds like it's a behavioral issue. If you hadn't mentioned your cat went elsewhere I would say take her to the vet asap. The same thing happened to me with my cat however, she hasn't used the litte box (#2) in a couple days. So one day I got home and could barely hold her as she seemed uncomfortable. I took her to the vet and she had an anal abcess. Luckily it wasn't worse and she heeled well after the vet drained and flushed her out. If it happens again I'd make a vet appointment or at least call and find out their opinion. Good luck.

She just did it again, lol. And then she rubs her head on me like she is so cute. I really need to get one those boxes.