Cat Behavior Problem - Marking

by Milo's Mom
(Maryland)

My 4 year old cat Milo's cat behavior is giving me cause for concern - he is starting to mark the carpet in one room. He urinated on one spot and then started deficating there as well. I put a litter box there (several weeks ago) and he seemed to stop.

Today I noticed he has marked 4 other spots on the carpet ~ near windows and a door to the outside. He has lived in this house for quite a few months. It is a new residence but he has adjusted well to it. I am renting the house and cannot tolerate the damage to the carpet. HELP so I do not have to get rid of my cat!!


Reply from Liz (Editor): From what you've told me, it sounds like there could be another cat hanging round (and peeing) outside that's causing this behavior. The main reason I think this is because of where he's urinating - i.e. near the windows and outside door. If this is the case, you need to discourage the cat outside from hanging round, as well as thoroughly clean all the urine off the carpet to stop your cat from peeing there again.

This link will take you through the basics of litter box problems, so you can check there isn't anything else that may be causing this inappropriate elimination.

These pages give you advice on how to clean cat urine and cat urine cleaning products.

And this page gives advice on how to stop a cat spraying in your garden.

Thank you for your question and best of luck with solving this.