Cat help needed

[lurcherman]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

my cousins cat is 13 and for the last two years it has started going to neighbours flat and messing on his doorstep, its in a flat complex and the neighbour is bout 10 yards away up a few steps. question is why? and is there anythink she can try apart from lock them up.

 

[Dizzyjenni]

Firstly they need to totally clean the doorstep with with something that will break down the enzymes as the cat will still be able to smell where he/she has been.

Then they need to look at why this might be happening - is it habit, or is it that the cat can simply smell where it's been and it's marking?

I wouldn't recommend shutting the cat away.

 

[lurcherman]

as im not into cats and know their ways im just after a few possilble causes. its a male 13 yr old and only been doing it for just under 2yrs. i just want to give my cousin somethink to try so good ideas only plz. thanx dizzi i will take what youve said onboard.

 

[TanyaM]

Yep, get something specifically for cats to break down the smell - if you don't have anything special then I've found using dettol and then a few drops of tea tree oil in a little water can be good. Two main reasons for cats messing - habit and stress / other cats. So, if it's habit, then getting the smell out and perhaps lurking out of sight with a water spray (plant mister or water pistol) and when the cat goes near the step, then he gets sprayed - happens a few times and it can break the habit. If it's stress, perhaps there are other cats about and this cat is trying to mark out his territory - this step is mine, not that other cat that moved in 2 years ago, etc. Water spray can still help with this, but you may find that the messing just moves elsewhere, usually somewhere equally high profile.

I found it important to do the water spraying when the cat couldn't see you, then it's like that area is the reason the cat gets wet. If the cat sees you spraying him, then he'll just mess when you aren't around.

Also, supposedly cats don't like citrus smells and some people reckon putting down eg orange peel or lemon essential oil can keep cats off - I've just found that it makes my cat just work harder to eliminate the citrus smell, so that might work, but I'm not holding out much hope there.

Good luck

Tanya

 

[banana]

Move? :lol:

 

[eingana]

When you say that he's doing it on the step, is there a doormat there? Doormats, particularly coir ones, have always been seen as an important scent marking spot by cats because every human passing scent marks them (think about what you're doing when you wipe your feet!) and so marking your presence is important for cats. On top of that, coir mats seem to be nice to use as a litter tray alternative so that may be something to do with the smell or texture of the mat itself.

As others have said, dealing with this is going to come down to cleaning very well. Can I suggest a specialist pet odour remover? I'd recommend Safe4's Odour Killer, but their delivery charges are prohibitively expensive if you are only buying a small amount of products and most pet shops will have one brand or another in stock. Start by washing the area with a dilute solution of biological clothes washing liquid which you allow to soak in and then rinse well, then follow with the odour remover. If you can then follow that with a good blast with a steam cleaner even better

Then you can move on to the behavioural reasons why he's doing it. It's quite possibly just marking his territory, but it could be possible that he's got a problem with his litter tray, or the litter being used, or his age means that he's effectively being caught short when he's on his way out or his way in to use either garden or litter tray (if he has access to outdoors).

I'd say that the first thing to do is to shut him inside the flat and look carefully at whether there's something that could have changed inside the flat which has affected his habit. Changed position of litter tray, changed litter, someone moved in, someone moved out, new cat, too close to the kettle that makes a noise that he doesn't like, strange sound from the boiler- the list of things that could have affected why he doesn't want to use his litter tray is enormous.

Good luck on the detective work on this one

(and a bunch of flowers and new doormat for the neighbour would be a good plan too!)

 

[lurcherman]

my sweet little thing banana i was expecting more of a detailed anwser from you lol i thought you owned a pussy? cat. lol

 

[banana]

I not only own a pussy cat but I run a MEGA cat site!! :lol:

I thought I would make you laugh instead

Eingana's answer is helpful

 

[Oreo]

Cats scare me.

They always look like they're up to something!

 

[lurcherman]

its cool we can have a laugh lol

 

[banana]

Cats scare me.

They always look like they're up to something!

Thats because they always are! :lol:

 

[Oreo]

Cats scare me.

They always look like they're up to something!

Thats because they always are! :lol:

Evil creatures!

They walk in mess and muck and then come home and walk that mess and muck all over your kitchen tops and back of the sofa's!

No thanks!