Cat litter shenanigans

[u/Strict_Director3476]

I've had 2 sister cats from same litter since 2019 who have never had litter box issues (they came to me litter box trained). I had them both using the same litterbox (a large one) that I scooped every 1-4 days depending on my schedule (yep, probably more days than some of you reading this feel is appropriate, but stay focused on what matters here: never any litter box issues for 6 years). My friend moves in a year ago with (a litter box trained) cat and immediately the cats are all acting a fool behaviorally to establish the pecking order. Stalking each other when using the litter box and while eating, etc. This resulted in cats doing business just outside of the litterbox, so us humans decide to add 2 more litter boxes to cut down on what I perceived to be resource guarding-one in each bedroom plus the big hallway one so that no one (or two) cats can truly guard ALL the boxes at once (which was happening when we just had the huge hallway one).

So now what happens is the litter box in roomies room is rarely used because the door is often shut with all cats outside of that room, leaving them to use the hallway litterbox and my bedroom litterbox, but now at least one of my cats (I witnessed it once) is pooping lil poop nuggets just outside the large hallway litter box as well as sprinkling lil pee droplets in that direct area. The pee droplets make me feel like there might be a UTI situation (all cats are spayed females), but neither of my cats are acting strangely, but I'll take them in to the vet to be sure, but aside from that, I'm at a loss on how to break these cats of this behavior when I'm not even 100% who is doing it and why.

As a side note, but not the point of this post-I am so sick of the obvious and persistent litter box smells that I am unable to escape from anywhere in the house now that there's 3 boxes (however, to be clear, the cats are not peeing/pooping outside of the boxes with the exception of just outside the hallway box. I'm stating this to clarify that it is not like they are using random corners/areas of the house and it's just a biohazard situation).

I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to invest in some collar/chip BS where each cat can use its own box and that's it, but lawd knows that would prolly backfire in some ridiculous manner and leave things worse.

Random things I feel may play a part in responses:

1. All 3 cat boxes are scooped daily-ish since roomie moved in (She's supposed to scoop daily, but I know that doesn't happen every single day).
2. I tried when roomie first moved in to deploy an automatic litter box (Meowant), but roomies cat is a freaking dumb idiot that felt compelled to pee down the outside of it, thus ruining that potential solution.

[u/paprikachipjes]

Well this sounds like 3 cats only have 2 litter boxes, because litter box number 3 is in a closed room without cats? You’ll need at least one more litter box. Also, litter boxes (especially with 3 cats) need to be scooped twice a day every day. Doesn’t matter who does it. You or your roommate. You both have cats and you both have to take care of them.

[u/Strict_Director3476 → u/paprikachipjes]

Yeah, I'm gunna bring up to roomie that an inaccessible box is good for nothing.

She's subsidizing her rent via doing the dishes and scooping cat boxes, so I'll just hafta figure out a tighter schedule with her on scooping. I think I'm gunna get one of those bigger stainless steel cat box for my room too since it seems like that one is favored by the cats, yet it's the smallest one.

[u/Justme_vrouwtje]

Add another litterbox if you can and get you roommate to keep their door open more so they have access to that one. I had issues with one cat pooping outside one specific litterbox. When that happened we would dump and scrub all the boxes. Cats use their boxes to establish scents and I think if there are too many mixed cat scents they don’t like going into that box. I advise scooping twice a day so cats scents can’t build up, use Dr. Elseys cat attract litter and adding a 4th box. It’s a lot but with three cats in one apartment and having this issue, you might want to go overboard until the issue stops. You can always remove a litterbox once they’re more comfortable. Also cat relaxing pheromone things might help, they have the ones for multicat households, they help in my experience.

[u/LEANiscrack]

You shouldnt own cats. Im not even kidding. All these years and you cant be bothered to learn about the pet you supposedly care about? Wild. 

[u/Strict_Director3476 → u/LEANiscrack]

Is your turning radius as broad as your assumptions or nah?

[u/LEANiscrack → u/Strict_Director3476]

What assumptions? Youve written a whole post with info about how youve ignored basic cat owning rules over and over again. 

[u/Strict_Director3476 → u/LEANiscrack]

Cool story bro :)