A few weeks ago I got a kitten, approx 8-10 weeks old, that had been allowed to go wherever it wanted. After finding turds and puddles in my tub, behind my furnace, and a few other places, I decided to put him in a carrier with a litter box, bed, and food/water so he’d get the hint. After 2 days I let him out, and he hadn’t gotten the hint. He’s back in there now, most likely for the week, but if anyone has any ideas that could be more reliable and not leave him cooped up I’m all ears. I’m at work 10-11 hours a day so following him around when he’s looking for a place to go and putting him in the litter box until he goes isn’t going to work.

Background: I have 7 other cats ranging from 3 to 16 years old. All are spayed/neutered and get along great 95% of the time. 2 don’t like him (both females), one just hisses and growls but the other will go after him and really attack him. There are plenty of places for them all to have their own spot, but the one that attacks him goes looking for him. (She’ll also go after another one from time to time.) I have 3 litter boxes that get cleaned twice daily. 16 litter boxes (2 per cat like the “experts” say) is out of the question. They’re all in my laundry room. Could he just be a really slow learner and unwilling to change?

I don't claim to be an expert but perhaps the one attacking the kitten has it afraid to use the litter box.  It doesn't sound like a good environment for it.

Maybe an expert will chime in.

I should have clarified that he will go in the litter box, but he also goes in other places. I’ve cleaned with Pine Sol, bleach, and enzyme cleaner that’s supposed to remove all traces.

We have had a lot of cats and so far (knock on wood) only once had this issue and I'm pretty sure it was due to it being a male cat that wanted to be the alpha male and we already had an alpha.  So it wasn't really peeing it was spraying (borderline what the difference is as it's still pee and still smells).

We had to re-home the sprayer.  But in all of that we never had outright war between any of our cats.  Never blood drawn in the spats.  Mostly hissing and a quick swat and then parting of the ways to cool off.

And I agree you have enough litter boxes.  When we had 6 cats we had 3 litter boxes and it was plenty since you keep it clean.

Wish you luck.  Cats aren't always comprehensible.

OP: old but useful posts for you...

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/-ARCHIVED-THREAD-Pissy-the-cat/5-1395125/?page=1#i36820583

here is some non-rocket science for you.

cats don't want to piss on the floor, especially if they are going to be walking on the floor. really, they don't.

cats piss/crap on the floor for one of three reasons:
1) there is no litter box.
2) the litter box is not clean.
3) the cat has a UTI (urinary tract infection).

#1, you can figure out.

#2, it's the cat's definition of clean, not your definition of clean, that matters. these may differ.

#3, cats, especially "outdoor" cats, get UTI's fairly often. sometimes they go away by themselves, sometimes they don't. if they don't, and it's causing pain or urinary issues, the cat will change it's behavior in terms of pissing. this is not to notify you, although that aspect helps. they change their behavior because of the same reasons you do: something hurts, so do something different. in the cat's mind the litterbox is now associated with peeing pain. ergo, don't use the litterbox. what follows is "maybe there will be no pain if i pee here on the rug. nope, still pain. i'll try somewhere else next time."

clean the litterbox regularly (at least 1X per day) and take the cat to the vet for a UTI.

problem solved.

not rocket science.

AND

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Best_kitty_poo_litter_for_apartment/154-1934126/

there is no "best" litter that you can determine a priori, before the cat is actively using it.

cats go through life with their noses 4 inches off the ground, using an acute sense that you don't pay much heed to unless there is a fire. you buy kitty litter because the box has bright colors on it, or the price is right, or some people on ARFCOM told you about a particular brand. all those things don't mean anything to the cat. the cat wants the litter to smell "right" and the texture to be "right". there is no way for you to determine this. it is not a function of buying the "premium" brand. the cheapest possible litter could be the best litter for *your* cat.

hence, you have to figure it out by trial and error, which means trying different brands and such. my wife and i know this family nearby -- we asked about the kitten they got for their kids, and we were amused by the fact that they were complaining that the kitten would basically #1 or #2 in the vicinity of the litterbox but not actually in the litterbox. "did you guys try changing the brand/type litter which was in the litterbox?" no, they hadn't thought of that. anyway they did change the litter, and -- lo and behold -- the kitten started using the actual litter box. smell, texture, who knows.

practically any problem related to a litter box can be solved one of three ways:
1) the box isn't clean enough (no cat wants to stand in/on it's own piss or crap, any more than you do). if you can not clean the box often enough due to work or whatever, then get a bigger box. there is no problem using a 2 foot x 3 foot litter box, it will have "clean spots" available far longer than a 1 foot square box.
2) the litter either doesn't smell "right" to the cat, or doesn't feel "right" to the cat, or both. try different litter. it may take you 3 or 4 tries to find one that "works" perfectly.
3) the litter box is too small (see #1 above), or is located too near the cat's sources of food and/or water (so move the box away).

and i just thought of one additional point
4) in the case where there are two cats, then get two boxes. either they will figure out all by themselves who "owns" which litter box, or they won't care. you can't know this ahead of time. but if you have one box and two cats that do not want to share a litter box, they will "tell" you one way or the other. when one of the two cats is physically "excavating" huge amounts of litter out of the box in an attempt to find some "personal space", you have to make an adjustment.

Well I’m making progress with Biscuit, he goes in a carrier with litter box, food, water, and a bed when I’m mot home. When I’m home I let him out and give him all my attention. Every time he uses the litter box, whether he’s in the carrier or out, I give him treats & praise as positive reinforcement. He spends most of his outside time on my lap playing with my hands and purring as loudly as he can, but when he does get up I follow him and am ready to put him in the litter box if he looks like he’s looking for a place to “go.” So far there haven’t been any messes in 3 nights. Now I think I’m going to see if I can borrow a bigger carrier or a dog crate, to see if he’ll go outside the litter box if he’s given the space.

One other tip: 3 boxes are good for all your cats, for reasons that I'm sure you understand. But they are all in the same place. Cats are lazy. Your new cat may simply find them inconveniently placed. If you spread them around so that the nearest box is not so far away it might be better.

We've never had more than two cats at the same time, but we did have a cat once that required an upstairs and downstairs box in order to keep her from going outside them.

With that many boxes I would put a few other places if you can. (I had one cat that wanted to crap when anybody else did, so he had a box right across from the toilet in the master bedroom. Staring contest while pooping. Ha ha I got done faster!)

You can also try other litters. Maybe one clay based, one paper based, and one of the corn/wheat based ones.

There are cats that are just dumb and you might have gotten one that has prenatal malnutrition issues or even retardation. (which can also happen)

You might want to get the other cat to back off a bit by using a squirt bottle or something noisy and angry words / posturing to explain she's not the alpha either.

I’ve never had much luck with squirt bottles, my cats have always seemed to think the fun was worth the punishment. Plus I’d pretty much have to carry it with me at all times. What I have found that works pretty well is just hissing at her as loudly as I can the instant I catch her making a move. My hisser is always with me, at least.

Well Biscuit has had a really good couple of days, when I got home around 3 on Friday I let him out while a friend & I went out for some food & beers. She brought her dog over (who likes cats & whom Biscuit likes), when we got back he’d peed on my floor but nothing from Biscuit. (The dog had been out to potty before we left, we were gone a couple hours. He’s old, 12 years, so he may be getting a little incontinent.)

Yesterday Biscuit was let out around 9-10 am and went back in the carrier around 1am. I saw him using the litter box twice so he got plenty of praise and treats. There was a large puddle on the floor right next to his litter box, but given the size I know it came from one of the adults. His box is low, so most likely an adult used it and peed right over the side. (Why they like to pee on the side of the box, I don’t know.) He used one of the house litter boxes once out of the 2 times I saw him, so I don’t need to bring his out of the carrier any more. (I’d been mixing house box litter with his so he learns their smell, too.)

I’m going to use the carrier a few more nights and start leaving the bathroom door open to see if he’s over using the tub, if there are no mistakes during the day he’ll be done with the carrier for good.

Oh, and now Snicker (his attacker) scurries away and under my couch when he growls at her for getting too close.

Well there’s a lot of new material for Biscuit’s story. 2 weeks ago I noticed blood in his urine (he’d started peeing AND pooping outside the boxes again) so the next morning I brought him to the vet. The first thing I found was that he is actually a she! I see an orange cat and I immediately think “boy.” In this case I just assumed his balls hadn't dropped yet. So that made me glad that a blockage was much less likely. And that I’d chosen a unisex name. The vet gave HER an antibiotic shot and sent us home.

She was still going outside the boxes on Thanksgiving, but I figured it would just take time for her to unlearn bad habits. She’s about 5 months old now and not spayed yet, maybe she’s starting to mark territory? I also noticed that she’ll squat for a long time with very little urine coming out. That night I noticed blood in her urine again, so Friday morning I called the vet and brought her in early that afternoon (the vet is about 70 miles away.) I left her so her bladder would fill and they could get a sample. When I went to pick her up at 1630 the vet said she’d actually just done an ultrasound instead, and showed me the pic. Struvites, due to genetics and not diet. No wonder my poor girl didn’t want to use the litter box! So I followed the vet’s recommendation and bought some Royal Canin Urinary SO wet food, which will dissolve the struvites and let her urinary tract heal.

I have a spare room (unheated) that I’ve been storing outdoors gear, auto parts, cat carriers, etc, in, so I emptied that, plugged in a space heater, and am using it for Biscuit so I can keep an eye on her bathroom habits. I’m going to see if I can find a cot and sleep in there with her every other night because she’s got to be very lonely. I spend as much time with her as I can, playing with her, rewarding her when she uses the litter box, etc. I haven’t noticed any new puddles on the floor but I’m probably going to give her about 2 weeks in there to make sure she’s going in the litter box every time. After that, for a couple more weeks she’ll be let out when I’m home but go back in at night and when I’m away. I can’t have her going anywhere but the boxes.

Great job staying at solving the problem OP.  I hope she gets better and you can integrate her with your clan without anymore headaches.

Stop that stupid fucking shit.

Jesus fucking christ. Cats learn to adjust to a routine and if it's fucked up with that stupid fucking shit, you will have problems getting the routine to work.

Calm, predictable, quiet, ordered, smooth, and praise for good stuff and NO NEW FUCKING INVASIONS OF SHAKY TERRITORY.  <----

That does not mean some dog from some other household, no matter how much you think they like each other.

Clean the spots with natures miracle.  Kennel the kitten(litterbox in kennel) when it can't be supervised.

Any update with Biscuit?

She’s doing much better, every so often she’ll pee or poop in a spot where she must have peed in the past but I never found it. The Nature’s Miracle really works, she’s never revisited a spot I’ve cleaned with it. She still spends a lot of her time on top of the medicine cabinet due to my other cat Snicker still trying to murder her whenever she can, but she’s eating about half a can of the Royal Canin food per day and isn’t peeing struvite crystal razor blades any more. So now I just have to keep my eyes and nose open for any other spots she might have “went” and eradicate them.