How do you get your female cat to stop urinating all over the house?

I think a very effective way to get them to modify their behavior, whether a male or female, is having a water pistol or water bottle with a spray nozzle right on hand when you see the cat misbehave! Spray the cat until it stops! You need to do your best to be consistent, and watch the cat. Every time you see them wetting in bad places, spray the heck out of the water bottle onto the cat! I agree with the first answer, in that you need to catch the cat in the act! But that's where my agreement stops. Squirt the cat with water! If you can catch up with the cat after that, it is a good idea to take them to the litter box, put the cat into the litter box, pick up a front paw, and scratch it around in the litter. That should help to get the idea across to the cat that the litter box is their bathroom!

Cathy

ANSWER -

I strongly agree with the person who wrote the following comments and feel it should be out-front on the "Answer" page, not on another page (discussion page) that someone might not even see. I'm very new to this site and almost didn't find it myself. It is VERY possible the cat may have a health issue, which was not addressed in the first answer. Therefore, I'm reposting this info so that any visitors or new members will be aware of this sound advice............

Oh my, please ignore that first answer by Cathy. Cats urinate outside the litter box for several reasons. They could be sick and have a urinary tract infection, which can kill a cat if left untreated. Cats will not go in a dirty litter box so make sure it is scooped daily and I even wipe down the back and sides (anywhere that looks like it needs it) with a little moist tissue paper. The placement of the litter box is important as well--it shouldn't be near their food OR anywhere where they feel unsafe. One of my cats urinated outside the litter box after a series of unfortunate events...I changed their litter to a flushable one I thought would be healthier for them...they tried it a couple of times and didn't seem to like it. I ignored them and thought they needed more time to get used to it. I then had guests for a few days who really freaked my cats out and I left on a short business trip. I came back and the peeing started. It was like she could deal with one of those things, but not all three in a short span of time.

Nature's Miracle is great at cleaning up pee stains. Also, I highly recommend Feliway spray to both calm your cat down AND deter her from peeing on both areas she has peed before or areas that she may want to do so in the future.

If she has not been spayed, that is an important step although spraying is more of a problem, generally, for males that are not neutered. It's important to get your cat fixed, and vital if you allow her outdoors .

The other thing you can do--which stopped my cat from urinating outside the litter box and she hasn't done it since (it's been over 9 months) is that I got Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract clay-based litter. It is very low on dust, has nice-sized litter grains that cats seem to prefer. My cats love it and it clumps well for me to scoop easily.

So to recap:

1. Make sure it isn't a health issue that is making your cat urinate

2. Never, ever yell or scream or throw things at your cat if you see them peeing somewhere outside the litter box--it will just make them fearful and could increase or start behavioral problems that will make the problem worse

3. Make sure the litter box is in a good place

4. Get Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter (it has stuff in it that attracts them to the litter box AND an instructional pamphlet on how to stop cats from urinating outside the box)

5. Nature's Miracle for clean-up

6. Feliway spray (it's expensive but totally worth it).

Good luck!

First answer by Arica. Last edit by HMT8. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 101 [recommend question]