Many causes can lead to a cat urinating in the house. The problem is usually not a bladder problem but is mostly related to the cat’s behavior, which must be corrected to prevent it from urinating all over your home.
In this article I show you how to find the cause of this annoying habit and above all how to overcome it naturally and without punishing your cat.
Cat urinating in the house: the causes
It is necessary to distinguish between three types of causes that lead to this problem, health problems, changes that cause stress and behavioral disorders. Because depending on the cause of the problem, the solutions to be implemented will not be the same.
A health problem
If your cat is constantly having to urinate, she probably has a medical condition like cystitis or kidney problems that cause her to urinate everywhere without any control. If you have an older cat, chances are it has a condition that makes it incontinent and causes it to urinate all over your home.
If your cat urinates unwillingly, i.e. it does not get into position but urinates when doing its daily activities, it is probably this problem, it has no control. on his bladder and may not even realize he is urinating.
What to do ?
A visit to the veterinarian will be necessary to give him an appropriate treatment. Expect several questions from him: Since when does this happen? Does he urinate in particular places? Has his behavior changed?…
In the meantime, cat nappies will be essential, you can use reusable ones to better manage your budget, and they will also be more suitable if he goes outside. You can also restrict his access to certain rooms, such as your bedroom, so that he avoids soiling the sheets .
The stress
In the wild, cats mark their territory by urinating. This way, the other cats know that they are on their territory and that they should not approach it. If your cat is urinating around the house in every possible place, it may be doing so to mark its territory.
This will happen if he doesn’t feel at home and suffers from stress because he doesn’t like his surroundings. Generally, changes stress cats a lot, such as a move, the arrival of a new animal or a change in their personal space. If your cat is aggressive, he is most likely stressed.
- If you moved
It will take a good month for the cat to get used to its new environment. You can start by giving him a personal space so that he feels increasingly safe there. Over time, he will become more and more calm and stop marking his territory everywhere.
Spend time with him, too, and diffuse scents that calm him with soothing cat sprays that help calm him instantly and ease the transition to new housing.
- If a new animal has arrived
Your cat should maintain a personal space without the other animal coming in as this will leave their scent behind. To get them used to each other, play with both of them and put out calming pheromones that will help them be calmer between them.
Obviously, if the other animal is a predator or on the contrary a prey for your cat in the wild, like a rabbit or a dog , be very careful and go see an educator if you don’t want to take any risks.
- If it’s a kitten that just arrived
In this case, take him to the litter box when he prepares to urinate, he will get used to it over time. Each time he urinates there, reward him with a food he loves to make him realize that this is the place where he should urinate.
If the kitten was weaned too early or too late, it is likely to have behavioral issues that only a behaviorist can often fix.
What to do ?
Ideally, find the change that caused his stress and either make him used to it or eliminate it.
If no change has taken place, then spend time with him to reassure him. Certain calming pheromones can also help him calm down quickly.
He doesn’t like the litter box
A cat may urinate in the corners of the room if it does not like its litter box. There are several rules to follow for your cat to relieve itself in its litter box:
- It must be personal to him: Cats need their own toilet area, even in the wild, being very hygienic and sensitive to odors. It is out of the question to share the litter, one of the two cats will relieve itself elsewhere because of the smell of the first.
- Choose an open litter box: Closed litter boxes give them the feeling of being locked in, which they hate, in addition to containing odors. This is due to their survival instinct, for a cat a closed place is dangerous, even if it has always been domesticated, although animals taken in to shelters are generally much more affected by closed places.
- It’s too high: If your cat is old, it may have problems with its joints if the litter is too high. A semi-open model will then be ideal for him.
- He must be able to turn around easily: The litter must allow him to move easily or he will feel oppressed there. When a cat relieves itself, it puts itself in a vulnerable position and must always be able to leave quickly to be reassured enough to relieve itself there.
- She must be in a quiet place: Cats do not relieve themselves in a noisy place, they must feel safe, it is a reflex linked to their survival instinct. If a dishwasher or a noisy boiler is nearby, he may be afraid of it.
- It must not be close to their food : There too, it is entirely linked to their hygienic side, it does not mix these two elements.
- It must be regularly cleaned: If it is dirty, they will not go because it will disgust them. Change it daily for feces and at least once a week for urine.
- Beware of the smell of bleach : This makes them think of cat urine with its neutral PH and they will feel they are on another cat’s territory.
There’s a place they love to pee in
Maybe it’s a flower pot or the sofa. In any case, you must prevent him from urinating there if it is his favorite place. For this, have a smell that he does not like there. Like for example citrus fruits (lemon, grapefruit). Another solution is to have aluminum or a substance that he doesn’t like in his favorite place.
Instead, you can drop cat pheromones in his litter box so he naturally goes there and associates it with something positive.
The hormonal cause
If your cat is not neutered, it will have a natural tendency to urinate everywhere. It is best to have your cat sterilized to avoid certain negative behaviors. Unneutered cats mark their territory more easily, especially males, by urinating everywhere.
I can only advise you to castrate them, because if he does not have access to the outside, he will go crazy, and if he has access to the outside, he will take more risks and enter into fights with other cats, an uncastrated cat has a much lower life expectancy than a neutered cat.
Don’t punish him
In all areas of cat education, it is necessary not to punish or anger him, he will lose his confidence in you. It is better to discourage him from urinating everywhere by rewarding him for using the litter box and by depositing odors that he does not like where he has just urinated.
And don’t forget that correcting the cause of this problem is very often enough to make it stop peeing everywhere naturally.
How to clean cat urine?
To clean cat urine and odors, you can use diluted ammonia on a clean sponge and let sit. Then clean it with hot water and let it dry.
For odors, there are several natural solutions:
- Rub half a lemon on the smelly spot and rinse with lukewarm water. Repeat until the smell disappears. Since cats hate the smell of lemon, it will also deter them from re-urinating there.
- Bicarbonate and vinegar: Pour a glass of white vinegar and two spoons of baking soda and mix on the smelly place. This method can be applied to all tasks that do not start.
- Sparkling water and baking soda: This mixture helps to remove the odor on a carpet or in sheets.
Myth: My cat does this out of displeasure
It is sometimes said that the cat that urinates all over the house does so in protest, revenge or to provoke its master. It doesn’t, because cats can’t have that thought pattern. They cannot plan this and imagine the consequences and even if they could, they would never spend their energy on something both energy-intensive and above all unpleasant.
Cat urinating in the house: The final word
A cat urinating all over the house is often an easy behavior to fix. You just need to find the exact cause and correct the problem at the root.