Sunnyvale Veterinary Clinic

House soiling and furniture destruction are two very common reasons that owners give up their cats.  I have never been to a talk on feline behavior where these topics were not discussed, and for very good reason: nobody wants to live in a house that smells like urine, or where they are unable to have nice looking furniture.  Some people tolerate more than others, but I have never met anybody who enjoys these behaviors.

Going Outside of the Box

So why do cats urinate and/or defecate outside of the litter box?  There are several possible reasons: medical, environmental, and territorial. I will discuss these, as well as what steps cat owners take to encourage cats to go inside the box.  If you are not having litter box problems with your cat and don’t feel the need to make changes, even if what you are currently doing is the exact opposite of what we are recommending here, the old saying holds “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  But if you are having trouble in this area, hopefully you can find some new tips to help.

The first step is a thorough veterinary exam to eliminate medical problems.  There are a variety of medical reasons a cat might stop using the litter box: urinary tract infections, anal sac issues, constipation, bladder stones, kidney disease, diabetes and sterile cystitis, just to name a few.  It is important rule out medical causes and treat any problems before trying behavioral modification.  If you jump straight to the behavior modification you will just be causing undue stress on yourself and your cat, when a vet exam and treatment can help resolve this issue much faster.

Once medical problems have been treated or ruled out and the house soiling is still present, there are two aspects to consider.  One is litter box avoidance, where your cat knows where the litter box is and can access the box, but doesn’t want to use the box.  The other is territory marking.

As you look at the litter box setup in your house, what is the ratio of cats to litter boxes?  A good idea is to have at least one litter box per cat, plus one extra box.  This isn’t possible for all owners and all houses, but try adding at least one more box to your house, and not right next to the other box.  Cats, like humans, prefer a degree of privacy from other cats when using the box.  Also, avoid putting litter boxes near noisy appliances. An unbalanced washing machine is sure to drive a cat out of the litter box, and he might not come back!  When you add the new box, try a new type of litter in it.  Some cats have litter preferences, but don’t rush and change all the boxes to new litter, especially if the cat is sometimes still using the box.  There are cats who prefer to urinate in one type of litter, and defecate in another.  Cats have very sensitive noses, so avoid litters with heavy perfume, and try a litter with a different texture to it. As anyone who ever left a child’s sandbox uncovered can tell you, many cats prefer a sandy texture.

Making sure that there is enough litter in the box is important. Cats like to dig around and bury their excrement, and if the litter is too shallow they might look for somewhere else to go.  Aim for 4 inches of litter in the box.  Also check out the size of your litter box in comparison to the size of your cat. Make sure the box is big enough so that your cat can stand all four feet in the box and turn around.  This is especially important if the box is in a corner: nobody wants to use the toilet with their nose pressed against the wall!  If your litter box has a hood over it, try removing that as well, since in addition to making it hard for a cat to move around in the box, the hoods can trap odor.  Speaking of odors, most people know that if a litter box isn’t cleaned often enough, cats will avoid them, but did you realize that if you use strong smelling cleaners that can also drive cats away?  Citrus smells are a common cat deterrent, so make sure that what ever you are using to clean the box is not a citrus scented cleaner. In fact, if you are having issues with the litter box, try cleaning it every 2 weeks with just plain hot water avoiding disinfectants and cleaners all together. (but be sure to scoop it every day!)

Finally, make sure that your cat can access the boxes. If you have older cats, age related conditions like arthritis might make them not want to climb a flight of stairs to find a box.  A litter box with high sides might seem like a great way to keep the litter in the box, but if the sides are too high, it might also be keeping your cat out of the box, so consider cutting an access hole in the side of the box to make stepping in easier, or finding a box with a access entry which is lower than the sides.  Follow up any changes you make with a good cleaning of the area where your cat went, but wasn’t supposed to go.  Be sure and use an enzymatic odor neutralizer designed for cats when cleaning.

If you cat doesn’t have a medical issue and everything about your litter box setup is under control, then your cat might be urine marking.  Look at where your cat is urinating outside the litter box: is your cat finding a quiet, hidden place, or is your cat urinating or defecating on your clothes, bed or near windows?  Usually if you cat is urinating/defecating on personal items or near windows they are marking.  Urinating on things says “this is mine,” so if this is happening, look for what is threatening your cat.  Did you just get a new roommate? If so, try to have the new person interact with your cat in a positive manner, having them feed and play with the cat.  Are there strange cats outside the window?  If this is the case, try blocking your cat’s view of the outside.  There are also medications that can help with this, so talk to your vet.  Be sure and spend some one-on-one time with your cat as well.

Destructive Behavior

Scratching is a normal cat behavior. Cats mark their territory visually with their claws, and they leave a scent mark behind from glands on their paw pads.  But many owners don’t want their cat to claim the living room couch.  There are two things that need to happen to stop a cat from clawing the couch: the couch needs to be less desirable to the cat and the cat needs more appropriate things to scratch.   Cat trees and scratching posts work great, but only if your cat uses them.  To encourage use, make sure they are sturdy, and at least 36 inches high.  Try getting several posts, with a variety of materials, at least until you know what type of material your cat prefers.  To make the couch less desirable, try putting double stick tape, or aluminum foil over the areas your cat is scratching. You can also try putting the scratching post right in front of the part of the couch your cat is scratching can encourage you cat to use the post. Once your cat gets used to using the post, you can try moving it to another location if you want.

SoftPaws are small plastic caps that can be applied over your cat’s nails.  This can be a great solution for determined cats, and you can apply at them at home, or have your veterinary staff apply them.  Each application usually lasts 4-6 weeks.  If stress is increasing your cat’s need to scratch, anti-anxiety medication can help, so talk to your veterinarian.

Hopefully this information will help you understand your cat better, and help you  solve any problems you may have been having, so that you and cat can live together for a long and happy time.

(This is part two of what I learned at Dr. Dodman’s 8 hour Feline Behavior Seminar in May 2011).

Anytime a cat suddenly becomes aggressive, it is a good idea to visit your veterinarian. Pain and other medical conditions should always be ruled out first.  Your 13 year old cat might not have been acting painful before you got a new kitten, but keeping up with, or away from a rambunctious kitten could have caused some arthritis to act up, so in this situation you might not be dealing with something that is simple territorial aggression. Other diseases can cause aggression too, so definitely get it checked out.

Feline aggression can be broken down into several types: dominance aggression, sexual aggression,  territorial aggression, redirected aggression, and fear-related aggression, as well as the pain and medical induced aggression discussed above.

In dominance aggression, your cat acts like he wants to be “top dog” and get what he wants when he wants it. The first thing to do about this is to avoid confrontation. This might sound backward, but nothing good comes of getting scratched and bitten by your cat, so avoiding these situations is best.  Increasing the amount of exercise your cat gets, either by encouraging play or by getting more cat trees they can climb will help.  Provide resources conditionally, meaning don’t feed or pet your cat when he is misbehaving, wait until your cat is performing the behavior that you want and then reward that behavior, encouraging him to substitute bad habits for good ones.

Sexual aggression includes behaviors such as jumping on top of other cats, or biting on the back of the neck and yowling. If you are planning on breeding your cat and he is showing signs of sexual aggression, you might have to keep the cats separate.  If your cats are already neutered and showing this behavior, (it is usually a neutered male being aggressive to a female) Dr. Dodman recommends trying a product called BoarMate.  It is a pig pheromone, used in breeding farms, but if you put just a very tiny amount on a cloth and dab it on the cat who is not being aggressive, usually the female, it seems to make the male back off.  We recommend always talking to your veterinarian anytime there are behavioral changes, just to make sure there isn’t something else going on.  If after talking things over with your vet, you decide to try the BoarMate, be warned, some people who have reviewed the product claim it smells like faint cat urine. Sexual aggression is usually resolved by having all the cats spayed or neutered.

Territorial aggression happens when one cat has claimed turf and another cat moves in.  This can happen very frequently when cats are allowed to roam outdoors and can lead to infectious diseases, ugly wounds, weeks of antibiotics and expensive vet bills! (which is why we recommend that cats stay indoors) But with cats that are indoors only, this can happen too. Sometimes a new cat comes into the house and introductions happen too quickly.  It makes sense if you look at it from the cat’s point of view: a complete stranger moves in, eats your food, sleeps in your bed and is using your bathroom!  Most people would react badly to this as well.  It can also happen with cats that have lived together for awhile, and a new couch or cat tree is purchased, or the owners move and the cat’s life gets shaken up. Fights can break out between cats that previously got along.  The best course of action is to separate the cats, give them their own space, with a closed door between them. Feed both cats near the door and encourage play under the door.  You can tie a string to two toys so that when one cat plays with the toy, it moves on the other side of the door.  You have to switch the cats about once a day, so they can explore the other cat’s area and get used to the smell of the other cat.  Then you start cracking the door open a little bit, so they can see each other, but not interact. Screens work well for this.  The goal is to eventually have the door open, but with a screen, so the cats can see each other and smell each other but not fight, and then you graduate to supervised time in the house.  If fights break out at any time, you have to go backward a few steps. Most people find that it takes about four months to fully resolve this with cats who have not already gotten into a fight, whether it is two new cats, or two cats that used to get along, if the owner caught it quickly enough.  If fights happened between the cats, possibly during a time when the owner wasn’t home, it can take much longer to resolve.

Non-recognition is an interesting phenomenon which happens when one cat is away, usually at the vet, and when the cat comes home, the other cat in the house reacts like it is a strange cat coming in.  Usually if the cats are kept apart overnight, everything will be fine in the morning.  Occasionally an extra day is needed.  Nobody has figured out why this occurs, but the current belief is that is has to do with all the strange smells the cat is exposed to, so by giving the cat a day at home, the strange smells fade and the issue resolves itself.

Redirected aggression can seem similar to territorial aggression, especially if the owner wasn’t home when the incident which initiated it happened.  Cats that used to get along can seem to hate each other all of a sudden. Usually what happens is the cat sees something through a window that evokes aggression, like another cat, or a dog, and when the cat can’t get to the animal that he wants to fight with, he turns on the other cat. The treatment is the same for the territorial aggression as outlined above.

This cat is scared and hiding under a couch. She might display fear-related aggression if you try to pull her out, so be careful in situations like this.

When dealing with cats with fearful aggression, figuring out what the cat is scared of is key. The more you can reduce what scares her the less they will act out. Giving her a nice safe place to hide is helpful.  There are other steps that you can take to reduce fearfulness, including counter-conditioning (very gradually introducing what your cat fears, starting from a safe distance, paired with a reward so the cat eventually associates the “scary” thing with yummy treats). There are also medications that can help, if necessary.

Predatory “aggression” is not really aggression – it is a natural cat behavior. With true aggression there is a mood change of some sort, but with predatory aggression, this is business as usual for the cat.  It is in their instinct to hunt and kill things, but owners don’t really enjoy it when their cat decides to hunt their feet or hands. Most kittens go through this phase, and with young cats, you can redirect them with toys and other appropriate objects to play with.  Never let your kitten think that hands are feet are okay to bite. Consider getting kittens in pairs; this way they can stalk and “hunt” each other and learn from each other that biting hurts!  Sometimes it really does work out to let cats communicate these things to each other.

Coming in part 3, what to do when your cat is tearing your furniture apart or not using the litter box!

I never thought a lot about cat behavior, beyond expecting my cats to use the litter box and not claw me or my furniture to shreds, so when I saw that Dr. Dodman, a world-renown behavior specialist from Tufts University was offering an 8 hour seminar on feline behavior, I was intrigued.   Eight hours on how cats think!  The longest class I had seen on feline behavior previously was 2 hours, and it seemed very comprehensive, so I knew I had to see what Dr. Dodman had to say about cats.

The Cat’s Amazing Senses

The morning started out with a overview of how cats evolved, and their senses. Their eyes have a lot of rods (a type of photoreceptor in the eye which function in low light and are used in peripheral vision), so they can see peripheral movement well. He also believes that cats can see ultraviolet light, which is more prevalent at dawn and dusk, which could be why cats evolved to be more active during those times.  Their pupils dilate well so they can see in very low light, and if you have a cat that is giving you grief at dawn, waking you up for food, or at dusk, suddenly wanting to play, by controlling the light in your house, you can help change these behaviors.

A cat’s hearing is not as sensitive as a dog’s, but they can hear in the ultrasonic range. Kittens actually make sounds in this range, as do animals of prey.  The movable pinnae (external ear cartilage) helps cats figure out where the sound is coming from.

Vocalization in cats falls into 2 basic categories: pure calls and complex sounds.  In pure calls, which are simple sounds and usually aggressive, you have the hissing, spitting, growling, and shrieking. You also have the chatter, which since many cats do this toward prey could also fall in the aggressive category, and the squeak.  Purring also falls into this category.  Purring happens when cats are happy, but it also releases endorphines, which actually creates analgesia (pain reduction).  They also purr when stressed.  In the complex sounds category, there is the meow, which has over 100 different variations!  One thing that meows have in common is that they are rarely directed at other cats. Meowing is a noise that is usually directed toward humans or other mammals.  The “mew” and the “moan” are also included in complex sounds.

Olfaction, the sense of smell, is just as important to cats as sight. Cats communicate hugely by sense of smell; they mark with their face and paws, and through urine, fecal matter and anal sac expression.  There are two areas on the face that cats use for marking: the area by the ears, which usually has less fur, and the cheeks.  Usually cats use the area by their ears to mark living creatures and the cheek area for inanimate objects. Urine marking is usually a claiming gesture, “This is mine,” so remember that next time you cat pees on your clothes!  Fecal marking usually means “Go away,” and anal sac marking usually happens when the cat is frightened.

The Social Life of Cats

After Dr. Dodman reviewed how cats sense the world around them, and how they mark their area of the world, he went on to review the social behavior of cats.

Cats can be solitary creatures, but they can and will form bonds with other cats. Usually the tightest bonds can be seen between relatives.  But meeting new cats can be problematic, as you may have heard when you are awakened by outdoor cats fighting in the middle of the night! (please note that for safety, we recommend that all cats stay indoors)

When cats are allowed to wander outside, how far do they go?  By implanting tracking devices on indoor/outdoors cats that lived in Australia, a group of researchers found the answer – on a day-to-day basis cats will wander up to two miles. This is called their home range.  They use this area for hunting, playing, mating (if not neutered) and exploration. Cats don’t actively defend their home range, so why does an outdoor cat come home with abscesses and other fighting injuries?  It turns out that inside a smaller area called the home range is a cat’s true territory. This is the area they will ac tively defend from other cats. (they also have a social area, and even personal space!)

What happens when cats meet in their home range?  Cats can communicate across a distance using body language, but often the communication is so subtle that people miss it, and find it weird that there are cats, seemingly locked in staring contests across distances.  The best way to describe this is similar to communicating via email: you can say a lot, but emotion doesn’t translate – to humans at least. But this subtle communication speaks volumes to other cats about the boundaries of each cat’s true territory and personal space.

So do cats have a true society, or just an aggregation (a group of animals that live in an area, due to there being plenty of food and shelter but that don’t really interact with each other)?  For many years it was assumed that cats lived in an aggregation, but studies are showing that there are actually cat societies: they have rules, but also they will hunt as a community, and care for each others kittens. How does this help you understand the cats living in your house? Behavior problems often stem from some sort of violation of cat society “rules.”  When people comment on their cat behavior in a negative way, it usually falls under one or more of 3 categories; aggression, not using the litter box or destructive behavior, i.e., scratching the furniture. I will discuss these problems in the next post.