I have had two cats for over two years now. For the past year I’ve had a litter robot that cleans the box after every use and,after the initial adjustment period, I haven’t had any problems with it. The cats seem to tolerate it well.
About a month ago I took a week long vacation and had a friend come over every other day to check on the cats and make sure everything (food, water, litter) was okay. The cats had pooped on the floor because there wasn’t enough litter I. The box, so my friend bought some to refill it. However it was a different brand than I normally use and the cats continued to poop and pee directly outside of the box. When I got back from vacation I completely changed out the litter and replaced it with our normal brand while also cleaning the box. That seemed to help for a few days by then the pooping started again. I’m not sure which cat it is, though I suspect it’s my 6 year old because I’ve seen the younger one use the box. Whoever it is only poops outside the box but doesn’t pee, and it’s always directly outside the box, witching a foot or so of the entrance
Other things that are new: the cats peed on the litter mat while I was gone and I ended up throwing it out. I got a completely different kind because I noticed they didn’t like stepping on the old one. I have also tried completely revoking the litter mat. I’ve also had a robot vacuum for a while that has been sitting unused against the wall. A week or two ago I finally got it programmed and set up and now it vacuums the house once a day at 6:30 pm.
So why is my cat suddenly pooping outside of the box and what can I do to redirect him? I can’t move the box elsewhere because it’s very large. I only have one box for two cats, but they’ve always shared with no problems,even when it was a traditional litter box, but this one also cleans itself after every use.
