Myles
Savannah Super Cat
Hi Guys,
New registrant, didn't even know this place existed.
Long story short, my F2 savannah "Dante" is going on 6 years old. For several years, he's had some very problematic litter/urine issues. He defecates in the box without issue, but when urinating, will start to pee, then stop, walk out of the box, and re-start at the edge; or simply walk up to the box, turn around, and attempt to urinate into it from outside of it entirely.
This results in a large puddle, usually > 75% of his urine on the floor. Attempts to relocate the box to force him to walk in (IE: make the entrance face a corner), resulted in urine on the wall/floor. Behavior will follow the box wherever it goes, he's *trying* to get it in clearly.
Dante has also had issues with spraying at certain spots (not due to scent, but due to location [IE: back door, or any rug in its place]), but I'm hoping to address the issues one at a time, and maybe there's correlation (fix this, and the other lightens/resolves).
So far, here are some of the things I've tried:
- UTI check, over a half dozen times throughout, "cat who cried wolf", has never tested positive.
- Feliway, both diffuser, and collar, no effect.
- Confinement, he has his own room, and all of his necessities in it now, 100% his.
- Different litters (he uses pine pellets, I've tried clay, schweet scoop, cat-attract, etc.), no changes.
- Different boxes, tried top-entry, smaller, larger, deeper, hooded, hooded+doored, stainless steel, Tupperware trough with hole cut in side, you name it. Right now he uses the hooded + most of the top cut out (to make one with 24" high walls, see pic). Smaller/no sided boxes often left him peeing out the side.
- Entry platform (so he could stand outside and pee in), my latest attempt (see pic, wood + high gloss paint), no dice, he backs up to this and simply urinates on it, when it's hooked into the front of the box
- More water - he uses a fountain, and drinks lots, pee's usually ~2x/day.
- Made a custom 2"x2" + tarp framed box ~48" x 60", to sit the litter-box in, and catch over-shoot. Not effective.
- Put one box in front of the entrance to the "main" box, worked for several days, till he started trying to pee outside of the front box.
Currently the only known "fix" is to have the litter-box in my bath-tub. He misses, but it goes generally just down the drain. Problem is, I only have one bathroom and this causes real issues. I thought maybe the city-kitty would solve this problem, but I'm afraid to toilet train him when I already have such a huge issue (and only one bathroom).
Notably, some basic background:
- No other cats/dogs, just a gecko whose aquarium shares his room, so he can watch/enjoy.
- Dante is medicated. Started with Feliway when I moved to my house 4 years ago, moved up to Prozac (I think it was?) after marking became a regular issue, now he's dosed with a light dose of Valium per behavioral vet prescription.
- Dante is also locked in his room almost 24x7, I visit him periodically to play, but he's in the "rebooting" phase as per behavioral vet's instructions (2nd time doing this), in an effort to resolve litter issues, and also to resolve marking issues.
What feedback can you guys give? I'm really grasping at straws at this point, he's been to about a half dozen vets between the two issues over his life, none have really resolved this, and I'm at wits end cleaning cat pee 2x/day.
New registrant, didn't even know this place existed.
Long story short, my F2 savannah "Dante" is going on 6 years old. For several years, he's had some very problematic litter/urine issues. He defecates in the box without issue, but when urinating, will start to pee, then stop, walk out of the box, and re-start at the edge; or simply walk up to the box, turn around, and attempt to urinate into it from outside of it entirely.
This results in a large puddle, usually > 75% of his urine on the floor. Attempts to relocate the box to force him to walk in (IE: make the entrance face a corner), resulted in urine on the wall/floor. Behavior will follow the box wherever it goes, he's *trying* to get it in clearly.
Dante has also had issues with spraying at certain spots (not due to scent, but due to location [IE: back door, or any rug in its place]), but I'm hoping to address the issues one at a time, and maybe there's correlation (fix this, and the other lightens/resolves).
So far, here are some of the things I've tried:
- UTI check, over a half dozen times throughout, "cat who cried wolf", has never tested positive.
- Feliway, both diffuser, and collar, no effect.
- Confinement, he has his own room, and all of his necessities in it now, 100% his.
- Different litters (he uses pine pellets, I've tried clay, schweet scoop, cat-attract, etc.), no changes.
- Different boxes, tried top-entry, smaller, larger, deeper, hooded, hooded+doored, stainless steel, Tupperware trough with hole cut in side, you name it. Right now he uses the hooded + most of the top cut out (to make one with 24" high walls, see pic). Smaller/no sided boxes often left him peeing out the side.
- Entry platform (so he could stand outside and pee in), my latest attempt (see pic, wood + high gloss paint), no dice, he backs up to this and simply urinates on it, when it's hooked into the front of the box
- More water - he uses a fountain, and drinks lots, pee's usually ~2x/day.
- Made a custom 2"x2" + tarp framed box ~48" x 60", to sit the litter-box in, and catch over-shoot. Not effective.
- Put one box in front of the entrance to the "main" box, worked for several days, till he started trying to pee outside of the front box.
Currently the only known "fix" is to have the litter-box in my bath-tub. He misses, but it goes generally just down the drain. Problem is, I only have one bathroom and this causes real issues. I thought maybe the city-kitty would solve this problem, but I'm afraid to toilet train him when I already have such a huge issue (and only one bathroom).
Notably, some basic background:
- No other cats/dogs, just a gecko whose aquarium shares his room, so he can watch/enjoy.
- Dante is medicated. Started with Feliway when I moved to my house 4 years ago, moved up to Prozac (I think it was?) after marking became a regular issue, now he's dosed with a light dose of Valium per behavioral vet prescription.
- Dante is also locked in his room almost 24x7, I visit him periodically to play, but he's in the "rebooting" phase as per behavioral vet's instructions (2nd time doing this), in an effort to resolve litter issues, and also to resolve marking issues.
What feedback can you guys give? I'm really grasping at straws at this point, he's been to about a half dozen vets between the two issues over his life, none have really resolved this, and I'm at wits end cleaning cat pee 2x/day.