Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have recently adopted a feral cat. I have been feeding him since May which was the first time he was seen in the neighborhood. I live in the country and normally we don't have ferals around here. He is now in the house and has been for a week and a half. My problem is this, he uses the kitty litter for pee but not for poop. I have 3 other cats. one male 4 y/o and two females, one 2 and one 13. He gets along with my male very well. My 2 y/o hisses at him. He has 4 places where he likes to go. I have tried everything to get him to use the box. I have tried dirt, dirt and litter, plain litter, litter and leaves. Right now he is using the litter and leaves for peeing. He seems to be about 6 months old. When he first came around he was very small. He has grown considerably since I have been feeding him and he is a little piggy now that he is in the house. I just don't know what to do with him and his pooping. He does not let us touch him yet in fact we only think he is a boy from trying to glance under his tail which he does not yet hold high. Please help, I really need suggestions. My house is for sale and this certainly would be a deterrent to any prospective buyer esp. since I can't crate him and I kinda like my skin right where it is, on my hand. Thank you in advance.

Is there any hope of confining him/her to one room for a few weeks?

It would help with your clean up before prospective buyers arrive and might help with any territory issues new kitty has. Little kitty just got transferred to a new world - there may be some confusion - cats are driven by instincts but little kitty may not have figured out how this inside world works. It would reinforce litterbox training, give you a better chance of taming this feral and reduce any stress levels between the house cats the the newbie.

Is the newbie pooping in the same spots everyday or just where ever he/she happens to be at the time the urge hits?

Thank you for your response.

I have a room where I did confine him, but he still did not use the litter box. I have a cage, a big dog cage, I can put him in with his litter box, food, bed and blankets. I hate to do that because I have already made his world smaller and this would really make it tiny but if I have to I will. I will not give up on him, he has so much potential plus I know the dangers here of outside for him.

He goes in several places so I always know where to look. Behind my chair, in the dining room under the buffet, my office. If I spray in all these places he won't go there but will go right next to it. He likes to sleep under my bed and he will not go in the bedroom. He likes to be in the room with us at night. He seems to like my husband more then he likes me right now. But he is only here on the weekends.

He is the most beautiful black cat with a little white dot on the middle of his tummy. He has piercing yellow eyes.

As long as I don't try to touch him he is ok but at this time, touching is not allowed. He is still mad at me from the last time I petted his tail so he will watch me very carefully when I come near him so I am ignoring him in hopes that he will feel safer. This is my first try at taming a feral. Thank you for any you can do to help

Well at least little kitty is sharing your "nest" by sleeping under your bed. That's a good sign.

From the sounds of if it, little kitty is still figuring out the rules of the house. The spots he/she picks to poop are out of the way from his point of view. No traffic to upset him while he settles in comfortably, not close to areas where he eats or sleeps, not already claimed by the house cats. All around good places to poop in the wild.

Confinement can be really useful for the short term but if it is going to stress you out, skip the dog cage. Little kitty will pick up the vibe and be scared. Do you have a second bathroom or basement you can use instead? Something large enough you don't run the risk of skin to claw contact?

You can try "seeding" the litter boxes with his poop so his scent is there. Then either entice little kitty to play in his poop areas with a toy on a string or a stick. Fun areas are not poop areas. Or better yet - Treats! Can't poop where the nice human person gives out treats! Food is the fast track to every starving kitty's heart.

Remember - direct eye contact is a challenge to a cat. You might want to slidle up sideways to little kitty, not face him directly when you are inviting contact. And don't give up - it took 6 months to touch my Annie cat for the first time back when she was a barn cat - now I can't get her off my lap.

Best of luck!

Purrs,
Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth:

We know now that kitty is a boy. He was on the counter last night with tail straight in the air.

I had tried the seeding box, but he ignored it. He won't play with us, he wants to play with my other male cat. And they do play together running, chasing, etc.

I have the cage and we were going to wait and see if he would use the litter box cleaned out and put on the porch just for him. I am going to keep him on the porch (as soon as I can get him out from under the bed) and keep him there and see if he uses it. If not it will be the cage. My husband is not as patient as I am. He thinks kitty is mad at me and our female Sara (who challenges him and he seems to be afraid of her). She would not let him in "their" litter box.

There was an accident this morning. So the porch is next then the cage. Oh my, all this for the love of a little black cat.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer. I do appreciate it and so will kitty.

Mariellen

You might want to try Feliway to help Mr. Kitty and Sara deal with their stress levels while the feline hiearchry settles down. Its synthenic happy feline phermones available in a spray or a wall diffuser. It can also help with marking but is better used in conjunction with other methods.

Recently one of my furballs was ill, her recovery set the whole house in turmoil. As a result, Annie cat who has been an indoor kitty since 2000 started pooping outside of the box for the first time ever because Stink, (the recovering kitty) was reasserting her place in the house.

I've used a wall diffuser, fed Annie treats in the affected area and stepped up the once a week dump and scrub litterbox cleaning to every 4-5 days. It took a week for there to be a noticeable difference from the feliway and we've had one set back - this morning she left me a gift. But its also one week since I bleached the boxes. Cats are subtle creatures at times. Even little things can upset or please them.

And on a final note - if little kitty is about 6 months old - you want to get him snipped asap. Hormones are going to tell him soon to spray. After that you can remove the hormones but spraying is often a learned habit by then. Call around your local area shelters - someone might have experience in ferals and be able to help you get little kitty to the vet.

Learned the last tip from a odd twist of fate - when I got my last cell phone # it turned out I was one digit reversed from a woman who does just this. This woman seemingly does everything but climb trees to help ferals judging from the misdialed messages.

Hope you can get this resolved before Hubby decides he has had enough.

Purrs,
Elizabeth