Persnickety Kitty?

Kitties...such strange creatures, especially as they grow up.  I know a few cat people and those who love them, love them well.  Others of us do not completely understand how they operate.  I am one of those people.  When I was growing up, my mom was not a cat lover.  Sure, she fell for the cute little kitten faces, but those words of hers still ring in my ears, "They grow up to be cats."  Don't get me wrong.  Mom was not a hater of any animals, save some things with long skinny tails, like rats (honestly I think it was just the tail that she hated).  But she did not love or understand cats.  She did not like the way the neighbor's cats walked all over their kitchen counters and table.  It was not clean.  After all, they were also in and out of their litter boxes.  That was all I knew about cats.

Image courtesy of Matt Banks/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I got older and more independent, I set out on my own.  I had dogs.  I knew and understood dogs.  I was a dog person. One day a kitten showed up on a cold night, clinging to my kitchen window sill.  Of course I would help it!  So sweet this little one was...and so helpless.  But I could not keep her.  I was a dog person...with a dog.  And I had no idea if that dog would eat that kitty.  After all, she had once attacked a mourning dove and had also been caught with a little baby bunny in her mouth.  No, she was not viscous. She was the cutest, most docile dog that you've ever met.  But who knew?  Who could predict?  We could not take a chance.  So we put the kitty in a crate and toted her off to a vet who found her a home. Good thing too.  Turned out my son was highly allergic to cats.  We did not find this out til years later, but it would have broken our hearts to have to give a beloved pet away because of it.  So we never had a cat.

Now I have found myself in a companion animal behavior program.  I am studying, of all things, cats. So what do I know?  Not so much from experience.  That is why I have had to focus more on this animal.  I have had to take a good long look at them, their behaviors, their likes, their dislikes...and more.  I need to understand them, to become familiar with them.  

I recently had a friend ask me what to do with her cat's problem behavior:  she refuses to poop in her litter box   Each morning they wake up to a little mess in her crate.  Kitty will urinate in there, but that's the extent of it.  There is a bit more to the story.  Let me sum it up for you.  This particular cat likes to wake everyone up at 4 am.  She will spend the rest of the night doing her business all over the house.  For these reasons, the owners put her in a crate overnight.  When they get up in the morning, mom finds that kitty has defecated outside of her litter box in the crate.  She reaches in, cleans up the mess, and lets kitty out.  The rest of the day goes normally and then the scenario repeats the next evening and morning.  

This has proven to me to be a bit of a challenge.  So here are some thoughts that I have on the topic.  Perhaps they will help her.  First of all, in order to encourage kitty to provide the correct behavior, one thing that they can do is to put the litter box on one of the shelves in the crate.  This is where she typically defecates.  This will let her know that they expect her to do her business in the box and not on the shelf.  But since this little kitty seems to be getting rewarded for her poor behavior (by mom simply cleaning it up), I am suggesting that mom pick up the poop and put it into kitty's litter box.  After she does this, I would ask that mom leave kitty in the crate for another 20 minutes or so, with her dirty litter box.  

By providing a change in the consequences, mom is no longer reinforcing kitty's poor behavior by cleaning up and allowing her access to the home.  By providing an unwanted stimulus as a consequence, kitty should want to avoid the time in the crate with the dirty litter, hopefully nudging her toward better behavior. When kitty begins to provide the wanted behavior of defecating in her litter box, it would be optimal to then reward her for that accomplishment.  When this happens, a favorite treat or some playtime with a favorite toy are in order.

Having provided this information, I am hoping that these guidelines will resolve the situation.  However, there are several factors that we have not discussed regarding cats.  Cats can be persnickety.  They have their likes and dislikes just like we do.  Some cats prefer not to step into clumping litter, while that is the only kind of litter that other cats will go into.  Some cats only want to do their business in certain types of litter boxes (covered versus uncovered, etc.) and others prefer their litter box to be located in a certain place.  Whatever the reason, kitties can be very particular and so it is worth experimenting with these types of conditions as well.  As you might notice, that is where we started.  I recommended changing the placement of the litter box.  It simply may be that kitty prefers to do her business on the shelf.  

So get to know your kitty.  You might just find that her "poor" behavior is simply a request for something a bit different than you are providing...but may certainly be a very doable adjustment for you.  And as always, feel free to comment or ask questions here.  I am learning too!