Hi. My problem is similar to others I've seen posted, but none of the replies seem to be helpful in this particular situation. We have two Maine Coon cats - brother and sister littermates. Both of them know how to use the litter box, and they do . . . when they feel like it. But they also will urinate on the kitchen floor and in the hallway. The male will urinate on the small bathroom rug in front of the shower in either of the bathrooms. He will also urinate in the sink directly down the drain, which actually I don't mind. Both of them will urinate and defecate in the bathtubs in either bathroom, so we have to keep the bathrooms closed off. I have tried changing type of litter and cleaning the box more frequently. I have the largest litter box I can find, but my husband wonders if they prefer the floor because the box is too small. As I said at the beginning, they will both use the litter box . . . it's not that they *won't* go there; they just won't *only* go there. The breeder has been very unhelpful so far. Fortunately, they have not gone on the carpets at all (except the small bathroom shower mat which is easily cleaned), but we are getting tired of having to watch for puddles every time we walk into the kitchen. Does anyone have any ideas on how to retrain them to use just the litter box? They have regular vet checkups, and they do not seem to have any physical problems. One friend suggested it might be from the fact that we had other cats, and they don't want to share a litter box. That doesn't seem to make any real sense, though, since they will use the box from time to time. Someone else suggested using some kind of citrus spray on the kitchen floor. Have you heard anything about Maine Coons hating the smell of citrus? And if we do that, would they walk into the kitchen at all? Since that is where the litter box is, it would be nonproductive to scare them away from the kitchen altogether. We'd really appreciate any help. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Answers

You need to get more litter boxes and make sure there is one on every floor of your house. The rule of thumb is that you should have one more litter box than number of cats. Sometimes cats really hate sharing a litter box, particularly if it's got the urine or poop in it from another cat. When they do use the box, is it clean at the time? You should clean the box every day, preferable twice a day if you have more than one cat. Also, the cats will continue to urinate wherever they have in the past unless you thorougly neutralize the odor.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

i'm sorry i don't have an answer. i found a full breed maine coon female at the 110th st shelter in manhattan and adopted her at 7 wks. to me i felt as i'm very intuitive that it was one. (no papers) it was the cat i was looking for my whole life. she (sasquatch) grew up w/2 dsh about 2 yrs old. well i broke up w/my x boyfriend, and he took the 2 dsm's. well, sasquatch started peeing on my bed. (even before he left) while we were under the covers, or on our down comforters and pillows on the bed. this we put up w/ continually, getting new sheets, pillows, pet care products to deal with the situation. she always did it in front of us. we brought her to the vet, and everything chk'd out okay. seems like she was doing this for spite. so i thought a kitten would be good for her now living alone and still peeing. well no...she continued. for awhile after my x's cats left all was fine w/her. then i just couldn't take washing my bed stuff every other day. i tried rescue remedy, different herbal stuff. my environment is very mellow. i just couldn't understand. and couldn't afford at the time to bring her to a cat psychologist. anyone have the same kind of problems? thanks so much. meow...shelley

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

In response to your litterbox problems. As for my past experiences, my aunt told me about storage boxes. I had the problem of litter boxes being too small also and she told me to go to Wal-Mart (any store) and get one of the larger storage boxes instead. That has really helped us, I won't ever go back to the litter box. I use the 20 gallon size. After a few months, I toss it out and replace with new one. Average cost about $4.00 each. As far as the spray, we were under the impression that it was more for furniture protection. As in clawing. We did use it for our dog. He was pulling his fur out (Shit- zu) it helped but then again it did not keep the cat away.. :-) Good luck.. Hope this helps some.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000