Cat on last chance

katastrophykat

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We have Flipper, found feral with his brother and sent to us for socialisation before Xmas 2014. They were about 8-9 weeks then. We decided to keep them as the charity were struggling to home black & white boys, but sadly lost Dips at 9 months on the road. We have two other cats- brother and sister now 9 years old. Brother- Vladcat- is boss, Poor Mimi is henpecked and Flipper is the main bully,but he's joint top dog with Vlad- they sleep together and play fight sometimes too.
We had issues when they were about 6 months with them peeing on the bed/clothes etc. It seemed to die down but has never gone away totally- there's not a week passes that there's not pee somewhere that it shouldn't be. I've replaced carpets, put solid floors down, added litter trays upstairs, we clean them out as much as we can (out for the day/overnight they go longer) and in the last two days Flipper has peed on a jacket that I'd left on the stairs, in my only decent pair of boots, and this morning, in my daughters toy box.
OH is threatening rehoming, I don't think it's the answer, or fair on Flips. I'm booking him into the vets to have him checked out, but is there anything else that you have experienced/found to have worked? Please, I'm desperate.
 

AmyMay

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I vowed never again to have male cats because of the peeing issues - and never found a way of curing it. Although i believe that a single male is less likely to do it.

The only advice I have is don't give them free range of the house.
 

chestnut cob

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How many litter trays do you have in the house - could the boss cat be preventing the others from using them so they're going elsewhere? Is it the boys marking territory, in which case can you separate them / do as AM suggests and not give them free range in the house?
 

Pink_Lady

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Following ..... I feel your pain .... we have a similar situation with ours. We have six - four boys and two females. Two boys and the females are fine but the other two males scent mark everywhere and yes its awful. Was going to try feliway next. Ours have an open cat flat 247 and show no interest in using a tray.
 

katastrophykat

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There are two trays, one in the kitchen and one on the landing.
Flipper chooses to pee in the shower tray as well if the door is left open.

I have a dinky house, they're locked out of the living room when we're out, and out of the bedrooms full time, but the kitchen runs up to the landing so they have access there full time. I'm mid sort out here to get everything off the floor and surfaces to limit anything being visible, and I've taken the lid off the tray downstairs so it's easier access. About to do the same upstairs! He's on last chance saloon with OH so I'm trying everything.
 

Tyssandi

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We have Flipper, found feral with his brother and sent to us for socialisation before Xmas 2014. They were about 8-9 weeks then. We decided to keep them as the charity were struggling to home black & white boys, but sadly lost Dips at 9 months on the road. We have two other cats- brother and sister now 9 years old. Brother- Vladcat- is boss, Poor Mimi is henpecked and Flipper is the main bully,but he's joint top dog with Vlad- they sleep together and play fight sometimes too.
We had issues when they were about 6 months with them peeing on the bed/clothes etc. It seemed to die down but has never gone away totally- there's not a week passes that there's not pee somewhere that it shouldn't be. I've replaced carpets, put solid floors down, added litter trays upstairs, we clean them out as much as we can (out for the day/overnight they go longer) and in the last two days Flipper has peed on a jacket that I'd left on the stairs, in my only decent pair of boots, and this morning, in my daughters toy box.
OH is threatening rehoming, I don't think it's the answer, or fair on Flips. I'm booking him into the vets to have him checked out, but is there anything else that you have experienced/found to have worked? Please, I'm desperate.
Sadly some cats will never settle into a family home and best kept on yards. Have you tried googling Jackson Galaxy for any tips as he covers this issue in many you tube video clips.

Also he suggest some cats don't like a certain kind of litter or litter box in a certain part of the house. The other thing is it enclose litter box?? http://jacksongalaxy.com/blog/2014/09/27/10-litter-box-tips-part-1
 
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MagicMelon

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There are two trays, one in the kitchen and one on the landing.
Flipper chooses to pee in the shower tray as well if the door is left open.

Early on with my Bengals they would have the odd accident when I introduced the new one to the current one, I read that some cats don't like sharing and also some like to have the tray more private (for fear of being jumped on apparently). So I gave them two trays, and one of them was a big plastic storage box which Id cut a hole in the side of (complete with lid). Solved it, they never had an accident again. When we moved to our current house, changed them to an extra large high sided tray and they've been absolutely fine with that. Worth playing around with the types of tray and how many? If you have 3 cats, perhaps try 3 trays.

My mum used to work for the CPL so we used to end up rescuing quite a lot of cats. All of them ended up being fine and without accidents eventually so it is possible to "fix".
 

Antw23uk

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Yes, Flips goes out 6pm-10pm most nights (no cat flap and busy residential roads, so I prefer them to go out when it's quieter)
Vlad goes out with him, Mimi chooses to live in.

I think thats a big part of your troubles. Dictating when cats come and go is a recipe for trouble ... so is multi cat households to be honest so I dont think you will have much luck keeping them together! Have you tried Feliway plug ins? I know they worked well with ours for moving ect
 

ycbm

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I vowed never again to have male cats because of the peeing issues - and never found a way of curing it. Although i believe that a single male is less likely to do it.

The only advice I have is don't give them free range of the house.

I've always had males and the only problem was when one got heart failure and we didn't realise it. One female didn't want to go outside so we had to let her have a tray and any other incidents have been from being accidentally locked in rooms. Maybe it's because I've always had them as kittens?

OP I second the extra litter tray, bigger tray, different litter and covered tray ideas.
 

MotherOfChickens

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I vowed never again to have male cats because of the peeing issues - and never found a way of curing it. Although i believe that a single male is less likely to do it.

The only advice I have is don't give them free range of the house.

I've had four toms, only two from kittens, two neutered late on in life (as in 4 yo) and never had a problem with them peeing in the house-three of those have been kept as pairs.

OP I suspect you've too many cats for your property, or the wrong mix of cats. Personally I'd be calling a proper behaviourist to look at your set up and advise.
 

scats

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Never had issues with cats peeing on beds or things, except when the kittens were being trained, there were a few incidents.

We have 3 cats at home- the 2 babies- a male and female, and then an older female.
We have 4 litter trays- 3 upstairs and 1 downstairs. Also, we found that they preferred chain types of cat litter and even refused to use the trays when we had the wrong type in for them.
 
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