Spraying and Urine Marking
urine marking, which are quite distinct behaviours.
Spraying is when a cat urinates outside of the litter box, urine marking, on the other hand is when the cat deposits small amounts of urine as form of identification. If the behaviour falls under the first category (i.e. spraying) then we need to look at why she is not using her litter box.
Firstly, is it the litter box itself. Sometimes cats feel uncomfortable using a litter box because of past associations. If the litter box is linked to bad experiences, it will not be seen as a good place to be, and hence, not used.
Also, if there is another cat in the house, another litter box should be made available, so as to avoid competition.
Location is important too, cats like their privacy, so a litter box should not be sited in a public area, such as the kitchen, or she will not feel comfortable using it. If the problem is one of spraying, rather than marking, you need to get to the bottom of, and eliminate the cause of the behaviour.
It could be to do with the litter box itself, is it clean (from her perspective as well as yours). When the choice is between a regularly cleaned area such as your lounge carpet and a litter box that is cleaned 2-3 times a week, you can probably guess where a cat, with its keen sense of smell will choose. If the problem is marking, you need to look at what is causing the behaviour. If another cat has moved into the household, she may feel the need to mark “her” territory out as “taken”.
