Free cat advice: If your cat is going outside of its litter box, it is most likely because it isn't cleaned regularly (would you like to stand in poop to go the bathroom?). You should be cleaning it at least once per day.
Yeah that's great and all but I've tried that. 3 litter boxes. All cleaned twice a day, and he still shits on the carpet 2 feet away from the box. Lid on, lid off, big sidewalls, different cat litter. I've tried it all. The little shit just likes shitting on carpet I guess. And putting the fear of god into him does nothing.
Your cat might have a bladder or kidney stone which is causing extreme pain when pooping. Please take your cat to the vet and have that checked out.
I ran into the same thing: Cat pooped in exotic, awkward places, but never the litter box. Never looked like she was in pain -- just being stubborn, I figured. Turned out to be a bladder stone brought on by the ingredients in modern cat food (put in place to help other feline health issues, but which causes stones in a small subset of cats). After the stones were cleared up, all litter box issues disappeared.
..but they do love some simple pebbles, which are, fortunately, dirt-cheap (or pebble-cheap :) ) although a little messier to clean than the above alternatives. I think they'd like sand as well (I live in Uruguay and those pebbles are from Argentina, so I don't know what alternatives are in the U.S.).
"Yeah that's great and all but I've tried that. 3 litter boxes. All cleaned twice a day, and he still shits on the carpet 2 feet away from the box. Lid on, lid off, big sidewalls, different cat litter. I've tried it all. The little shit just likes shitting on carpet I guess. And putting the fear of god into him does nothing."
I had a similar problem but with peeing, despite three litter boxes and regular cleaning. He'd go in the same room, five feet away. It go so bad that the carpet started developing some sort of fungal growth, which was gross. I read up on it and apparently some cats develop a "texture preference," especially for carpet.
So in the utility room I used for the litter boxes, I replaced the carpet with some cheap engineered wood flooring (Pergo or some similar knockoff brand). Problem went away. I think it is very weird/uncomfortable for them to go on a smooth hard surface, and carpet is a rougher surface that sort of could feel like dirt or grass.
He's completely normal. Has done this for about a year. Multiple costly vet visits for them to say "What have no fucking clue". I think he just likes leaving me presents to come home to at this point.
Otherwise normal cats who go outside of their litter box are usually upset about something in their environment. Are the boxes near something noisy or surprising? Are they in a private spot where he's not going to get approached while he's using them?
If there's a regular spot where he goes, maybe try putting a box on that exact spot. We had a similar problem a few months ago, where our cat was peeing in the basement on a stack of paper he found. We moved everything away from that spot and put a box there and now he's happy as a clam.
You are right that this is generally true for my cats, unfortunately, one of our cats will periodically go outside the box for other reasons.
For two cats, we have three litter boxes that are cleaned daily, new litter is added every couple of weeks as the level of the litter goes down, and then the boxes are fully emptied and fresh litter added about every three months, and that keeps them mostly happy. Unfortunately, one of the cats will periodically pee outside the box even when the box is perfectly clean, and the reasons are many, and somewhat ambiguous.
Sometimes it's the litter. Either we're trying a new litter, or the manufacturer changes the litter, and the cat doesn't like the new litter for some reason.
Sometimes it's the environment. She's using the litter box and there's a sudden noise for some reason, and then she won't use that box again for a while. Not really a problem when we have three boxes, unless she's been startled while using all of them within a short period of time.
Sometimes she's feeling stressed out. If we rearrange the furniture, the seasons are changing (generally only going into winter does this seem to be a problem,) can't pay as much attention to her for a prolonged period of time, go on vacation, or bring home a new child, she's far more prone to peeing outside the litter box.
She never poops outside the litter box, only ever pees.
We've pretty much just formed a routine to minimize the peeing issues. We keep the litter boxes clean, we make sure we pay enough attention to her, and we try to encourage her to use her litter box at least once a day. If we haven't seen her pee in the litter box for a few days (does not mean she hasn't used it, just hasn't used it in front of us) we start to minimize the available options for her to pee in/on (easier than it sounds, she tries to find substitutes for her litter box, so anything box like, or that she can use to bury, like throw rugs.)
At least in the US the outdoors are no place for cats. I see dead cats on the side of the road far too often. People leave out antifreeze to poison cats so they won't poop in their yard or attack birds. Sometimes they shoot them for fun. And sometimes they saw off their back legs for kicks [1].
I've also seen way too many FIV+ cats come through the shelter system, transferred when they're attacked by FIV+ strays. If you ever need to give up your pet, FIV+ status is an immediate death sentence in many shelters. In no-kill shelters, it means a longer stay because some people are weirded out about "cat AIDS".
Ahh, so much quiter without all those birds and other critters :P
On a serious note: cats usually integrate well with their ecosystem and if they would really pose such a big threat, smaller mammals and brids would just migrate away.
edit: I'm speaking of balanced ecosystems where cats have natural enemies, foxes and whatnot.
There's no scientific evidence that letting cats outdoors cause a decline in bird populations: and that's according to the UK charity that campaigns for the protection of birds[1].
The majority of birds that cats kill are frail, in poor health, or otherwise likely to have not made it through the season anyway.
Having lived in both the U.S. and the U.K. it's interesting to see the two different attitudes to cats. In the UK, letting your cat outside is the norm. The shelter I adopted from wouldn't give you a cat unless you were able to let it out (or the cat had feline AIDS and needed to be kept indoors for protection).
But it's the complete opposite in the U.S, and although that makes sense in some places (a lot more predators in the countryside), in a city like San Francisco the risks seem identical to those of London. It's very strange. Of course, in the UK cat owners aren't legally liable for their cat's actions (cats, unlike dogs, are deemed by the law to be free agents), maybe that's not the case in the states.
Where I live, if you let your cat(s) outside, sooner or later they will be eaten by coyote or mountain lion. I am not exaggerating. There's also the issue of cats decimating the local bird population: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill
Well, I did say in my original post I wasn't talking about the countryside. One would hope there aren't mountain lions wandering the streets of, say, Brooklyn.
Cats do kill wildlife, but their impact is often overstated. The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) in the UK has no issues with cats being let out, but recommend they have bells on their collars. The majority of birds that cats kill are sick, frail, or otherwise in poor health.
To quote the RSPB: "there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK-wide"[1].
(We've had a lot of "missing cat" signs on the group mailboxes lately. Woods nearby. Expanding populations of fishers, coyotes, wolves, etc. Did I mention I'm 15 minutes from Parliament Hill? Bears downtown, -35 C winters (with serious wind and a whole lotta snow), +35 C summers (with 90+% humidity), wild beasties in the woods.... I really love Ottawa. I mean, I must. No rationale person would live here otherwise.)
I do understand your concern but we had a cat door for years and the cats were fine, if not happier, going outside at will. The worst that happened was they would occasionally bring in dead/mostly dead animals to show off as trophies from their hunts.
