Cats bring joy to their owners’ lives in many ways, but when a cat begins to urinate outside of the litter box, it can put a strain on the entire household. It is embarrassing to have company over and realize that your house reeks of cat urine or to go to bed only to find out that your cat peed on your pillow. An owner sometimes worries that the cat may have a health problem. If a health problem is ruled out, then frustration often sets in.

Issues with Cat Urinating Outside of Litter Box

Cats sometimes urinate outside of the litter box. There are many places a cat might urinate besides his box. Some cats urinate on the floor right beside the litter box. Others may urinate in the soil of house plants, on the carpet, on the bed, on towels, or even inside the bathtub.

Once a cat begins urinating in strange places, it will likely return to that place time and again. Since cat urine is one of the hardest smells to completely remove, dealing with the smell alone can be extremely frustrating. If the smell is not completely removed, the cat is likely to return to the spot again and again.

Cat urine is composed of urochrome, urea and uric acid. Of the three, uric acid is the part of cat urine that is hard to remove, because it resists common household cleaners and leaves a scent behind. Even if the scent is not detectible to human noses, a cat’s keen sense of smell can pick up on the scent. In multiple cat households, this can mean that more than one cat in the household could begin urinating in the same spot.

Dealing with the Frustration

An owner who is greeted with the smell of cat urine upon entering his house may have a hard time dealing with a cat that refuses to use the litter box. Not only can it be hard to figure out why the animal is not using its litter box, but attempts to get the cat to use the box may backfire.

1. The Cat Is Not a Brat: First, the cat is not pouting or angry at you. Experts don’t believe cats have the ability to plot revenge. While they are extremely smart creatures, revenge is more of a human trait. When a cat stops using its litter box, there is usually an underlying cause. With a little detective work, you’ll figure out what is causing the behavior.
2. Solvable Problem: In most cases, the problem can be solved and a cat can be retrained to use his litter box with a little extra effort and some patience.
3. Yelling and Hitting Don’t Work: Never strike your pet or scream at her for having an accident outside of the cat pan. This will frighten your feline and she’ll probably find somewhere to hide and urinate, which is much worse than knowing where the pee stain is and being able to effectively treat it.

Common Causes of Cats Peeing in the House

There are many reasons why a cat might begin peeing in the house. The best course of action when a cat’s behavior changes suddenly is to take it to the veterinarian to rule out any health issues. While not every bad behavior can be blamed on a medical problem, it is better to be safe than sorry.

For example, a male cat may develop crystals in his lower urinary tract. If this creates a blockage, the cat may die a rapid and extremely painful death. Urinating outside of the litter box can be an early sign of a developing infection. It becomes painful for the cat to urinate and thus he goes outside of the box, thinking the box is causing his pain. Perhaps he is also trying to let you know that he is ill by changing his behavior. Cats can’t talk and tell us what is bothering them, so they have to find other ways to communicate. Other causes of inappropriate urination include:

• Litter Box Aversion – Consider whether you’ve changed the litter box recently. Litter boxes need replaced every so often, because the uric acid gets into the plastic (even if you use a liner and deodorizing sprays). When you replace the box, it is important to use the same type of box you’ve always used. The depth and size should be the same. If the old litter box had steps, the new litter box should have steps. If the old litter box had a cover, the new litter box should have a cover. If you have not changed the box, the cat may still have developed an aversion to that particular box. Experiment with different shapes and styles (covered and uncovered). If your cat is particularly large, she may need a bigger box. Kittens often outgrow their first litter box rapidly.
• Fear – There are times when cats develop a fear of the litter box. There are several reasons why a cat might become afraid. If there are multiple cats in the home, one cat may be waiting on the other to come out of the box and pouncing. Whether it is done playfully or as a territorial move, such moments can frighten your cat and keep her from using her box. Dogs sometimes startle cats as well. If you have other pets in the home, watch closely and see if this is occurring. If so, then move the box to a new area where the cat can do his business in peace.
• Dirty Litter – Some cats are particularly finicky about their litter. If it is soiled at all, the cat may not use it. In homes with more than one cat, you should set up more than one litter box. Put everyone in the family on pooper scooper duty. The litter box should be cleaned out several times a day and a fresh layer of litter added every couple of days. There are some automated litter boxes on the market, but they can be costly and some cats are scared of them as well. If you decide to purchase an automatic litter box, be sure you can return it if your cat doesn’t take to the system.
• Type of Litter – Consider what type of litter you are using. Some cats prefer very fine, scoopable litter and others like a coarser litter. If your cat has been declawed, his paw pads may be tender and coarse litter could be the culprit. Some litters also have heavy perfumes that are a turn-off to cats. Trying different types of litter is an excellent way to see if the litter is the reason your cat is urinating outside of the box and is an expensive solution. When changing cat litter, start with a mixture of 75 percent of the old litter to 25 percent of the new litter. Use that combination for a few days and then switch to 50 percent of each. Continue changing every few days in 25 percent increments until the box has 100 percent of the new litter. Do this each time you change litter brands or types.
• Household Changes and Stress – Major changes in the household or stress can cause a cat to feel confused and to not use the litter box properly. Divorce, a death in the family, new family members moving in and new pets introduced to the home can all cause stress on your cat. A neighbor with new dogs that bark constantly can also unnerve your cat. Moving to a new home can also cause stress. If the home is not new, then pets that have lived in the home before may have left behind scents that will frighten and confuse your cat.
• Marking Territory – One common reason for peeing in inappropriate places is to mark territory. If you’ve lived with a cat for more than a few minutes, you probably realize that they are territorial. Cats seek out their favorite spots and return to them time and again. In a house with more than one cat, each cat may seek to mark his territory by urinating or spraying. Spraying is an entirely different issue with its own set of problems, but is usually cured by neutering your male cat. Solutions include making sure each cat has its own box in a separate area of the house, keeping a separate bed and separate food dishes for each cat. If you have more than two or three cats, this can be a real challenge, so you may need to simply isolate the cat with the urination problem and give him a space of his own.
• Separation Anxiety – Another possibility is that your feline has separation anxiety. People often get cats because they are a pet that can be left alone for longer periods than a dog. Cats don’t need walked and many people assume they don’t need a lot of attention. While a cat may not require as much one-on-one attention as a dog, felines still crave interaction with their human companions. If you work long hours or have been away from home a lot, your cat may be experiencing separation anxiety, which leads to stress, which can lead to inappropriate urination.
• Old Age – Elderly cats experience litter box issues pretty frequently. If health issues have been ruled out, then the cause could be arthritis. Getting in and out of the litter box may be an issue for cats with a lot of pain in their joints. Try purchasing a shorter litter box or one with a ramp. If the cat has poor vision, she may have trouble locating the box. Take care to always keep it in exactly the same location. Accept that your cat has given you many good years of companionship and you may have to make allowances for her old age. Even humans have bathroom problems as they age. Treat your cat the way you would want to be treated.
• Associating Pain With Box – When a cat has had an infection or even a painful bowel movement, your cat may begin to associate the litter box with pain. This can be a difficult thing to overcome, because the cat doesn’t want to feel that pain again and believes that the pain came from the box. Use the steps below to begin to retrain your cat and consider getting a different type of box as the cat may associate the current box with pain.

Best Ways to Deal with Cat Urination Problems

According to veterinarians at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, it is vital to address the problem as quickly as possible. The longer your cat urinates outside of the litter box, the more likely it is that the behavior will turn into a bad habit.

Once you’ve read through the common causes above and narrowed down the cause of your cat’s behavior, take the following steps to try to end the problem once and for all.

1. Thoroughly clean any areas where the cat has previously urinated. (see Cleaning the Pee Stains below)
2. Replace anything that needs replaced, such as the litter box or brand of litter. If the cat likes to pee on a particular rug in front of the box, remove the rug or replace it with a new one.
3. Try to catch your cat using the box and praise her. Cats respond best to positive reinforcement.
4. If the cat continues to urinate in the wrong spot, isolate your cat with the litter box in the smallest space possible, but as a bathroom or laundry room. Leave your cat in this room with her box for a minimum of one week. Go in to clean the box and give her attention, but the cat stays in the room with the litter box. Ideally, this is also the area where the box will remain.
5. After a week, allow your cat to wander into the rest of the house, but watch her very closely. If she starts to urinate outside of the box, firmly tell her no and carry her to her box. Praise her as you place her in the litter box and leave her in the room with the box for a few more days.
6. Repeat as necessary.
7. Be patient. It may take weeks to retrain your cat to use the box, especially if she has had a traumatic experience of some sort.

Cleaning the Pee Stains

Throughout this guide, you’ve heard that the underlying scent of the urine must be removed to discourage your cat from returning to that spot again. That is easier said than done. The crystals in the uric acid bond with whatever they come into contact with. Simply cleaning does not remove the scent for the long-term.

Follow these steps to remove the scent of the uric acid. In the worst case scenario, where an area was particularly soiled before you moved in or a home with multiple cats having accidents, you may need to replace the flooring to solve the problem.

• Blot the urine spot up with a towel. Get as much of the liquid as you can out of the carpet. Use an old towel that you can throw away.
• Use a good enzymatic cleaner, which is available at any pet supply store. You will want a formula specifically created to treat cat urine, since dog and cat pee are two different monsters.  Make sure the formula has active enzymes. Also, there are some versions that contain a deodorizer as well. This is a good addition as it can help mask any odors.
• Coat the carpet or floor completely with the liquid enzyme cleaner. You want to completely soak it so that the liquid reaches the padding below the carpet and the enzymes can begin to work on any urine that soaked through. Cover with a towel and keep wet for about 24 hours.
• After 24 hours, uncover  the spot and allow to air dry.
• Once dry, vacuum the area to remove any remaining crystals or debris.
• You may need to repeat this process several times to get rid of the odor, but if you catch it quickly it will be easier to treat the spot than if the stain is older.

If you are not sure where your carpet is soiled, but can smell cat pee, a black light held a few inches above the carpet will reveal any urine stains, which can then be treated.

Some Other Ideas to Stop the Soiling

There are a few other methods you can try if you are still having urinating issues with your feline. These work in some situations. If you’re desperate, they are definitely worth a try.

• Place sheets of aluminum foil in the area where the cat urinates. Cats dislike the feel of the foil on their feet and will avoid the area. This will not hurt your cat. She simply doesn’t like it.
• Cats don’t like to use the litter where they eat, so place her food bowls in the soiled area to see if you can persuade her to do her business in her litter box.
• Toilet train your cat. If the issue is a clean litter box, teaching your cat to use the toilet can eventually eliminate the need for litter at all. It does take patience and must be done in stages, but many cats will take to using the toilet, especially younger cats.

What to Do if Everything Fails

If you’ve tried absolutely everything and your cat still refuses to use the litter box, it may be time to make some tough decisions. How you ultimately choose to handle a cat that urinates in strange places is up to you and depends upon your patience for such antics. Here are a few solutions:

• Give the cat away to someone who has the patience to deal with his bathroom habits.
• Allocate him to a single room to keep him from soiling more than one room of your house.
• Switch to a different type of flooring.
• Set up a special area for him to soil with plastic and cheap carpet or other materials that can be easily replaced.
• Use Feliway spray to dissuade the cat from spraying in an area that has been cleaned.

It is really best to keep your cat indoors if you can. There are many dangers outside for cats, including roaming dogs, coyotes, neighbors and cars. Cats that live outdoors are also more prone to catching diseases from other felines in the area or getting into fights which can lead to infection.

However, if you truly cannot train the cat and cannot handle him being indoors, this may be your final solution. If you choose to put your cat outside, be sure she has adequate shelter from the elements and a place to easily get away from any predators.

Check on her regularly and get her normal veterinary treatment. Invest in shots for Feline Leukemia and other contagious diseases. Making such a decision is not easy, but knowing you’ve tried everything you can helps ease the pain a bit.

Most cats will respond to at least one of the steps above. If the problem is not caused by a health issue, be patient, work the steps and see if your cat will respond. You may need to repeat steps more than once before your feline learns once again how to use her litter box.

The good news is that using a litter box is instinctive for cats, so once she picks the habit back up, she should keep it for the long-term.

It’s incredibly frustrating when your cat decides that she doesn’t want to use her litter box to pee and poop in. Not only is it physically exhausting having to clean up after your cat when she eliminates in your house, it’s also mentally and emotionally draining when you can’t figure out why your beloved feline friend is acting disobedient.

The good news is, if your cat is not using the litter box, it’s can be due a behavior issue (rather than a medical issue) and can be easily fixed if you follow sound litter box practices. That said, take your cat to the vet first. Urinary tract problems are the number 1 cause of peeing outside of the litter box. If your vet  says that your cat’s healthy, then you know it’s a behavior problem and you should do some investigating to figure out why.

Why Your Cat is Not Using The Litter Box

The litter box plays an important role in your cat’s life, much more so than might think. Your cat is hard-wired to keep its waste away from its main living area. The reason for this is that they are small predators, so they need to make sure their odors can’t be traced to their territory. Remember that cats have an extremely sensitive sense of smell.

As a cat owner, you need to make sure her litter box is properly set up. It might not seem like a big deal to you, and sometimes she’ll let you get away with an imperfect litter box set up, but if your cat’s level of stress increases for whatever reason, you may start having problems with your cat not using the litter box.

Here are some sensible litter box practices that most cat owners aren’t aware of. Ignoring these often causes their cats to pee and poop in the house:

Keep the litter box in a private, quiet location – Cats like to do their business away from their main living areas. Be sure your cat’s litter box is located in a private, semi-private area, far away from heavy traffic areas of your home and especially far from their food and water.

You also want to make sure her litter box is in a quiet area, far away from any noises that might startle her. For example, keep it away from the washing machine and areas where your kids like to play. Cats are sensitive to sudden noises and for some cats, it only takes being scared once to not want to use her litter box for life.

Make sure your cat has a way to escape – This may sound silly to us as humans, but cats feel extremely vulnerable when going to their bathroom. They generally feel better when they have an escape route, just in case something happens. This is especially true if you have multiple cats and one is intimidated by the other one.

Use an uncovered litter box – For the same reason as above, some cats dislike covered litter boxes because it makes them feel trapped. If your cat’s not using the litter box with a lid, this could be a major factor.

Keep the litter box where you can see it – Another possible reason why your cat’s not using the litter box is that it’s too dirty! Litter boxes need constant cleaning, more often than many people think. Poop should be scooped out at least once a day and the litter should be replaced at least once a week. You want to keep the box in an easily visible location so remember to clean it often.

Make sure you use this type of litter – Unscented clay clumping litter. Make sure that you’re using unscented litter, as some cats dislike the scented smell and decide to not use the litter box and eliminate on our carpet instead. Also, try fine grained litter if you’re not currently using it as cats tend to prefer this type more.

Place a litter box on each floor of your house – If you live in a house with multiple floors, it’s essential that you have at least one litter box per floor. You want your cat to be able to easily access a litter box in case another one is being blocked by a closed door, house guests, etc.

Clean up all traces of urine in your home – If your cat has urinated in your house in the past, you need to make sure that the urine odor is completely gone, otherwise she may smell it and decide to use that spot again. The smell of urine is very strong and can be tricky to remove with a homemade solution so you might want to try this brand of cat urine odor remover.

Since most cats hate citrusy smells, you can place orange peels or spray citrus air freshener where she likes to pee. An alternative is to place a turned over plastic carpet runner- the kind with the little spikes- over where she likes to pee, since cats don’t like walking on those spikes.

Did you know that cats urinating in the house is the number 1 reason why cats get sent away to shelters or even worse, put to sleep?

If your cat is inappropriately eliminating in your home, be sure to take her to the vet and take action to correct her behavior so you can continue to enjoy a healthy, rewarding relationship with your cat.

You should always have a cat urine odor remover handy, since inappropriate elimination is a common problem many cat owners have to deal with. It’s incredibly frustrating coming home and finding new spots of urine on your carpet, furniture or some hard to reach corner. It’s difficult enough trying to figure out why your cat is peeing in the house. It’s even worse when you can’t get rid of the cat urine smell from your home.

In this post, we’ll look at what I (and many other cat owners) think is the best commercial brand of cat urine odor remover that will easily remove any urine stain and the horrible odor from your home.

(Click here for homemade remedies for cat urine odor removal)

Kids N Pets Stain and Odor Remover – The Best Cat Urine Odor Remover

Kids ‘N’ Pets is formulated specifically for cleaning up any biodegradable stain and odors and works great for pet and human urine, feces and vomit stains and odors. You can use it on carpets, mattresses, upholstery, clothing and other water safe surfaces. In fact, it’s guaranteed to remove urine odors without any cover up perfume.

It uses a safe, non-toxic formula that can be applied safely around your pets and kids. It works not only to remove the urine stains, but also discourages your cat from re-urinating by completely eliminating the odor which causes them to come back and pee on same spot.

How to Use

Depending on the amount of urine, each 32 ounce bottle can clean about 5-10 accidents.

First, soak up the urine with a dry cloth or a paper down. You want to gently blot the urine rather than wipe it, since wiping the spot causes the urine stain to spread. Next simply apply the Kids ‘N’ Pets cat urine odor remover. The trick is to really saturate the stained area, which makes it a bit more expensive that you might think (it’s still way worth the cost). You can just let it air dry and Voila! No more cat urine odor!

Why Kids N Pets is the Best Cat Urine Odor Remover

As you probably know, cat urine is extremely strong and unpleasant to smell. Kids ‘N’ Pets is a cat urine odor remover that consistently remove stains and urine, even when other odor removal products (both commercial and homemade) have failed. What’s great about it is that it doesn’t work by simply covering up the odors, but eliminates the odors completely by breaking down the stain that causes the nasty smell at a chemical level.

Many cat owners report that before using Kids ‘N’ Pets, they have a lot of trouble finding a cat odor urine remover that completely gets rid of the smell.  Common cleaners and odor removers such as Lysol, bleach, Pine Sol, Fabreeze, Oust, Glade and others completely fail to remove the nasty urine smell.

When your house smells like urine, it’s makes embarrassing having guests over and can ruin your social life!

It also makes you create a negative association with being in certain parts of your house since the smell is so bad. The horrible urine smell is also a powerful reminder of your disobedient cat and can cause you start to resent her. Once you clean up the urine stains around your house with Kids ‘N’ Pets, you’ll feel so much happier that your house smells like the way it did before.

Not only is this great for cleaning up after pets (especially house training your kitten or puppies), it’s also great for young kids who can have accidents around your house as well.

The best place to buy Kids ‘N’ Pets Stain and Odor Remover is Amazon.com, which has the lowest prices and fast shipping. You can also call your local pet stores to see if they carry this brand of cat urine odor remover.

Ask any cat owner who has had problems with their cats urinating outside of the litter box and they’ll tell you how frustrating and difficult cat urine odor removal can be.

It’s extremely mentally and emotionally draining discovering new puddles of urine all over your house and furniture- especially in hard to reach places. It’s enough to make any cat owner lose their mind. The scariest part is, when you’re faced with this back-against-the-wall situation, thoughts of having to give up your cat start popping up in your mind.

You’re struggling to figure out why your cat is peeing in your house in the first place and why it’s such a pain in the behind getting rid of the nasty smell.

The most frustrating part of this whole ordeal is, there are few “magic pill” cat urine odor removal solutions. A product or homemade remedy that works like gangbusters for one person may be a total dud for another.

The thing to keep in mind is to keep trying different cat urine odor removal strategies until you find one that works well for you. It’s miserable having to give away your cat to a shelter or put it to sleep because it continues to pee in your house and causes it to smell like urine all the time.

Hopefully, it doesn’t have to come to that. Here are the top three home remedies for fast and easy cat urine odor removal.

#1: Vinegar and Baking Soda

Using a dry cloth, soak up as much urine as you can. Be sure to blot the urine with the cloth, rather than wipe it, so you don’t spread it around and make the stain bigger than it already is.

Next, soak the area with a mixture of a third cup of vinegar (white) and two thirds cup of water, plus a little bit of soap or dishwasher detergent. Using another piece of cloth, soak up the liquid spot by pressing down hard repeatedly until the spot is close to dry.

Then, use another cloth and press down on the remaining liquid.

Finally, add some baking soda on top of the area and run it over with a vacuum cleaner within a day.

#2: Peroxide

Peroxide works well in breaking down the chemicals in cat urine that’s responsible for stains and odors. Peroxide is super effective for some people, but doesn’t work for others, so you’ll have to experiment with this for yourself.

Peroxide can damage the color of surfaces, so be careful when using it.

To use peroxide as a cat urine odor removal solution, simply pour a little bit directly on the stained area and let it sit to dry. Then, pour warm water over the area and dry it with a piece of cloth.

#3: Listerine

Listerine can be added to the vinegar/baking soda or peroxide recipe to increase effectiveness in removing cat urine odors. The reason for this is that Listerine mouthwash contains alcohol, a common disinfectant.

To use Listerine to remove cat urine odors, simply add a few drops to one of the two previous solutions- or mix it with hot water and apply it to the stained area.

Why Cat Urine Odor Removal is So Difficult

Cat urine odor removal with homemade solutions isn’t always easy. It takes patience and persistence to find a homemade formula that works for you.

The reason for this is that there are too many factors that come into play regarding cat urine in your house. For example, variables like where the cat urine is, how long it’s been there, and what surface type your cat peed on all effect the effectiveness of the odor cleaner. For that reason, lots of cat owners end up pulling out their hair when trying to get rid of the awful smell of cat urine from their homes.

The Best Commercial Product for Cat Urine Odor Removal

If you want to avoid the headaches and take a stress free approach to cleaning cat urine from your home, I highly recommend commercial products formulated specifically for cat urine odor removal. There are lots of these products out there that claim to remove cat urine odors, but the ones actually work for best for most people are:

Kids N Pets Stain and Odor Remover

Nature’s Miracle – Just For Cats

If I had to pick one over the other, I’d choose the Kids N Stain Odor remover. Many customers report that this is the only cat urine odor removal product that ever worked for them.

Click here to see the product in Amazon.

If You’re Still Having Trouble…

If you try these home-made remedies and commercial products and still find the horrible cat urine smell in your house, then you should invest in a multi-purpose deep cleaner machine to suck out urine from the carpet.

Click here for a foolproof step-by-step method on how to remove cat urine smell from your home for good. This is a “last resort” cat urine odor removal technique that is guaranteed to work.

Is your cat peeing on everything in your house, in the worst places?

Have you tried every solution you can think of, but still don’t have any luck getting the cat to stop urinating outside of his litter box?

If this sounds familiar to you, then the following steps will show you how to remove cat urine smell from your home – for good!

A quick note, before I explain this miracle solution: I did not come up with this. Full credit goes to Lenore from www.catforum.com for revealing her stop cat urination secrets. Lenore had cats that were urinating on everything in her house. She tried a lot of advice on how to remove cat urine smell that included using vinegar, resolve, pet odor carpet cleaner, and enzymatic spray, but nothing worked.

She almost had to get rid of her cats to stop them from ruining her house! Luckily, she found the following solution on how to remove cat urine smell from the house and her babies didn’t have to be relinquished to the shelter.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, be sure to try these steps first. This can literally save your home and having to give your cats away!

What You’re Going to Need

If you don’t have these, you can easily order them at Amazon.com since they have the lowest prices:

1. Nature’s Miracle Just For Cats

2. A battery powered blacklight

3. A Multi-Purpose Deep Cleaner –Little Green Machine Recommended

4. Cat Attract Litter

5. A litter box for every cat, plus an extra one

6. Lots of pennies

How to Remove Cat Urine Smell From Your Home – Step By Step

1. First, confine all your cats to one room. You’re going to be cleaning up your house so you don’t want your cats to be lurking around.
2. Clean every litter box by running it through the dishwasher. This makes sure that all smells will be removed (smells that are repulsing your cat from using the litter box). After they are clean, add to each litter box Cat Attract Litter, which is specially formulated to bring them to the litter box.
3. Turn off your lights and get low to the ground. You’re going to comb through your home and clean up any urine you find.
4. Starting from one corner and moving to the rest of your house, turn on the black light and look for spots in your home that glow green or black. Pour Nature’s Miracle on every spot until the spots are drenched. You want to make sure the spot is completely covered.
5. Place a penny on the spot you just cleaned and move on to the next one.
6. Once you’ve found every spot, turn the lights back on. Make sure the Nature’s Miracle has been sitting on each spot for at least fifteen minutes.
7. Use your deep cleaning machine and go over every spot marked with a penny. Clean each spot a few times, as thoroughly as possible. Try to suck out as much water as possible. At first, the water will be disgusting. Keep cleaning until the water comes out clear.
8. Once every spot is cleaned up, place a litter box over the spots that were the most soiled, since your cat is already in the habit of urinating in those areas.
9. If something can’t be cleaned, toss it out. You don’t want to risk leaving it as is, since your cat may continue to pee on it.
10. Repeat this with your sofas, tables and other furniture your cat may be peeing on.
11. Let your cats into the room and clean the room they were confined to.

After you run through this process, your house should be 100% clean of the smell, so that can be ruled out as a culprit.

Learning how to remove cat urine smell from your house for good is one of the most valuable things you’ll pick up as a cat owner. Yes, this does require effort and investment on your end, but what would you rather do: spend some time clean up your house for an afternoon or have to give up your dear cats permanently to a shelter?

A final note: Cat urination problems are sometimes caused by a serious medical condition. Cats can sometimes develop urinary tract infections. If you suspect your cat is sick, take it to the vet as soon as possible. Click here to learn why your cat’s urinating in the house.

If you find your cat urinating in the house, there’s probably an important reason.

This is a problem that many cat owners face. In fact, this is the most common reason cat owners give up their cats to shelters. Even worse, other owners abuse their cats out of sheer frustration and annoyance.

Here’s the kicker: if your cat is urinating in the house (also known as “inappropriate elimination”), it’s not probably not the cat’s fault, but your fault.

In this article, we’ll cover the the top 3 reasons why your cat is urinating in the house instead of his litterbox:

Reason 3: The Litterbox Smells Like $#@&

If I were to ask you, “how often do you flush your toilet?”, you would answer “every time I go to the bathroom”.

(At least I hope so )

If you’ve ever been to a dirty public restroom, or a developing country with poor sanitation systems, you’re probably familiar with how disgusting human waste is when it’s left around.

Now, let’s apply this to cats.

See, a cat’s sense of smell is extremely powerful. Much more sensitive than our own. Taking this into account, combined with cat’s natural instinct to be extremely clean all the time, it’s easy to see why cats abhor dirty litter boxes.

So even though you think your cat can hang in there for a few more days before you change his litterbox, your cat is already feeling repulsed and upset.

A wild cat would never do his bathroom duties in the same area as before. So naturally your cat may urinate in your house if he can’t stand the condition of his litterbox. That’s bad news for your carpet.

Reason 2: His Litter Box Size or Type of Litter

First of all, the size of your cat’s litter box is important. If the litter box is too small for your cat, your cat may not like it and choose to pee elsewhere instead. Cats find bigger litter boxes more inviting and will be more likely to pee in those as opposed to urinating in the house.

The type of litter you choose is also important.

You want give your cat the most natural, inviting litter possible. This happens to be clumping clay litter that are not scented.

I repeat: use unscented cat litter.

It may smell better for you, but cats are extremely sensitive to deodorizers. Most cats dislike scented litter.

And for the love of God, do not spray perfume or deodorizers around the litter box. Your cat absolutely cannot stand this.

Yes, this does mean that you will have to actually clean your cat’s litterbox more often.

Some cats also find plastic liners annoying since their claws get stuck in them.

Reason 1: Your Cat Has A Serious Medical Condition

If your cat is urinating in your house, there may be a serious reason behind this behavior.

Cats can develop a urinary tract disorder known as Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD). This used to be known as Feline Urinary Syndrome (FUS).

If your cat has this condition, he feels pain as he’s peeing.

Eventually, he associates the pain with he litterbox and tries to avoid the litterbox altogether.

The bad news is, this disease can be life threatening if ignored. That’s why it’s crucial you figure out why your cat is urinating in the house, just in case he has FLUTD.

If you notice that your cat shows one or more of these signs, take it to the vet right away:

• Being noticeably in pain while urinating (such as crying)
• Blood in pee
• Going to his litterbox more than usual, with and without actually peeing
• Straining to urinate
• Squatting in the litterbox for an extended amount of time

By the way, many feline urinary tract problems can be avoided altogether by feeding your cat canned food instead of dry food. The reason is that canned food has more water and less carbohydrates when compared to dry cat food.

What Never to Do If Your Cat Is Urinating In The House

If you catch your cat urinating in the house, never, ever punish him. Punishing your cat when he pees in your house does nothing to correct the problem. All it does is create fear and distrust towards you. This creates a vicious cycle of more cat behavior problems.

The most important thing is to first figure out the cause of your cat’s urinating in the house. If it’s a medical condition, take your cat to the vet right away. If it has something to do with the litter box, then do your duty as his owner and make him as comfortable as possible for your cat to eliminate inside the litter box.

Here’s the bottom line: your cat urinating in the house is sign that you need to start paying attention to him more. Click here to learn about steps you can take to retrain your cat to use the litter box.