Some backstory: we adopted my 2yo DSH cat Oliver about a month ago. My dad is his main caretaker, but I am here some of the time and I’m Oliver’s favorite person.
Today was going pretty well. I’ve played with Oliver a bit, and he’s been going downstairs a ton. We had tuna for dinner, so we gave him the juice from the 2 tuna cans (these were big cans, so it was a fair amount of juice) along with a tiny bit of tuna, maybe a tablespoon. The tuna had no mayonnaise or anything on it, it was straight out of the can.
We don’t plan to do this often, it was just a treat. We’ve been working on making his dinner later so it’s closer to bedtime, so it was basically a snack.
Oliver has been enjoying looking out the window, but we don’t have a harness and leash yet and I haven’t trained him with that of course. My dad and I decided we’d bring him out in his cat carrier for a bit so he could look around and smell everything. That went pretty well! I opened the top to pet and comfort him, and he seemed like he enjoyed it. His cat carrier is quite large too; he has room to lay down completely with extra space.
When we got inside I gave him his usual dinner with wet and dry food. Something to note here is he really dislikes being alone. Especially with me, he’ll follow us around the house. If I leave while/before he eats the dry food, he won’t eat it for awhile even if he’s hungry because he wants to be with me instead. The one litter box is in my closet that he always has access to. We’re going to get a second one soon to put in a close downstairs, it just hasn’t happened yet.
Today around an hour after we got back inside, I was scooping ice cream in the kitchen for myself and Oliver just squatted and started pooping on the rug. I froze and didn’t know what to do, but casually told my dad. My dad came over and yelled at oliver, who ran under the table. We tried to get him upstairs but since he was scared he didn’t want to move, but my dad scared him more by moving a chair he was next to and telling something.
My room is his safe space, so he sprinted back up to my room (where the litter box is), and I closed the door so he couldn’t leave. My dad cleaned the carpet where he pooped very thoroughly, so he won’t remember the smell and think it’s his litter box.
My question is, why did he do this and do we need to call the vet? The only other time he has pooped outside the litter box was in a plant pot, which makes sense because it had dirt. We use wood pellets for litter which the shelter also used. I cleaned his litter box yesterday, and he’s never before had a problem with going a whole day without it being cleaned. I also switch out and rinse the litter box weekly.
My theories are: 1. He was stressed from going outside and playing, maybe got riled up and overstimulated? 2. Didn’t react well to eating the tuna/ate too much food today 3. Didn’t want to go to a different floor than me so he found the best spot downstairs 4. Was upset I wasn’t playing with him or petting him anymore and wanted attention
Anyway, thanks for reading such a long post and I’d appreciate any insight!
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/gl6l5p/cat_pooped_on_rug_need_advice/
No comments:
Post a Comment