Need help!! Cats peeing

we have 4 cats, 1 mother and 3 kittens, the mother is about 2 yrs old and the kittens are just over 7 months. Orion is the only male, he has been bob barkered (fixed). However the 3 girls have not been yet, we are with in the month. in the last month we have been finding pee and once and awhile poo. we dont know who it is or how to stop it. we have tried locking 3 in another part of the appt and one out by themselves to see if they pee (trying to figure out who it is). we have tried disiplining every cat when we find it. we think it might be the mom cause when we did that she peed right in front of us, then when we disiplined her again she had a poo right in front of us. now we found more pee when she was sleeping so we are pretty sure it wasnt her, cause she was not in the area, enless she went back there when were not looking and came right back and fell asleep. plus if anyone could please tell me the best way to get pee and poo smell out of carpets. i have no idea what to do next but i have to stop this. Please help.

exactly how r u disciplining the cats?? how many litter boxes do you have for these cats?? you should have at least three litter boxes.

First of all, you're probably confusing the cats by disciplining them. You're basically walking up to them hours after they've used the bathroom and randomly disciplining them. Even if it is "right in front of them", they probably don't understand that that's why you're mad. Not only that, but you're disciplining EVERY cat whenever you find a pee? You're teaching them that you are unpredictable and that they can't please you.

What's probably happening is that one of them had a problem, and the rest are simply using the same spot. Have you had them checked out by the vet to make sure they don't have a urinary tract infection? It's a very common cause of going outside the litterbox. If mom has UTI, her kittens could be following her lead.

As to getting up the smell, I reccommend using either an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle or white vinegar. As long as the smell is still there, the cats will continue to return to it.

Spay the cats would probably be your first step. Keeping litter boxes clean is essential since cats are neat freaks.

So you have 3 intact adult females constantly in heat and are wondering why you're having problems?

Get them all spayed. Being in heat all the time and all together is stressing these cats terribly, and with cats stress often shows up as litterbox avoidance.

NEVER EVER "discipline" a cat for avoiding the litterbox. They always have a reason for doing it, and your job is to find out what.

Disciplining, or punishing a stressed cat is making the situation 100 times worse and is very cruel.

Get them spayed.

have you tried spraying the carpets?

you can also switch brands of litter and see if that helps

my cats started avoiding the litter about a year ago, all 3 fixed females, and i took them for a vet check to be sure nothing was amiss.

turned out my husband had bought a new brand of litter, and the cats were on strike so to speak.

cats can be finniky critters, if their food is too close to the litter, or if they dislike the litter or as another poster mentioned its not cleaned enough then they will avoid it

also for that many cats you need several litter boxes

the general rule is a box per cat. tho ive found with my cats 2 boxes for the 3 of them is ok, as long as I dont forget to scoop each day.

but please be sure to spay them im sure that would go a long way to solving your problem


good luck\

Eleni

one last thought while im here

I had another problem too when we had a dominant tomcat even tho he was fixed he tended to chase the ladies of the house. Our youngest cat was a very timid thing and avoided the box because he was chasing her away from it,
if you see this happening, just provide a safe litter box separate from teh dominant cats box.

its a long shot but it could be possible seeing as you have 4 cats and one is male


Eleni