Mother cat pooping in tub, sink, just gave birth

by Cat Mom

We have a stray cat we took in. She gave birth and started pooping in our bath tub and kitchen sink.

She has always used the litter box or was outside! What do we do and why is she doing this? Help!

My thoughts: I'm sorry to hear that your cat is having problems. I'm assuming that she gave birth very recently.

I would recommend calling your vet since she may have a medical problem which may or may not be related to giving birth. For example, it's possible she has developed an infection.

Beyond that, I would look at reducing her stress level and think about the following...

Maybe she's overly concerned about smells from the nest at this point. I would thoroughly clean the litter boxes, make sure there are no residual bleach or soap odors, and add fresh litter.

Is the litter box near the nesting area, or does she have to go far? Is the bathroom closer than the litter box?

Maybe she doesn't want to travel too far from the kittens and the bathroom seems more convenient. I would consider moving the litter box closer to her.

Did you try placing a litter box in the bath tub to see if she'll use it in there?

If the litter box is covered, try uncovered. I would also try exposing the floor of the litter box in case she likes the smooth surface now. Simply add less litter than you normally would, and move it all over to one side so the bottom of the box is exposed.

A different option is to add some Cat Attract (Amazon), or a bit of dirt and grass to the litter.

I hope that helps and please let us know how she comes along.

-Kurt