My cat poops and pees in the food bowl?

by Anonymous

I have a brother and sister cat - 8 yrs old. They have been great up until 2 days ago. I came home from work and there was poop in the food bowl.

The next morning, there was pee in the food bowl. This noon, there was poop and pee in the food bowls. WHAT IS GOING ON???

My thoughts: I'm sorry to hear that your cats are having problems. There are too many unknowns to narrow this down to one thing, but I would suspect this is either a form of marking, or it's due to illness.

The only thing that trips me up here is that you've seen both urination and defecation. If it were just defecation, I'd lean more toward a territorial issue.

If it is an illness, only your vet can help you there. It could be that the cat who is sick is not the one doing the deed. In other words, one cat is sensing the other cat is ill, and is reacting to that.

I'd suggest a call to the vet and a check up for both cats.

If it's marking, it could be due to a territorial dispute of some kind between the cats. Although less likely, it could be a response to cats or other animals outside the home.

In these cases, one of the cats is expressing dominance over the food, I suspect after consuming their share.

It could also be an indication that someone is not happy with the litter box, or is under stress due to some change in the house, the people in the house, or daily routines.

We don't know which cat is doing it, and I don't have any context to go on in terms of what your cats feel may have changed in their lives, the house, or their relationship. I also don't know if there are any other signs of illness, or other signs of territorial issues going on.

If it's related to a territorial dispute, it's possible that some event happened to trigger this response in one of the cats. To fix it, you'll have to play cat psychologist, and you may have to increase the number of resources available to the cats.

For example, if they're sharing food and water bowls, you may need to change that and place separate food and water bowls far enough away from each other so they're not in competition.

If one of the cats is litter box guarding, this may be producing this response in the other cat. Litter box guarding can start at any time during the relationship between two cats.

You may need more litter boxes. The same may go for toys, sleeping areas, and so on. Any resource that is shared can be a point of contention.

For more information on this type of marking behavior, see this article on middening at www.thecatbehaviorclinic.com.

I hope that helps, and please update us on their progress.
-Kurt