My cat Allie (4 years old, female, spayed) keeps pooping outside the litter box, either on the mat that is under it, or right in front of her box. This has been going on since end of September 2024 when I was living with two roommates and I have now moved in with my boyfriend (who she knows and now really loves, she didn’t like him the first year we were dating). The three of us have been in the apartment together for four months now, and this is still a weekly, if not daily issue. It usually happens while my BF and I are at work or out of the house, or overnight while we are asleep. BF works Thursday-Monday (has Tuesday/Wednesday off) and my schedule is usually Tuesday-Sunday.

I took her in for her yearly regular check up and rabies shot in October and the vet said it's a behavioral issue, not a health issue, and that I should only be seriously concerned for her health if she is peeing outside her box. I had taken her to another vet (like an urgent care vet) in early January due to her having some vomiting issues and the second vet said the same thing.

I did change her litter type (I had been using Arm & Hammer and am now using Tidy Cats, both clumping). We have her main box in our office/second bedroom and another in our bedroom next to her cat tower. I’ve tried having the boxes be covered and uncovered and it doesn’t seem to matter. I also added one of those Feliway plugins in the room where her main box is but I don’t really think it’s doing much. We have been scooping her litter box twice a day, and do a deep clean every couple of weeks (we just use dish soap and hot water). A friend recommended that when she does poop on the mat, to pick up the poop with paper towel and put it in the box, so we’ve been doing that with a little bit of success. We also wondered if she is just bored while we are gone, so we have been playing 24/7 feeds of birds/squirrels when we leave the house.