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why does my kitten pee on my feather blanket?

14:52:01

Question
I have my kitten "Sushi" for just over 2 months,he took very well to the litter try no problem. I have had my feather blanket befor I got Sushi so it wasnt something new to him. He has played on the bed and sleept on the bed. After the first time he peed I wash it, but When I started to make the bed again he jumpt on the blanket right infront of me and proseeded to pee again. I cant lock him out the room because he cry's all night and I feel bad.Right now I have a comforter on the bed and all is fine, but winter is on the way.

Sushi has all his regular check ups,his in perfect health.
please help

kind regards

Leigh-anne and Sushi

Answer
Hello Leanne,

Firstly you did'nt tell me how old Sushi is? It would help me to know his age.

Inappropriate elimination is a common behavioural problem, so don't worry! And your right not to stop him going into your room as this may only cause more problems, so don't change what you are doing at the moment.

Rather than go into the lengthy reasons why he may be doing this I will instead just tell you how you can prevent it. He is probably doing this because the feel of the blanket 'reminds' him of an appropriate place to urinate. He would not have used a tray when he was very young and instead urinated on, for example, carpets, newspaper or some type of linen. Although litter trained it is easy for a cat, when placed onto their 'original' appropriate place, to be stimulated by the memory (texture etc) of this and relieve themselves onto it, more so if their tray is not available for some reason (dirty or cannot get to it). Coupled with this is the fact that simply washing the blanket does not remove certain scents left by the urine, and when the cat gets a smell of this scent they will be compelled to reinforce it by urinating on it again.

You can remove the residual scent by washing the soiled area in warm water and biological washing powder (must be biological as this breaks down certain proteins in the urine), this should be 10 parts powder to 90 parts warm water. Clean the area then rinse thoroughly, repeat this then dry thoroughly, then spray with surgical spirit. See if this makes any difference.

If this fails, which may be likely as you need to remember it is the feel of the material under the cats paws that also draws the cat to want to urinate onto it, I would simply suggest just removing it for good and choosing a different type of material, that should eliminate the issue.

I hope this has helped you a little.

Thank you

Kelly