My litter trained male kittens behaviour

Question
Dear Tabbi, I was wondering if you could please please help me with my cat Jupiter. Basically, I got two kittens (10 weeks at the time) from a lady who rescued them from a skip, they were both littered trained and well behaved so I had no problem. Recently, in the past couple of weeks (both now nearly 6 months old) Jupiter the male cat started spraying the house - any clothes lying around, plastic bags etc. I thought this was just because of his age as I am getting them both neutered in the next month. But his behaviour has got much worse, he now pees EVERYWHERE and simply refuses to use the litter box, Juno the girl is completely fine, so I know it can't be diet. He has started to very frequently poo under the table at least twice a day, in the bathroom more than three times and just outside my mum's bedroom door. Its finally got so bad that he has made such a mess of my brothers room he cant even sleep in it and it's so difficult to keep anywhere clean because it happens so often. I have started to let him out but as soon as he came in he peed on my boots! My mum wants to get rid of him and keep Juno but I just couldn't separate them. I think it is behavioural, and I have read some suggestions about training them in the bathroom but he is a big cat and needs to get his legs stretched and I am at work and college until about 7 at night, is there any solutions on sorting this out? I really don;'t know what to do and it's so upsetting, thank you in advance for any suggestions,
Emerald

Answer
Emerald:

The spraying is probably caused by Jupiter going into heat. Or Juno is coming into heat and he is reacting to her.

Usually when a cat poops different places besides the litterbox it mean that he is upset about something (changes?) or someone in the household.

He also could have a physical problem which only a vet can tell you for sure.

I am including a link with some excellent articles on improper elimination. They should be helpful. Copy and paste, or type the whole link into your address bar:

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/pointe/9352/litterboxhelp.html

Litterbox problems are the number one reason cats get euthanized, and most of the time that could have been avoided by some 'detective work' to find out the cause. After ruling out a medical probem you start on the behaviorial aspect.

My guess is that after he is neutered he will be a much better cat. But get the girl spayed too because even though a male is fixed he still can have urges and act on them even though he can't actually DO anything about it.

Tabbi