What causes a cat to relieve themselves anywhere but the litter box?

: What causes a cat to relieve themselves anywhere but the litter box?
My male cat Nikita is about 3-4 years old, and was litter box trained. He started recently (a month or two) urinating, and leaving lil “presents” all over in my basement. I don’t understand why he does it, he’s spayed, and the only other cat we have is a female, and she’s neutered. He knows how to use the cat box because I’ve seen him countless times using it. Even if the cat box is cleaned, he’ll still find something somewhere down in my basement to relieve himself on. Why is he doing this? What can I do to prevent him from doing this again?

Answers and Views:

Answer by anna
There can be a couple of reasons. One is sickness; he’s trying to tell you something is wrong. Have him checked out. He could have a UTI or diabetes or some other problem.
Have you changed cat litter recently? Cats often dislike scented cat litters, or if the new one is a different material than he’s used to, he may reject it for that reason.

Another is anger. If there has been a big change in his world, like say you’re usually at home and you’ve been gone all day for a couple of days, or been on holiday; or if there’s a new person there, or a new pet. Misplaced defecation is often a form of “punishment” in cats. I was a homebody and I got a job. After the first week of being alone most of the evening, my cat started pooping on or in my shoes, on my craft projects, or in my office. He was trying to hurt my feelings like I’d hurt his!

If the litter box is cleaned regularly, I’d take him to the vet and give him a thorough checkover to make sure there isn’t a problem, and then go from there.

Answer by Seths Mom
I am having the same problem with one of my cats right now. I took her to the vet and found out she had a urine infection that made it painful for her to go the bathroom. He said she didn’t understand why it hurt and had decided the littler box was causing her the pain, so she pee’ed anywhere but there. lol I gave her medicine and for a few days the problem seemed to be fixed but she has once again started peeing outside the box. I’m taking her back to the Vet to see if her infection has come back.
Hopefully you can find the reason for your cat doing this. I’d check with your Vet. Good luck!

Answer by RoVale
Here are a number of reasons they do it:

Litter box is too dirty
The cat doesn’t like the texture or the smell of the cat litter
The sides are too high for the cat to climb in (this is especially true for kittens)
The cat doesn’t like the type of box it is. Some cats have problems with enclosed litter boxes or the types that clean automatically

If you try all those things and the cat still does it, you might look to see if he is having problems with your other cat. If not, you might consider major changes you might have had in your household recently such adding another pet or a recent move, for example. Cats are very sensitive to their environment.

Answer by Pocket Protecktor
You have to put the “Fear of Dog” in them, letting them know that “you” are the Big Kahuni-Dog around here, Mister, and you exist only because you’re cute and small, but don’t push it, Pogo, you know what I’m juss sayin’ ‘ear? 🙂