Hello everybody. Welcome again to my second lecture. And today I'm going to talk about cats' toilets, and toilets are important to all of us, and cats are not an exception.

So we're going to learn how to optimise cats' toilets, and we're, this way approaching the main causes of elimination problems in cats, which is one of the top reasons for behavioural consultations, OK? So, the main goal is why does it matter and factors to consider to promote the adequate, cats toilets, OK? So we all know that the popularity of cats, as pets is growing and growing and the main reason is that, usually they are considered independent, so self-sufficient.

And this is very convenient for us, but we know, that cats are not independent. They have a different society from human beings or different from dogs, and this doesn't make them as social or independent as we thought they were in the past. OK.

So considering cats independent is a, a huge mistake. . But also the other reason is that people think that cats, they are born well trained and very hygienic, and they do not need to be trained to use the litter box.

So those are the two main reasons, and the second one, is bringing us towards one of the most common reasons. Of cats behavioural consultation and in a study made in Portugal, we noticed that in the top, we could find inappropriate elimination and we're going, you know that we are always working on a terminology and we're going to be back to this terminology inappropriate elimination that you're going to find. All over the world in different literature in the majority of of the papers and authors, but we're going to return to this terminology, but here in this study in Portugal, we found that inappropriate elimination was, the, in the top cause of most frequent complaints.

OK, so owners, they expect that cats are always hygienic and every time there comes a problem related to elimination, this is a reason to euthanasia or relinquishment. For many studies, we noticed that behavioural problems are. I mean the top reasons for relinquishment or abandonment of an animal.

OK? So if there is a relation, we need to prevent in order to decrease the number of relinquished or abandoned animals, OK? So, urinating and defecating outside of the litter box, is, is a common issue in cats, but we started to, to differentiate.

Between marking and inappropriate urination, OK? And in fact, they have different functions, so they are different behaviours. Usually marking behaviour with urine is more related with the sexual behaviour, but it can be presented by cats that are under stress situation, an anxious cats.

Fearful cat, a, a cat in pain, which means that the cat with negative emotions can, can start marking, can start spraying the house. OK? So, in fact, marking behaviour, usually is more related with the sexual, but in stress situations with the negative emotion behind, the animal can start marking with urine as well.

So, What is important is that if you find the cat spraying in, in, in a stand up position, making trading motions with the back feet, quivers his tail and urine is sprayed onto a vertical surface and usually a small quantity of urine, this usually is considered marking, OK. However, there are cats that also mark. Squatting, OK?

And this is important because you cannot, say that an animal squatting is not marking. OK? But if you see that the, the owner sees that the, the cat is in a spraying position, this means that, it's almost 100% sure that he's, marking behaviour.

Then we need to understand the reasons behind that could be due to stress as well. Inappropriate elimination is when the animal needs to relieve the bladder or the blow the bowels, and usually he or she squats and deposit deposit the urine or faeces on a horizontal surface and then. Scratch cover to to cover the waste products afterwards, OK?

So remember that usually the elimination behaviour of cats is, smelling, then, turning around, then moving around, opening the hole, then peeing. And then smelling and covering, OK? So, and this is the normal elimination behaviour, OK?

So, Taking this in mind, this can be very useful for your final diagnosis, OK? So what I would like to, to, to mention is that from now on, instead, of, because urinating and defecating outside of the litter box usually has been called, as inappropriate elimination. And is it really The same?

Is it really inappropriate elimination because the cat is doing his job. The question is, are you doing yours? Are the, are the owners doing their job?

Because in the most cases, as we're going to see the fault of the human in charge, the fault is from the, the owner in charge of the litter box duties. So it's the owner that is making. What we are considering inappropriate, a totally appropriate elimination in the cat's perspective.

Because if the cat has not the conditions that he requires to, to urinate or defecate in the litter tray, then he's going to use other places. But this is totally appropriate on cat's perspective, OK? But it's an appropriate, elimination in location.

That are unacceptable to humans and this is totally different. So the elimination is totally appropriate. OK.

So in this situation, we should call periuria or we could call house soiling instead of inappropriate elimination, OK? Because the elimination is totally appropriate. So we are always forgetting the cat perspective and we need To understand what are the motivations underlying this behaviour and, behind a specific, marking behaviour or elimination in an, in an inappropriate location, let's call whole soiling, is, can, can have different motivations behind and that's what we need to understand, OK?

So the focus should be why does a cat eliminate in in locations that are unacceptable and this should be our main question, OK? Not considering it's inappropriate, but. Thinking about why is this cat eliminating in this location and not in the literature.

And there are different reasons for eliminating in an unacceptable locations. And first of all, we need to rule out the medical problems and once the medical problems have been ruled out, we can think about . First of all, marking, as we already mentioned and described and usually, in, in a behavioural consultation, I always ask for a house plant, and in this house plan, I ask where the cats start urinating, marking, for instance, and usually marking has a specific pattern which is usually Starts by the limits of the territory or next to a window or next to the door, close to the door, close to the window, and then generalised to the whole territory.

But generally marking starts by the limits of the territory, and, and or a specific window, or door and then generalising, OK? And this also help us to, to think. If it is marking or elimination in an acceptable location.

So if we rule out marking and if we rule out medical problems, then there are two major causes for elimination in an acceptable location. And the first is the avoidance and the second is preference, OK? So.

In preference situations, and we're going to see later on, there is one slide specific about this, but early, on kitten's life, they, they learn, and they develop a preference for a certain place or a certain substrate. So let's imagine that a kitten was, raised in a, in, in a, in a breeder or in a. Animal Protection Association where, to decrease costs instead of, litter, they used, toilet paper or a newspaper cutted and pieces of, newspaper.

OK. So at that time, the kitten developed a preference for this type of paper. So his paws developed a.

So later on in life, he, or she, this cat, he or she used the litter tray, but every time that he finds the newspaper of the owner, he goes over there and he pees because he has a preference. So these cats, they still using the litter tray, but every time that they have access to that specific place or that specific substrate, then they prefer to urinate or defecate over there. The most common, is not preference.

The most common is avoidance, or also called aversion, and signs of litre aversion includes many signs and the first is avoids the. Litter box completely, so the cats, are not using the litter box at all. The other is use the litter, but scratches at the sides of the box or on the floor or other objects, as you will see in this video.

OK. So the cat is urinating inside the litter, but scratching at the sides of the box on the floor, on the wall or other objects as you see. So he's using the litter, the litter tray, but he's avoiding to to dig in this litter.

The animal can use the litter but shakes the paws a lot during and after use, OK? I'm going to stop the video. If I can.

No. I can, so, it will continue until the cat pees. So, here you go.

Does not dig in the litter before eliminating, which is something very important as we see, by the, the elimination behaviour, the cats always dig in the litter before elimination. Struggles in the litter box, putting feet up on the edge of the box. So, he's trying really to avoid putting their feet in the litter.

And finally he used the litter but then leaves the box quickly. And there are some cats that meows at the litter box. So there, those are all signs of litter aversion that we should have in mind when seeing cases of elimination problem.

To solve this problem, we need to increase the attractiveness of the location, the human wants to get to use and, and, decrease the appeal and the access to the solid area. And we're going to see, how we can focus much more on increasing the attractiveness of the location, or increasing the, the, the, the. The attractiveness for the litter tray, let's say like this, OK.

So to increase the attractiveness of the location that humans want the cat to use, what do we need to know? And the first factor we need to consider is the litter type. What is the litter type that cats usually prefer?

And we're talking about texture and granularity and there are many Many types of litter tray, from silica to clay to corn to recycled paper. And in fact, from all these types of litter tray, the majority of the, the cats, they prefer the clay, or the clamp pink, litter because it's the type of litter that looks like sand, is very, very, very smooth for their boss. So they can dig without hurting.

Most of the silica, for instance, has sharp, tips, and when they are digging, it hurts in their paws. So they, they void. So usually the clay or clamping glitter usually is more sand type and, it's easier for them to manipulate, which is something very, very important.

In terms of, of scents or unscented, the, there is one study that found no association with elimination problems between, scented litter. However, in my humble opinion, I would say, and I always recommend the owners to use a litter tray with no sense at all, OK? Because who in the world remember to put one.

The smell in the litter of the cats or talks smell or other smells, in the cat's litter. It, it, it can disturb a lot of cats, OK? Because it's not a normal smell for them in their litter tray.

OK. So usually I recommend, despite there is the the standing, finding no association, but, I always recommend to use unscented litter tray. In terms of type, I already mentioned that they prefer clamping, and in fact, studies have shown that when given a variety of litter options, what we called preference studies, they, prefer to use finely particulate sand like clamping glitter for elimination.

So they can dig, they can. They can, cover, and, and this is something that usually they prefer. What is important when using this clumping, litter type, is that when the owner is taking the urine rock, let's say, they need to replace because, the, the, the quantity of litter.

Otherwise, after one or Two scoops, then, there, there will be just a small quantity of litter, and it's not, good for the cats. OK? But there are situations where non-clumping can be better, and which are those situations?

And one of them is, young, kittens or cats who tend to swallow litter, because imagine clumping, the, the, the swallow litter in the stomach, then we, we, we, we don't have an elimination problem, but then we have the emergency surgery. OK? So, in those situations, non-clumping litter can be, better during periods of diarrhoea, especially in kittens, because, the clumping glitter tends to clump between the toes and they can make a negative association with the litter, and long-haired and polyuric cats likely to clump between the, the toes, which means when you have long haired cats and polyuric cats, also non-clumping can be better, because the feeling of the clump between the toes is not, good for the cat, and many of them.

Prefer not to use it and make a negative association. OK. In terms of the quantity of substrates, I already mentioned about that, but is it too much, is it too little?

So, We need to, to have an average and usually, a depth between 3 and 6 centimetres is adequate, but usually, you know, I always ask the owners, much more than the average or the minimum. OK. So usually I ask.

1012 centimetres because I know that most of them will stop at 5 or 6 centimetres, OK? So always asking more and then, we will finish with the the minimum. So here in this situation, you have a cat.

I kept being . Without any type of substrate. You see that he's digging.

And now urinating. So, in fact, we have the full elimination behaviour. But without any type of substrate.

So, another factor to consider is the box cleaning, OK? And in this situation, it is essential to clean the box effectively, because, it's very important to, to have a good, hygiene of the litter, but it's, it's very important to use appropriate cleaners that do not. Have a strong odour.

so let's use, for instance, enzymatic, or biological, detergents because, they are much more natural. In terms of hygiene, I always make these example. Would you use these toilets, and the Longer said, Oh, no, that's horrible.

But remember about your cat's nose. And his litter box can stinky horrible. So, let's, let's put ourselves in, in our, in your cat's shoes.

And I also mentioned that, imagine that you need to put your feet inside, inside. The toilets. And, in fact, imagine that not simply your feet, but your bare feet, because cats, they do not use shoes.

So they need to put their bare feet inside their toilets. So imagine that this is the situation. And if you don't take care of the hygiene, they don't have the water flux.

So, the owners are responsible for the cleaning. Because they have no ways to clean themselves the litter tray, OK? So if it is impossible to, to, to keep, adequately clean the litter box, then, more litter boxes should be added.

More litter trays needed to be added. OK? If owners do not guarantee that there is always a clean toilet, then we need to increase the.

Of toilets. Because even with our best friends, who, who is the person that likes to use a toilet that was used from, another person that did not, push the, the water flux button. Nobody.

And cats, they don't have the water flux button, OK? So it's very important to have these bear in mind. There are self-cleaning litter box in the market that people, people can buy in the, in, in the internet.

I have several, . Remarks to do and my opinion is not the best, to this self-clinic litter box. If we go and see this example.

Whenever you're a kid use just taking the, the sound, because we don't need the sound. So it looks like very, very, very interesting, device. OK.

. So it cleans itself. And separate faeces from Urine. So this, this can be very, very interesting.

However, the sounds that the, this litter box makes and the movement, imagine that the cat is over there when or approaching or getting out from the litter box when the sounds or the movements start. Despite being a very nice device, it can, Be a threatened and, become a negative association for the cat. And then the cat can stop using this litter box.

And that's not what we want. Another, another, another type of, hygiene that I, I've seen in several countries, depending, depending on yours. I don't know if you are familiar.

With litter liners or not, but in fact, those are plastics and that as you see, they are put in the, in the litter tray and then you take one and push away and then cleans the litter and the clean litter gets, gets away while the dirty pieces are on the plastic, a part of, . Of being not very archaeological, also has a problem of being plastic, and, the liners can be very annoying to the cats when they get their claws tucked in them. So when they are digging and they get their claws tucked in this plastic, and, and it's, it's difficult.

OK? So I'm not very fan of litter liners as well. And here comes one factor that really matters, which is the size.

And in this situation, it is a situation that the size really matters. OK? And the, usually what I say is that, the, the, the size of the litter box should be 1 and the, 1.5 times the length of the cast, the.

Cats from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail of the largest cat in the household. So if there are several cats, the, the, the one that should be used as, the minimum is the biggest one. Remember about the behaviour, the elimination behavioural, they do like a dance inside the litter tray.

So they need to have, one. 5 times the length of the biggest cats. And remember that in this situation, we are talking, if we have one cat with 50 centimetres, we should have 75 centimetres.

And usually, as you see in this, image, usually we are counting only in one way. But remember that this way. It is also important, especially if it, if it is, a covert litter tray because the cat needs to move inside.

OK? So it should be 75 centimetres like this and 75 centimetres like this. So should be a square and not a rectangle.

And how many litter trays can we find in the market with size like this? It's very difficult. That's why we, we can create our own litter trays, and I'm going to give you some examples.

And I've mentioned, covered or uncovered. Usually we use covert litter trays because, of our own interest because we want to keep the. Smell inside because out of sight, out of mind.

However, the majority of cats, they prefer, uncovered because they have controls of 3 360 degrees around and they can control everything, . And also, the, the smells the opposite that we want, they are not kept in sight, OK? However, there are some cats that also prefer coverts.

So the only recommendation that I do is If you, if you see that the cats prefer a covert litre tray, then take off the door because especially if there are more than one cat in the household because otherwise, imagine that the cat is coming out and there's another coming in, he comes. And he can make a negative association because of the tension moment created with the other cat that is trying to come in. OK?

So to check, if the cat prefers covered or uncovered, we should give him the two choices, give one litter tray covered, one litter tray uncovered, and then see what he's preferred. And in fact, some cats, they like to pee in, in. In, in the closed one, in the covered one, and the others prefer to poo, in, in the, in the, in the uncovered one.

So cats are special, special creatures and the same cat can have a preference to peeing one and pooing another. So we need to understand, so we need to give options, so which is the preference test that I spoke earlier about, and we need to check what is our cat's preference. There are many cover lights, litera tree, trays, as you see, and I, I, I, I ask in the middle of all of these, why is this happening?

Why, what is the interest to have a plant pot in the top of the litter tray or under . Under the sofa, where people are going to see what is the interest. This can create so many negative associations that we should avoid using many of those litter trays, OK?

Pardon me. This is another, type of model, which is called the Buddhale step. But you can see that the, the, the actual, actual size of the usable space for the cat is very, very small, which is not easy for them, even to turn around inside.

So remember that those models many times are very fashionable, but made in our own considerations and not taking the cat's perspective. Then, we have this other example, and, once again, this model and the majority of models are not made in the getsent interest in mind. Let's see the video going to take the some.

There we go. As you see, the cat is going to use, but the poor kid, cat, he is, as you see digging outside and then eliminating, digging in the walls. But Is this cat happy with these toilets?

Is this with a positive emotion associated with this toilets? No, not at all, as you can see. Do they, do, do they enjoy privacy?

Yes, they do. So having a, a litter tray in the corridor is not a good idea. But if you don't have another place, then, a screen instead of a cover can be used.

OK? And there are. Nice fancy screens.

Cats are not, interested in fancy, but obviously that the owners are interested in having a good decoration of the house. So they can create very fancy screens. It's just a, a question of imagination.

OK? . Something that I mentioned earlier, despite their young age, kittens may already have established preference when they enter their new home.

So remember that most of the kittens, they start using the litter box at the age of 3 or 4 weeks on their own. And it's, at that time, and we are speaking about less than one month age that gets started developing the preference for the substrate. So it's at the age that we should introduce the type of litter that they are going to use for the rest of their life.

And another factor that we need to consider is physical limitations, and there are many physical limitations that lead us to adapt the literature, age, pain, uncoordinated motion, joint pain, disease, muscle atrophy, degrees of vision of it or even blindness. So those are all factors that we need to consider to adapt our litre tray. And as I said, in the market, we would find very difficultly good, cat box.

That's why creating, and if you, if the owner, is, a nice person to do some type of ricollage, which I'm not, but I asked. The owners to do it. They can, buy a big box and then open a, a wall.

They can cover or uncover, and creating, building a big, cats litter box litter tray. OK? What about the litter tray location?

Wow. First of all, should be in a quiet place. Should it be in a a place that can be easy for the cat to get in.

So imagine that the cat has problems to climb the stairs. Why to put the litter tray in the top, floor requiring the cat to climb the stairs to go in there to pee and poo. So bear in mind, you cannot imagine the quantity of of.

That I already saw, have seen, litter trays located. Once I, I arrived in a household that the litter tray was placed in the top of the, the, the clothes washing machine. So imagine that the cat was peeing over there, and suddenly the machine starts moving, the cats get away from there and never ever gets in again because of the negative association immediately made with the litter tray.

OK? I Also went to one house that, the owners created the cat's corner. So, do you know that small tents that, we have for children that opens immediately.

So they are, like in a small pack, and then it opens and the tent is open, a small tent. So I arrived at that, house, and the owners had created the cat's corner. And in the cat corner, in the cat tents, it was the litter tray, it was the food, the water, the bed.

So it was the room of the cats. And it doesn't work for cats. Who in the world eats where poos.

And it Doesn't work for cats as well, OK? So location is very important, OK? Something very important is not and, as I already mentioned, do not place litter box near the cats eating, dressing, or playing areas, OK?

It's very important. Number versus location, OK. There is something that in, in, you will see also in the literature, the rule, number of cats plus 1, OK.

The number of cats plus 1, is not that simple because let's say in this situation, the person has 3 cats, so they have 4 litre trays, but they are in the same room. So this means, this is the same as having a big litter tray. So it's not simple, simply the number of litre trays plus 1.

It's the number and the location of litre trays plus 1. OK? So, you need to have, more litter trays and in different locations.

Because nobody and there are moments there are private for us, OK? I, I usually say there are moments that are only mind that I do not share with with anybody at all, OK? So this, this type of toilets doesn't work for humans and it doesn't work.

For cats, OK, so it's very important to make sure that not simply the number, but also the location of litter trays are, are put in place. So the rule N + 1 should be replaced by L + 1, which is location plus 1. OK?

So, in many situations, as I already said, trays located side by side constitute just one toileting area, and that's not what we are willing to. We also need to consider factors like in negative emotions as a cat under fear or anxiety and, and in those situations, we should provide the litter box in a safe location for these cats. And this is very important.

The same happens in separation-related problems and remember that, usually we do not buy no separation-related problem in. But they are more common than we think, OK? So we should keep this in mind, forever, but, but cats are much more subtle than dogs, which means that dogs with separation-related problems, they openly show that they are suffering while cats, they can show these problems, this, this separation related problem by an anorexia or star.

Starting marking. So, there, there, there, there are other signs, that can be related with separation-related problems. Then I've been speaking a lot with negative associations or bad associations, and there are, associations of the litter with something, and a pleasant, such as all those that are written here, like situations that cause pain.

So, Pain, a urinary or intestinal problem. So imagine I'm with the cystitis. I go to the litter tray, I pee.

It hurts. So I make a negative association with the litter tray. So I'm going to pee here, pee there, pee there, pee there.

So I'm going to start peeing outside the litter because I made a negative, association with the litter tray. Many owners, they wait for the cat to Go to the litter tray to cut them, to give them medication. And once again, they try to avoid to use the litter tray, being cornered by another cat there.

I already, mentioned this before. And once again, the offensive odours such as, some, the old risers or cleansers, OK? And those associations should be avoided.

If there is an accident, very frequently, I see in the internet on Doctor Google, unfortunately, Doctor Google feels being stronger than ourselves and many, television shows, because unfortunately, there, there are. I, I would like to say a few good programmes promoting a proper welfare and proper behavioural, ecological needs, and environment to, to give quality of life, and there are just a few or non programmes in the television creating and promoting. This type of education.

So unfortunately it's still, it's still very bad programmes in the television competing with our information. However, the use of the, the, the water spray to, to punish the cats, but needs to be in the moment, it's incorrect. So positive punishment should be avoided.

Should not be avoided, should be forbidden, OK, because, it's increasing the stress, it's increasing the negative emotions, and, there's the possibility of also making a negative association with the owner. So for many reasons, positive punishment, should not be used at all, OK. In, in terms of decreasing the appeal and the access to the soil areas, there is something very important, which is cleaning the soil area when the cat is making house soiling, removing the physical stain of the deposit, but also the odour is very important.

That's why it's important to use non-ammonia-based products. I usually recommend to use enzymatic or biological detergents products to clean, the, but never bleach or ammonia-based products. Another thing that's, can work in some cats, because as I mentioned, they do not like to eliminate where they're eating, placing, a, a food, a feeding post or a resting place or playing in that area or where the animal is.

Is eliminating, it's increase, giving a different function, decrease the possibility of the cat continuing eliminating there. OK? But does it work with all cats?

No. So that's why my main goal is to increase the, attractiveness for. The place that I want the cat to use, OK?

But this is another tip that you can recommend. However, each cat is a specific cat. There are individual preferences.

And each cat is unique. OK? So that's why I like to play the waiter and I like to ask the cat, what is your Your preference indeed.

OK. And there is another study, that shows that there is a correlation between the time spent digging and the litre preference, and this may offer a means of assessing the litter preference. OK.

So another way to support us to, to see what is the cat's preference. In conclusion, There is no perfect litre, OK. I here, only gave you, ideas of the main preferences of the cats, and, what usually cats they prefer.

However, keep in mind that each cat is a cat, and there is no perfect litter, and each cat will, have specific preferences. So we should always ask the cats, what is your preferred toilets, OK? Once again, thank you very much for your interest.

I hope that it was interesting for you and I brought you some new ideas to give to your clients and new ideas to approach this very common behavioural problem. OK. Thanks once again, for the webinar that and .

to all the organisation of these amazing virtual congress. And I hope to meet you one day, face to face, in another Congress. But thank you for inviting me and, giving me the opportunity to be with all of you, in these days.

In these difficult moments. In the meantime, while we do not meet each other's personally, feel free to contact me and to keep in touch through the social media, and you can find me on the Facebook, on the Instagram. Thank you very much and, all for the animals, and thank you.