# Cat waiting to poop until owner appears



## Pixelsmith (Nov 1, 2013)

Hey there!

New user here, and I'm opening with a bit of an odd question. Our cats (two sisters, 18 months old) have a strange habit of waiting until their owner is nearby before they poo. At least, that's how it seems!

They can go without us, but it's as if they save up their worst, smelliest poo for first thing in the morning when we wake up, and when we get home for work. One more thing to note is that this only applies to the female owner, not the male one.

Not the biggest problem in the world, but we'd be interested to know if this might ring a bell with anyone else. And if there might be steps we could take to stop it, because it is a bit unpleasant.

Thanks,
Pix.


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## Etienne (Dec 8, 2010)

I think they are telling you something lol 

Welcome by the way :thumbsup:


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## Amin (Jul 31, 2009)

Etienne said:


> I think they are telling you something lol
> 
> Welcome by the way :thumbsup:


My thoughts....why you leave us home alone !


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## maisiecat (Jul 27, 2011)

This happens here too 

We left ours for one night once, a friend stayed in the house to look after them and Maisie waited not just until we were home, she actually waited until our friend had gone home as well. And then used the tray when I was nearby.


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## TatiLie (Nov 2, 2010)

We suspected they waited the whole day to poop just 30 seconds before we opened the door. But they're not evil geniuses (I hope!) I think it's just because they've slept the whole day and when they hear the car arriving, they wake up and remember they need to go to the toilet. And coincidently, it's a perfect timing. We arrive at home with fresh smell of poo.

But it doesn't explain why they also go to the toilet also 30 seconds before visitors pop in.


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## sem73 (Jan 30, 2009)

Hi All

Glad it's not just Miss Meg 3 Leg who does this too!..

Typically she takes it one step further.....her litter tray is in the bathroom & quite often will follow me or OH into the bathroom, confirm whether or not we are parked upon the throne then proceed to follow suit & do the same! 

That is on the litter tray, not the loo at the same time! 

Sarah


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## Forester (Dec 2, 2012)

My previous cat , Eric, used to save it for around 5am when he thought it ought to be breakfast time. He would always use the tray in the bedroom. The smell would wake me up and I couldn't go back to sleep till I'd emptied the tray. Once out of bed there was no alternative but to feed him. I swear that he did it deliberately in order to get an early breakfast.


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## spotty cats (Jul 24, 2012)

A good diet will lessen the smell greatly, raw fed cats have virtually no odour at all.


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## TatiLie (Nov 2, 2010)

spotty cats said:


> A good diet will lessen the smell greatly, raw fed cats have virtually no odour at all.


I dream about the day my cats will eat raw (and learn to use the human toilet).


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## Jannor (Oct 26, 2013)

Sykes tries to poo every time I'm down by the litter trays. It's because I used to tell her she was clever when she was a kitten!

I have 3 NWF's and acquired Sykes who was a tiny female moggy kitten. I thought I'd have to buy her a new tray as the NWF ones are massive but she just climbed in and got on with it. It was really cute/funny so I used to tell her she was clever and make a fuss of her whenever I saw her climbing in so its an attention thing now .... 4 years on. At one point she was climbing in all the trays and burying the other cats' poo's but at least that's stopped!

Ben does tend to jump in the tray when I get home from work but I think that's because he knows he's going to go to the trays with me so he may as well save it and sleep until then.

Neither of the girls will go in the trays if I'm in the room. Must be shy.

Strange how they all have their own litter tray habits.


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## Pixelsmith (Nov 1, 2013)

Forester said:


> My previous cat , Eric, used to save it for around 5am when he thought it ought to be breakfast time. He would always use the tray in the bedroom. The smell would wake me up and I couldn't go back to sleep till I'd emptied the tray. Once out of bed there was no alternative but to feed him. I swear that he did it deliberately in order to get an early breakfast.


Good grief. I'm not sure I've ever been woken up by a _smell_. That's pretty rough. Also it made me and my girlfriend laugh out loud - so your past suffering was not all in vain.


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## Pixelsmith (Nov 1, 2013)

Thanks a lot for all your replies. It's certainly comforting to know it's not just us. I'm not sure we'll change the behaviour, and I don't think we've got the commitment to switch them to a raw food diet (though we might give it a go at some point) - but from some of your stories it sounds like we could have it much worse too!


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## sharonbee (Aug 3, 2011)

Ours will wait if we go out for a few hours, as soon as we come home they will all use their tray but while we are gone they wont do any poos. Victoria our Sphynx will poo to order which seems really comical, when I go to groom them and wash Victoria first thing on a morning I then clean their trays and just before I start I tell Victora to have a poo, she will then go in one tray and have a wee and then she will go to another and poo, I have never known a cat to poo on demand before but she certainly does.


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## Forester (Dec 2, 2012)

spotty cats said:


> A good diet will lessen the smell greatly, raw fed cats have virtually no odour at all.


spotty cats, thanks to this forum and its wonderful members, I have learnt that now. I just wish I'd known when Eric was alive. Dylan is fed raw and premium wet from the Happy Kitty Co. so I have to search the tray to find out whether he has been. :thumbsup:. I greatly regret not finding this forum in time to help Eric.


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## CharlieChaplin (Dec 30, 2012)

I echo what you say forester - The smell Chaplin used to make wasn't nice at a when he was on commercial crap food. Since switching him and pinpointing that it's Turkey he is intolerance too - everything has been much better!


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## Forester (Dec 2, 2012)

Pixelsmith said:


> Good grief. I'm not sure I've ever been woken up by a _smell_. That's pretty rough. Also it made me and my girlfriend laugh out loud - so your past suffering was not all in vain.


Glad to have brightened up your day Pixelsmith. I'm a very light sleeper !. I'm grateful not to be woken up by the smell of the tray any more but if my experience has given amusement to others then it was worthwhile.:wink5:


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## maisiecat (Jul 27, 2011)

Well, we have been out this evening, Bob waited until I was home and in the room and proceeded to get into his tray and dig, he is now shouting for his dinner. He rarely makes a bad smell.

Maisie makes awful smells, has woken me many times as it wafts through the house and she will almost always use the tray at night or in the early hours. I cannot get her on a better diet, I have tried and tried and tried.


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## Kyria (Oct 29, 2011)

Oh my gosh ...I just put up a simular thread about my cat too lol.


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## Willow+Jess (Apr 21, 2017)

I was googling to see if anyone else's cat does it. One of our cats who is rather attached to me goes and uses the litter tray as soon as I get home from work. It's not always the exact same time so quite strange. Not sure what to make of it. My theory is she knows I'll clean it up if she goes then?


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## urbantigers (Apr 13, 2014)

I don't know whether this is the same thing, but Kito always uses the tray when I get home and/or when I'm preparing his meals. It's not that he avoids using it when I am not there (he does use it without problem) but it's as though the excitement of me coming home (or of an impending meal) makes him need to use the tray! I get home and fuss them both, and within a couple of minutes Kito will run off to use the tray. Not all the time but I'd say he does this at least 70% of the time when I return home from work after being out all day. He loves his food and gets very excited at meal times, climbing my legs as I serve up. Almost all the time, he then runs off to use the tray, rushing back in case he's missed the food being dished up. Funny thing is Mosi used to do this too, although not quite to the same extent. He tends not to do it much now.

It's possible it's related to waking up and then needing the tray, but he's rarely asleep when I get home. In fact, he's usually in the window looking out for me.


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## Emmasian (Aug 22, 2015)

Oh yes. En masse crappings on my awakening, arrival home from work, entry to the kitchen to cook dinner, and most of all, when I have just delivered lovely clean, fresh litter trays. I mean obviously the trays are precisely for the purpose of said mass crappings, and it would be alot worse if the crappings occurred outside them, but surely we could have five minutes grace before despoiling my beautiful efforts??

They are fed a top quality mainly wet food diet but still produce what I lovingly term "stonking honkers". Especially Teddy, who is a big ol' cat with a big ol' bum. Perhaps raw could be the new frontier.


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## huckybuck (Jan 17, 2014)

Huck will shout at me to clean the tray in the hall - he will then sit and wait for me to get the stuff from the utility, clean and refill. Then he will jump in and go....


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## Willow+Jess (Apr 21, 2017)

Yeah I think mine is also excited tonsee me. I think that's what makes her go.


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## maisiecat (Jul 27, 2011)

I have been away once only since little one moved in, for just one night and 2 days. Had a friend stay the night to keep an eye on them/feed etc.

Returned home to find everything was normal with my boy, not much fazed him as long as he was fed on time. However, Madam had not had a poo at all.

As soon as friend was taken home she relaxed and became normal again, straight into the tray. She also waits until we are eating in the evening before using her tray :Yuck


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## Ringypie (Aug 15, 2012)

We have a litter tray in the bathroom. All 3 like to come in while I'm having a lovely soak in the bath, make a massive fuss scrabbling around in the tray glancing at me now and then to make sure that I'm paying attention before creating the smelliest poo they can. I'm sure they do it to get me out of the bath!!!


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## Erenya (Jul 22, 2014)

Pixelsmith said:


> Good grief. I'm not sure I've ever been woken up by a _smell_. That's pretty rough. Also it made me and my girlfriend laugh out loud - so your past suffering was not all in vain.


As kittens, and before be transitioned our two onto a better diet we'd get woken by the smell.

And the tray was DOWNSTAIRS!


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## Miffy9 (Jul 14, 2017)

Mine likes to ooo when I get home! And she's started weeing on the carpet when we're sitting on the sofa in full view! I think it's for attention and partially comfort? Maybe she's an exhibitionist and her wees and poos are just super important they must be in full view....


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2017)

Poppy goes overnight & she is shut in the living room, so, I don't smell it. The other 2 use the loo. Lith goes first thing in the morning when we get up & about 4. Argentium goes every other day at about 5am. Fleaz goes outside & the two BSH's always go in their Dad's house - Yay! The water absorbs the smell straight away, so I can honestly say, this is one problem I don't have. Having to queue for the toilet first thing in the morning - now that's another matter entirely!


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## KittenEevee (May 19, 2017)

My 11 month old kitten usually waits till my dinner time until she has a poo just while I'm cooking dinner. And then sometimes she waits till i go to bed, she watches me get into bed and I'm just about to fall asleep and then she goes.


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## GusM (Jun 18, 2017)

I love my cat Edith, but the one thing that annoys me is that she often seems to wait until I've put my dinner on the table before going to the toilet. I either come home straight from work or from the gym, so I'll have my dinner either 6ish or 8ish. It doesn't matter what time I eat, I'd say about 4 times a week, literally a couple of minutes after my dinners on the table, she goes. I live in a flat with the bathroom near the living room and have to get up to clean it out.


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## huckybuck (Jan 17, 2014)

Mine like to wait til we have guests round for dinner, then do a stinker, usually at dessert, then jump up and sit on the dining table to clean themselves afterwards!!!!


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Probably scent-marking HB, to tell your guests the home is _their _territory, LOL!


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## Paddypaws (May 4, 2010)

Mostly raw fed here so poops are every 2 days or so. Mostly deposited in the designated poop patch outside, but if inside I only know it's a number two because of the different digging prelude
Millie is the only one who eats mostly regular cat food and she is prone to a dodgy tum so I do get the odd stinker which demands immediate removal.


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## Chellacat (Apr 28, 2017)

One of our litter trays is in the bathroom, every evening before bed when I nip into the loo, he barges in and uses it so I can clean up after him right away, open the bathroom window and shut the door. I found it a strange ritual at first but since I'm there anyway it actually make life easier for me. Side note, why do cats always follow us to the bathroom?


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Chellacat said:


> One of our litter trays is in the bathroom, every evening before bed when I nip into the loo, he barges in and uses it so I can clean up after him right away, open the bathroom window and shut the door. I found it a strange ritual at first but since I'm there anyway it actually make life easier for me. Side note, why do cats always follow us to the bathroom?


Because your cat knows you have gone to the bathroom to leave your 'scent mark' and they want to bond with you by leaving their scent mark at the same time. It is rather touching I think


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## TallulahCat (Dec 31, 2015)

Cats are funny creatures. I don't know if you can change this behaviour. It can be to do with security, as they are very vulnerable whilst toiletting, and may feel safest while you are around. It's actually a compliment!

We see this a bit with cats at the shelter where I work. More often with eating. The food sits there uneaten until someone sits with them, then they eat ravenously and were clearly hungry. We call these cats social eaters. But you do get the occasional social pooper as well!


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