My question...

Some of you who have been reading the pregnant pooch thread my jump to conclusions on the legitimacy of my question but here goes:

My dog eats my cats litter. He is a very smart animal and "Knows" it's bad but I need some advise on how to keep him out of it. Unfortunatly my living quarters arn't the biggest, and I like to leave him inside when I am gone but I also need to leave acces to the litter to my cat.

I live in a basement suite with a bathroom, laundry room, bedroom and living room. It's pretty narrow and I can't put up any gates or anything like that. The litter is in the bathroom.

So beside's re-arranging the rooms and litter location, does anyone have any training tips on curbing his "diet"? Or a similar situation?

Thank you.

 

First let me say we have gotten off on the wrong foot. And I do apologize to you for that. However my opinions on that post still stand.
Now on that note...Welcome to the board!
As far as your dog eating cat poo...So do mine and I have yet to figure out how to stop them. It's not harmful to them just really really gross.
They love it for some reason. YUCK!
If you have it in a corner maybe you could flip it sideways so that the cat can still get to it but the dog can't. That is what I did to keep my big dogs out. For the little one it really does not help. I also tried using the pine chips because I had heard it would deter the dogs. It didn't they still wanted to eat it. Sorry IM not much help with this matter. :mrgreen:

 

Hi Ginah,

I agree, I am avoiding that other thread now. Thanks for the welcome. I don;t know how frequent I will be here but this topic grosses me out BAD!

Are you sure it's not harmful? I heard that cat poo contained some nasty yuckies that could be harmful to others.

 

I read this somewhere before and saved it. I have never tried it so I have no idea if it will work.
As far as it being harmful I really should not say that. Because I don't know for sure? My dogs have never gotten sick from it and when I asked my vet about it he just said that was normal for dogs to eat cat poo and horse poo as well as their own. Again YUCK!!

 

Thanks for the info GinaH. I may try that... anyone have any other ideas or experiences (I know, nothing worse then conversations about poo)?

 

I agree with Gina there is nothing you can do my yorkies eat it and bring it all over my house even leave it on my bed for me (presents i guess) it is the grosest thing but the only way i stoped them was to take the cat box out. My cats mostly go outside and the cat box was here in case they got locked in the house but when i took it out they never went in the house but i had to go get 2 baby kittens so the cat box is back :mrgreen: and something about kitten poo they love even more. I try to clean it out as soon as they go that way the dogs dont get it works good when i'm home when i'm not home the kittens get locked in a room with the box and what they need since i just got them and they are so small i dont want to leave them alone with the Yorkies

Welcome to the board you will get great informaton here

 

Rene: "I try to clean it out as soon as they go " - I think you're right there. I should clean it more often.. just hard to with my schedule and... I actually have two cats so there's double the poo we're thinking about. I get to it every other day. Maybe I should try to make it to a daily ritual...

 

i know what you mean i now have 4 cats :roll: but the big ones usually go outside and when the kittens are locked up when we are gone it's in the kids room not mine lol. and it is very hard to keep it clean i'm a single mom 2 kids (humans) 4 cats and 2 dogs i'm gone 12 hours a day i'm trying to make the kittens my kids responsability but you know how kids are :wink:

 

vyad: what size dog do you have? I scoop daily but I have actually caught Natalie waiting outside the litter box while the cat is inside going and trying to eat it the second the cat steps out of the box. To keep her from getting in there so easily I have a chair blocking 2 hooded boxes and another hooded box facing the corner/wall. Maybe you can turn the box (if you have a hooded box) to face the corner or wall and it won't be as easy for your dog to get at?

 

Duh
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9B-2100 Regular Box $ 24.99



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We took a cabnet and placed liter box in it making a hole just big enough for the cat. Be sure to place liter box over in the corner so that it is just out of reach.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/hpd/consumer/ ... MenuIndex=

2pyrs

 

If it is possible in your situation, you can also try putting the litterbox on a table or something up high. That can be messy, though, and it needs to be stable or doggie will knock it over.

I want one of those Litter Robot things. http://www.litter-robot.com/default.aspx


Jamiya

 

I have the same problem with one of my two dogs. Her name is Grace, a.k.a. Litter Lips. I can clean the box all day, but she always manages to find something.

I don't know how big your dogs is, but I've been thinking this idea for my own situation. Putting a small door within the door to room I call my "cat room." Like a small dog/cat door where the cats can go through easily and the dogs can't fit through.

The small ones are about $30 and if you're hands on or know someone that is, they're pretty easy to install. Unfortunately if you rent your home you have the problem of the replacement of the door if you move.

 

Yes, our litter box is in the basement and the dogs aren't allowed to go down there. Nala is afraid of the stairs to the basement, so that works out well. Bonnie is not, however. Right now their gate prevents them from reaching the stairs. But when this goes away (I hope it goes away) and they have the run of the house, I am considering a small doggie door in the door to the basement so the cats can go down but not the dogs. I can't help but wonder if a dog would try to go through and get stuck.... *pictures Pooh stuck in his doorway after eating too much honey*


Jamiya

 

how big is your dog? I would put a wedge in the bathroom door, while you are gone, so the dog can't get into the bathroom but your cat can.

 

Oh Sharon, LOL "Her name is Grace, a.k.a. Litter Lips." that is too funny.

Vyad, I would recommend what 2 pyrs posted. Also what works for me, is Iturned the entrance to the wall. so that helps too

honeybear

 

don't feed your cat garlic....it acts like onion since it's a root vegetable and can cause anemia

and dogs can get sick from eating cat pooh....but it's more the litter they ingest than the pooh. They can get nasty intestinal infections and if you use clumping litter it'll just sit in their gut in a clump until a blockage is created.

 

Hi,

Thanks for all your advise and ideas.

My dog is medium size. He's exceptionally smart and can get to the litter no matter what I do. He will jump gates, push open the door... almost anything. The poo is like a drug!

I don't have enough room to put it elsewhere and on a table would be way too messy!

I don't have a hood for the litter but thanks for the robot link Jamiya. That might work...

Again thanks for everyone's help. "Litter Lips" has made my day! I'm going to have to use that one if you don't mind!

 

I would get the hooded litterbox. I have seen some really little openings. Also, you could poke holes through both the lid and tray portions of a hooded lid and secure it with something like twisty ties, etc. that the dog could not pop the hood off. Turn it to the corner and maybe place concrete blocks around it to keep the dog from pushing it away from the corner. Cat poo appetizers, mmmmm! Only a dog!

 

My grandmothers dog used to do that! ewwwww!! then wanted to come lick all over you!! AHHHHHHH

Anyhow, She bought one of those automatic litter scooper boxes. Everytime the cat goes, it will set off and scoop it out into special little "smell proof" container! It works great. It also goes off every 4 hours.