There’s few events more frustrating than waking up to find a fresh urine puddle near your cats litter box. This is generally followed by a bunch of yelling and self-reflection on how you make bad choices and let wild animals into your apartment, so of course there’s pee on the ground.
Hopefully, after the initial shock has worn off, you started thinking about your cat and why they decided to pee on the ground so close to the litter box. And maybe you even figured out that they didn’t actually pee outside the litter box, they just peed bad.
Yes, sometimes cats can miss the litter box, and this generally comes from cats who pee standing up. And most of the time, you can be unaware of this because they don’t start off standing up, they slowly begin to stand while they are peeing. This means they end up sending their pee a lot more horizontally than they imagined.
Why Do Cats Pee Standing Up?
Let’s start by understanding why a cat pees standing up, instead of squatting. The first thing to check is how dirty the litter box is. Your cat may be standing up because they are just itching to get out of there due to the rotten smell.
Another common reason could be that the litter actually hurts their paws and they are trying to move around a bit so the litter rocks don’t press in so much on their paws. You can try substituting your litter with some at-home alternatives such as newspaper, or you can try crystal cat litter to see if this helps them.
The most common reason, however, is that they just do. Sometimes cats do weird things because they are cats. And if this is your case, you need a long term solution for this because it’s bound to keep happening.
The Best Litter Boxes For Cats Who Pee Standing Up
Your litter box of choice is your most important defense against cleaning up cat pee. Now we’ve written about our picks of the best litter boxes on the market, but if your cat pees standing up, the best litter box for you will be a top entry litter box. Our top pick is the Iris Top Entry, but as long as the sides are completely solid, this will help.
A top entry litter box will provide your cat with tall walls they can’t pee over unless they end up doing somersaults. A common problem with hooded boxes is the connection point which can still leak out pee if it’s rolling down the walls, so the top entry completely solves this.
The biggest concern for top entry is cats sometimes don’t like blindly jumping in to a litter box, as they might land on their feces. It’s also generally a smaller area, meaning you get to clean it more frequently. And it’s important to remember that top entry boxes are not great for multi cat households, unless they are clear and visible so cats know they are already occupied. And top entry is not good for older or disabled cats who have trouble jumping.
If that is the case, you need to be looking for a litter box with an extremely high side walls, such as this one from Van Ness.
If you opt for this, you should also reinforce your floor by placing a large rubber mat under the litter box. This is because they may end up turning around inside and peeing outside from the entryway occasionally. The rubber mat will at least ensure an easy cleanup for you if this happens.
Conclusion
If you find pee outside the litter box you may be up against a vertical peeing cat. If that is the case, there’s a simple solution to your problem, and that’s a good litter box. Don’t get mad at your cat or try to “correct” the issue, as it’s a natural, though weird, position for them to enter while peeing.
One of my male cats stands while peeing and has done this every time since he had a urinary blockage over 9 years ago. He's a tall cat too so it is particularly challenging. We use the ModCat flip litter box. It is pricey but works wonderfully. Never an issue since we got it.