How often should a cat pee?
 

I can't believe I'm asking another cat pee question. :o

We have a new "foster" cat, a two-year-old male. One of our 10-year-old female cats is timid by nature, and she's scared of him. I think she's been on the kitchen chair "hiding" almost all day.

She's been walking around some, because she ate...but I don't remember seeing her in the litter box. At night, the "old" cats go in their room with the door shut, where they have food, water and litter, of course. So she has a "safe" place for maybe ten hours.

I'm assuming that eventually (I hope soon) she won't be as uneasy (read: terrified) of the newcomer, but in the meantime, is it harmful for her to go long periods without urinating? I never really paid attention to how often they used the litter box. Nor do I know how often a healthy cat goes. :confused:

As you know, cats are quite territorial. I think they'll work it out, but I'd check around to see if she isn't (pardon the expression) "making do" somewhere else (outside the boxes). :o

You might also Google: new cat territorial ;)

Doc

My healthy cat will sometimes pee 2 or 3 times a day, but my sick cat would sometimes wait till only very late at night till all was quiet and dark and rush down stairs to go.

Many things can cause this baby to hold her urine. Stress, infection, being in a new territory and having to use a box marked up by other animals using it, a dirty box and so forth.

Try to have a few litter boxes scattered thru the home so that everyone is not using the same box till they all get used to each other. be extra fussy about cleaning it till they settle down. I buy scooping litter, and we scoop our box about twice a day. its amazing to me how quickly it can fill up with only two in the house. There is another box not too far away, but they prefer this one.

Give your kitty a place to hide where she can decompress and feel safe, and be able to nap without fear of being snuck up on. Give her places to climb so she can get up high and get away from the floor. Many cats are climbers on top of furniture because it mimics nature, and being on the ground means you can easily become prey. Push a chair near a bookcase or add those cat beds to your window seats. My husband is forever chopping up cardboard boxes as places to play and hide.

I hope since your kitty has been in your home awhile that things are better. Please know that your kitty should pee at least ONCE per day. holding their urine can cause kidney damage, or bladder issues. A few bits of encouragement and she will be going with the big boys.

There is no across the board answer for how much a normal cat should pee.
Size, wet or dry diet, health, etc. all factor into how much urine will be produced. You can see the effect of those things on yourself. More liquid means more trips to the bathroom. Its hard to tell when you have multiple cats, even just two.

Any time you have more than one cat, there should be one litter box per cat. If you female is not getting to a litter box for long periods because the new cat scares or intimidates her, she can wind up with problems. If she doesn't resort to urinating on the carpet somewhere hidden, she could wind up with a urinary tract infection from retained urine, the bladder can be overstretched re
sulting in a bladder that is less than normal function.

If she isn't getting to a litter box during the day, I would be concerned that she may also not be getting to her food and water. You can check her for dehydration by gently lifting the skin on her back and seeing how fast it returns to normal. If it just snaps back into position, as yours would if you tented your skin, she is not dehydrated. If the skin goes back down slowly or not at all, she is dehydrated and you need to call your veterinarian.

As Dr. Smith pointed out, cats are territorial, and your cat may not want to use a litter box that smells like a strange cat. Depending on how shy your female is, it may take a while for her to become bolder, or she may continue hiding for months. Prior to bringing the new cat in, your cats had a pecking order that they had established. When you add an additional cat, that pecking order has to be re-established all over again. Cats are generally not social animals and though there may be two that are close, they don't have packs or herds etc. Lions live together in prides, but besides lions, you don't find a bunch of cats that move together as one. Because they are more solitary by nature, adding a new cat is stressful. That doesn't mean you can't, you just have to take that into consideration.

Sam

Dear blessings... :hug:

I look at it this way... if a kitty/cat is peeing too much then we need to firstly think about the age of the cat (kidneys?) or the territorial position of the cat in an environment with other cats (natural marking). In your situation ( maybe I'm wrong ) I would think about the territorial situation.