Hi Alana. I’ve certainly never heard of this and hats off to you for coming up with a solution. It was probably not just an association with feeding but an association with place, which happens a lot. Radagast would have got comfortable peeing in that spot before feeding so moving him may be enough to break the pattern. The danger is, once he starts, he may not stop so your vigilance is needed.

This advice worked for us with Radagast for years until very recently. He was feeling a little unwell last year (as you may remember) and had a litter box mishap.

Now he seems to pee on the floor whenever he feels like it’s time to be fed.

I’ve been keeping a diary and, after a lot of trial and error, I believe that when we cleaned up this first accident inadvertently we reinforced the behavior as we must have fed him soon after (because it was the morning and time to be fed). It happened a few times, he would pee, we’d go downstairs and clean it up, and then he’d get his usual food on-time shortly after.

It’s taken us a really long time to figure out that this may be the cause. (we initially thought it could be stress caused by a stray cat that sometimes looks through the windows, or of the noise from the neighbors, but it appears not to be so).

I’ve been keeping a ‘pee diary’ and it ALWAYS happens when he’s starting to realize dinner time is approaching (or when he’s starting to mill around the biscuit cupboard)

We were away for three weeks recently and he didn’t do it at all with his cat-sitter at a different location (no stairs).

We’ve tried a whole bunch of things and have now started feeding him upstairs. We are a week in and so far it’s working but we have to be right-on-the-dot with feeding him on time because I’ve caught him heading for the landing for a squat twice. He never does it after he’s been fed. I’ve also been trying to give him a treat when I notice him using the boxes.

Have you ever experienced this? When I google litter mishaps nothing like this comes up, but it’s the only thing I can think of after months of narrowing the reasons down.

Trying to fix it he’s got us wrapped around his four fat little murder mittens.

Thanks Judy, and well done for sticking at it! I too have been down that dark road.