Misunderstanding feline behavior

Annie Valuska, PhD, principal scientist for the pet behavior team at Purina, discussed common behaviors that cat owners may typically see and what they can mean, in a dvm360 interview. The interview also discussed miscommunication between pets and their owners, and which companion animal behaviors sometimes lead to pets being surrendered by their owners or euthanized.

In this video, Valuska discusses what it means when a cat urinates or defecates outside the litter box, as well as how pet owners can be educated on approaching the problem in more positive way than surrendering an animal to a shelter.

RELATED VIDEO: Interpreting feline behaviors (Part 1)

RELATED VIDEO: Interpreting feline behaviors (Part 2)

The following is a transcript of the video:

dvm360: What is a ‘problem’ behavior cited by pet owners for surrendering a cat?

Annie Valuska, PhD: One of the most common reasons that cats are surrendered to shelters is out of box elimination. So this is urinating, defecating outside of the litter box, and it's admittedly a very frustrating behavior to face. You're having to clean up these messes, [and] I don't fault them for being frustrated with the behavior. But so many people jump straight to, ‘well, the cat peed on my bed. They're doing it out of spite. I was out of town, or I worked late last night, or I just got a new dog, and the cat is mad at me, and they're going to pee on my bed to punish me,’ and that's just that's just not what's going on. And when you frame it like that, it makes it a lot easier to blame the pet and assume that the solution is to get rid of the pet. But actually, with elimination behaviors, in particular for cats, it's a lot more to them than just a way to void their bladder.

Cats use their urine and feces as a form of olfactory communication. It's a way to help them mark their territory. It's a way to help them feel more comfortable in the environment. And it's also a very vulnerable time for cats when they're going to the bathroom. And as a mesopredator—an animal in the middle of the food chain—they can feel vulnerable. They can feel like they're not safe in certain situations. And so if they aren't feeling very good, if they're experiencing stress, if the litter box isn't in a spot that they want it to be in, they're going to respond by going to the bathroom in a space where they feel safer, or going to the bathroom in a space that they want to feel more like home, and that can result in out of box elimination. And the solution for that problem is not to punish the cat for being spiteful or assume that they're angry with you and try to make their world smaller as a result, the solution is to try to figure out why the cat is feeling stressed, why they don't feel like the home is a safe space, why they don't like their current litter box setup. And when you look at it through that lens, a lot more solutions open up and become available, particularly with the guidance of an expert like an applied behaviorist, or a veterinary behaviorist, that can help you think like a pet and figure out what's going on. So that's an example of the pet parent not understanding what the pet is trying to say through their behavior.