cats keeping others from going to the basement and using the litter boxes

by Shari Ziemba
(Wyoming, MI)

My husband and I have been taking in strays in our neighborhood for years. We put most in a local rescue. But we have eleven that we kept. They are all neutered and well taken care of. The problem really started about a year after we kept a litter of five kittens that were about 5 weeks old when we found them. We already had six cats whose average ages are at least five years older than them.
We have a very small house and all the litter boxes were in the basement. But the young cats started sitting in the stairway, chasing others up the stairs and not allowing anyone down stairs. This caused a problem for one cat in particular who is quite nervous and would dread having to go down to use the box. So we put two litter boxes upstairs to accomodate those too scared to go downstairs. That works good. The problem: We are pregnant for our first baby and the room with the boxes is going to be the nursery. We only have a two bedroom house. What do we do?
Also, the nervous cat was bit and it got infected before I noticed it. So I believe some of my cats are really biting and clawing when they try taking control of certain areas of our house.
The kittens are now all over four years old. We really need some advice. Thanks for any help you can offer.
Shari

RESPONSE:

Congratulations on your upcoming new addition! However, now you are going to have to make some tough decisions. It sounds as though your house it too small to accomodate your cats. With the addition of the baby, they will be even more cramped.
Cats reach full maturity around age 2 or 3. It is usually at this time when problems start to develop in multiple cat households. Competition for resources becomes even greater. It is for this reason that we have litter boxes in every room of the house, 5 feeding areas, several cat trees, cubbies and high up places, plus the outdoor enclosure.
Your cats are in competition with each other for resources, i.e. territory and litter boxes. Once the baby comes and their territory is decreased, the problem will only get worse.
Your best option would be to make an outdoor enclosure that the cats have access to from the house. This will increase their territory and make them less inclined to fight over what they have. Using covered litter boxes will help keep the dust down and enable you to put litter boxes in areas you might not have thought of before. (Cut an opening in a tote bin, fill it with sand and put the lid on - an inexpensive alternative to costly covered cat litter boxes.)
Worst case, you may need to adopt out some of your cats to cut down on the number and competition. No cat lover likes having to do this but sometimes it is necessary. You have a small house, a large number of cats that are already in discord, and a baby on the way. Now you have some difficult decisions to make.
I wish I had the perfect answer for you to make everyone happy but all I can do is offer some suggestions. Ultimately, you have to expand the area for the cats or decrease the number of cats. Neither solution is easy (one costs money and one breaks your heart) but the decision must be one all of you can live with.
Good luck and let us know what happens!

Donna
House Full Cats Mom