Hello all,

I am desperate. I have a 5 month orange tabby who is a good boy but man, when it comes to his poop I am SO CLOSE to giving him away. I also have another tabby, his sister from the same litter and has never shown signs of aggression/territorial-ness towards each other. I feel like I have tried everything I've read on previous posts/comments regarding how to control the situation and I feel like NOTHING has worked. I took him to the vet and they said nothing was wrong, change litter type (4 different times: wood pellet, clumping wood, sand litter, now on tofu litter), clean it daily x2, added another box, and changed his diet to higher quality food. I am losing it. Every time I've changed the litter type he will gladly take a dump in it no problem but changes his mind days later. He pees in the box perfectly fine but he will take a dump RIGHT NEXT to the litter box. I don't understand why especially when the box is, A. big enough and B. there is enough litter in there no problem and C it is clean. If I am in the room, he will go inside the box but if I am not there watching, he goes literally right outside the box. I've even tried putting his poop on top of the litter without sifting it in so he can get the idea that's where it belongs and that has not been working for the past week. And I've even move the litter box on top of the spot where he goes #2. When it comes to the "punishment" I put him in his carrier without a struggle cause he likes to be in there, next to the litter box until his sister uses it herself (she usually goes right after him), I will praise her in front of him for going in there so he can /try/ to get the hint. And yes, I've even tried pee pads. He will take a dump right next to the pee pad then try to cover it with the pee pad. I feel like I am running out of options. I am not even sure what to make out of this behavior either to be quite frank, I don't know what other advice to turn to. I am hoping someone has had a similar experience to mine and could give some input....

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Hello, edit next day 11/21/23

So.... after reading all the comments I want to say thank you to everyone for your input. Here is some things I guess I need to be more clear on and an update on what happened today.

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1. I do have a 3-ish inch shallow and non shallow dept for the open boxes and I did have the closed litter box shallow, then I decided to take some out to see if that was the issue, it was not. Last night I decided to take out the old litter, clean the box, and play with him in that area. He did pee in it! But unfortunately when I woke up this morning, he pooped right next to it despite his sister not using it....
2. His sister is not aggressive towards him whatsoever. She does not fight for anything with him besides maybe a spot on the couch to sleep. If anything she mostly tries to avoid him until he starts crying for her to play.

Now for the main update...

I was letting his sister play with a luggage bag I have in my room, he was not interested in it at all when it was in my room. I brought it out for the both of them to play/get distracted with as I did my night routine. As I wake up to check on them, I see that it was peed in. Assuming it's him, I did not punish him at all but I did cry. As I was getting ready for work in the morning his sister cat was with my boyfriend and he was playing inside the luggage still and I saw him pee on it and that was my confirmation this is definitely middening now as u/thegainfulgardener pointed out.... thank you.

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Here is the link for middening information for anyone in the now or future who feels they are struggling with the same situation.

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https://www.thecatbehaviorclinic.com/defecating-or-middening