New male cat does not use the box

My cat poops and pees outside the box. I just adopted two new cats, one female, the other a male. The male is 2 years old and does not use the litter box.

My other two cats have no problems. I have two litter boxes, both covered. Is there any solution?? Help!

My Thoughts: My first thought is: I have more questions than answers based on the information you've given, so bear with me!

So, let's begin. Does he have a medical problem? You don't say whether or not he had a litter box issue prior to your adopting him. Did he? Has he been examined thoroughly by a qualified veterinarian who has been told about his litter box problems?

Did you bring the new cats to your veterinarian to have them checked out prior to bringing them home? If not, did you call the vet who most recently examined him to get an opinion?

If he checks out healthy (being sure his urinary tract is healthy), and he did not have this problem prior to his arrival at your home, I would be curious about the introduction process.

Cats usually hate abrupt changes, and they don't like being moved. They often take a long time to get used to house mates. So, he's got two things working against him since he's been moved to a new territory, but he can't claim that territory since there are others already there. Perplexing for him I'm sure.

The next questions are:

Did you do an abrupt introduction or an isolation/slow introduction. If I'm reading you right, you now have four cats (two new and two existing residents).

Introductions should be done slllooooowwwwwlllyyy. Was he homed with this new female before? Do they get along? Maybe she is agitating him, not the others.

Are the two new cats isolated so you can do a proper and slow introduction to the household and the existing resident cats?

I would keep the new cats in a room or section of the house with their own litter boxes, toys, sleeping areas, and hopefully a nice window.

The introduction process should last at least several days and possibly a couple of weeks or more, depending upon circumstances. If you'd like a good tutorial on this, Franny has one at about.com, I can look up the URL for you.

I'm guessing that everybody was thrown together? That's not the way I'd do it. You should always isolate first.

Other things to consider:

Is he neutered?

Maybe he doesn't like covered litter boxes?

Maybe he doesn't like the box location?

Four cats requires five litter boxes, based on the recommended one plus one rule. I'd personally say that three large boxes, cleaned at least once a day would do it for four cats, but the rule calls for five. That is, of course, after the initial introduction period and everyone is living in the same space.

Feliway is said to sometimes calm cats, reduce aggression and box problems. It does not work in every case, but it comes highly recommended by experts and cat owners, including our own CLO readers.

If you can provide more information based on my questions above, we might be able to help a bit more.

-Kurt

P.S. If anyone else has any thoughts, please bring 'em on.