Início » How Often Do Cats Pee? What’s Ideal Based on My Experience with 10+ Cats

How Often Do Cats Pee? What’s Ideal Based on My Experience with 10+ Cats

September 1, 2023 by Elise Xavier | Updated: September 1, 2023 – 1 Comment

I’ve taken care of quite a lot of cats over the years. Some of these stayed with me in my home, others were rehomed with my brother, I’ve cat sat for a number of friends and family members as well.

Basically, loads of cats. And while they definitely don’t all pee the same number of times a day, I would say it’s good to keep an eye on how much they are peeing because it can tell you a few things.

Petmate Booda Dome Litter Box – Amazon / eBay

The two most important of these are (in my opinion):

If they’re drinking enough water If they might have a UTI

The rule of thumb for me is if a cat is peeing around 2-3 times a day, you’re pretty golden.

If they’re only peeing once a day or are peeing every other day, I think that’s a little bit concerning. I’d say they probably need more fluids to keep them as healthy as they can be.

If they’re peeing 4, 5, 6, times a day or even more, I’d get them checked out, just in case, it’s a UTI.

I’ve seen a number of articles online say that cats can pee up to 4 times a day. I’d say that’s probably cause for zero concern for me if the cat is a kitten.

But if the cat is older, I’d kinda start to worry a little bit and just go get things checked out if I can.

Okay so just to spell things out a little more, here’s what I’d do for my cats depending on how much they’re peeing. Skip over to your applicable section if you don’t want to read the whole thing.

World’s Best Cat Litter Multiple Cat Quick Clumping Formula – Amazon / Chewy

How Often Do Cats Pee? What’s the Ideal Number of Times Per Day?

My Cat Pees Once a Day or Every Other Day

If you’re cat’s peeing every other day, they almost certainly need to drink more. This isn’t ideal.

If you’re cat’s peeing once a day, that’s nearly fine, but I would still try to work on getting your cat to drink more water.

If you aren’t quite sure how to, check out my article here on how to get cats to drink more water.

There are some things you can buy, some things you can do, but honestly, a number of my cats don’t drink enough water for my liking (I have three boys and two of them don’t drink enough for me to be happy), and in my opinion the only solid bet for making sure they’re hydrated enough is mixing water into food and offering it to them once or twice a day.

Any other way, you’re depending on the whims of your cat to get more water in their system, and let’s be honest, plain old water doesn’t taste the best to even us humans, I’m sure cats feel the same about not caring for regular water either.

So mixing water in with their food (wet or dry, I do this with kibble twice a day) is an excellent way to increase your cat’s intake of water without stress on his or your part.

I give my cats between 1/6 and 1/3 a cup of water mixed in with their meals twice a day. Some of my cats are not fans of too much water mixed in with the kibble.

Usually because they drink more on their own and thus are more full up on water they drank from a bowl earlier. One of my cats doesn’t like drinking a lot at once so he gets 1/6 a cup each time so I’m assured he’ll actually drink the entire thing.

PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Cat & Dog Feeder – Amazon / Chewy

But they get fed kibble by a machine a few times during the day with the Petsafe Simply Feed (I’ve done a review here if you’re curious about my thoughts), so they don’t get all their kibble in two feedings, but as a heads up, when they drink water and eat kibble it will expand in their stomach so be sure to not overdo it so they don’t vomit because they’ve eaten too much and it’s expanded in their bellies. Try to break up the meals over time.

Added bonus, however, they feel fuller with the additional water, which is awesome.

My Cat Pees 2-3 Times a Day

Honestly, I’d say this is the perfect amount. When my cats are peeing 2-3 times a day I’m happy as a clam and don’t sweat it.

Of course ask your vet if you think this is reason for any concern for your particular cat, or if you are worried about anything in particular, but I’d say this is not only normal, but a healthy number of times to go to the little kitty’s box per day.

Modko Modkat Sleek Minimalist Top Entry Litter Box – Amazon / eBay

My Cat Pees 4, 5, 6, or More Times a Day

If you’re above 4 and/or are kind of losing count of how many times a day your cat is using the litter box, I honestly think you should do some investigating.

What type of investigating you ask?

1. Your cat may have a UTI.

First things first, go to the vet and make sure there’s no UTI issues.

That out of the way? Cool, here’s some other reasons your cat may be hitting up the litter box that I can think of off the top of my head:

2. Your cat may be trying to eat their cat litter.

I’ve read so many reviews of especially corn kernel and vegetable cat litter where the pet parents say that their kitties seem to snack on the new litter when they try it.

I personally use exclusively corn kernel and vegetable cat litters and have been for well over a decade.

I’ve used World’s Best Cat Litter’s Multi Cat Formula (review here), and their Low Tracking Formula as well, and there’s a cat litter I get here in Europe that’s called Cat’s Best that I’ve also started to use because it’s easy to get ahold of.

In all my time using these litters, I’ve never once had the issue of my cats chomping on the litter. But I’m not sure if this is because they don’t care or because my litter is in a top entry litter box (I have four of the Modkat Litter Boxes, yes they were expensive but have held up ages and I feel like they are super worth it, I have a review here). That would make it kind of a pain to get to to eat.

It could also be because I immediately mix in the new litter with old litter, so my guess is the pee association would make a cat no longer interested in chomping away at the litter. So you can give that a shot if you think your cats may be snacking on a new litter.

3. Your cat may be have problems using the restroom because another cat is chasing him or her away.

If you have a multi-cat household and you know that your cats sometimes don’t get along – or heck even if they do, sometimes they have squabbles over resources like litter boxes.

This is why it’s ideal to have the rule of thumb number of cat litter boxes in your house based on the number of cats you have: 1 per cat + 1 extra. So in my catihold of 3, I have 4 cat litter boxes.

These are all in different rooms and each cat can scurry off and go to another litter box if a cat is guarding the one he was trying to use before.

Of course in this case, your cat isn’t peeing 4, 5, or 6 times a day, they are merely trying to pee in peace and being disturbed while doing so, so they are visiting the litter box this many times and not actually peeing this often.

If you want any tips on helping your cats to get along, check out my article here – it’s about getting two cats to get along but would apply for any number of cats.

While my three cats are totally bros now (definitely did not start off this way, Avery my first used to be so stressed around any other cat), there’s still some silly ol’ friction around litter boxes sometimes. So I’m glad I have multiple litter boxes, cause this just seems like a common as dirt thing.

Your Thoughts: Cats Pee Frequency Per Day?

That’s it! Let me know how many times a day you think is normal or ideal for cats to pee in a day!

If you can think of any more reasons kitties go to the litter more than necessary in the comments, especially when it’s not a UTI, would also love to know.

And if you’ve ever done anything to make your cat drink more cause you saw how infrequently they peed and thought that just isn’t enough!!

Filed Under: Behaviour, Cat Facts, Feeding, Health, Hydration, Pet Care, Stress & Anxiety

Elise Xavier

Have three pet cats, Avery, Bjorn, & Athos whom I love to bits. Obsessed with cats. Figured I might as well blog about ’em.

Fond of my fluffies? See more of them on my personal blog, E&T. Dig KittyClysm? Check out all the other blogs I pen & photograph.

Elise’s Favourite Tip

One of the most frustrating problems I’ve had to deal with as a pet parent is staying on top of my cats’ desire to play. While this is typically hard to do, toys like these that allow cats to play by themselves make the job one heck of a lot easier.

The hits in my household are ridiculously affordable: cat springs, ball track toys, & kick sticks. I have a slew scattered around the house, so when my cats get bored, even if I’m busy or not even home, my furries are able to actively play.

If you like the posts on KittyClysm, please take a moment to subscribe to the email newsletter! You’ll get notified each time there’s a new post on the blog. Just fill in the form below and hit “Subscribe”!

*Once you’ve subscribed, check your inbox for the “Please confirm your subscription” email & click the orange “Confirm!” button.

Comments

Christina says

September 1, 2023 at 9:35 am

Thank you for this cat pee information. I have one 13 year old male cat. I do get concerned when he is not peeing often enough to suit me, which in my opinion is at least twice a day. It is always related to him not drinking enough water. I always provide him with high quality filtered water from a local “water mill”. I have never given him tap water. The water quality where I live (Clearwater, Florida) is terrible. When Casper starts drinking and peeing less, it is usually because I needed to change out his water and provide a fresh gallon. He drinks out of a tall gallon pitcher so he doesn’t have to bend his neck way down to get at it. As soon as he sees me change the water, he goes right over to it and starts drinking.

He is a kibble-only cat, never has liked canned cat food of any kind. I’ve tried them all. But about once a week I give him a can of Chicken of the Sea tuna in water divided into 2 servings. I add some extra water to it. He gobbles (and drinks) that up and it provides him with some much needed water.

I never thought about adding water to his kibble, but I may try that too.

How Often Do Cats Pee? What’s Ideal Based on My Experience with 10+ Cats

How Often Do Cats Pee? What’s Ideal Based on My Experience with 10+ Cats

How Often Do Cats Pee? What’s the Ideal Number of Times Per Day?