How can you tell the difference between cat pee and dog pee on carpet?

Question

We have 2 dogs and 2 cats and we are not sure which one is peeing on our carpet. We are hoping someone can tell us a means to determine if it is a cat pee OR dog pee. Does it smell or look (i.e. stain) different? Are there test kits to determine this?

Second part to the question: Does anyone have any other ideas for how to identify which specific animal is peeing on the carpet? We've had all 4 of these animals for years and have no reason to suspect one of them over another. I've thought of video taping for long periods of time to catch the culprit, but video tapes don't run for more than a few hours and the pee only happens every few days at most, so this would be a difficult method.

Any and all intelligent solutions would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

if you notice an "ammonia" smell it is one of the cats.....if not ... one of the dogs....
as to the second part of your question....if the animal pees in the same spot there is an easy solution...go to wal-mart or any hunting/fishing store and buy a "wildlife" camera...they are used to put on a deer trail or what ever....they are motion activated....so if the peeing takes place in the same spot just set it up close to the location of the offense and just wait...you will catch the culprit.....
good luck

Answer 2

Please don't rub your kitty's nose in her urine. No animal deserves that and there are many ways to modify their behavior without that kind of humiliation. Once they get past a certain age, cats don't have 'scruff' on the back of their neck, so you ARE grabbing a place that hurts them. In addition to MrsLititia's answer, I wanted to add: If she is putting her head in the litter box first, it sounds like she is well-aware of what she is supposed to do in there. It could be that the litter box is too dirty for her, so behind the recliner seems better to her. Try putting the third, unused litterbox behind the recliner where she likes to pee. Perhaps she might adopt that as "her box" and feel better about using it. I have a female cat who will pee on clothes/towels on the bathroom floor if we leave them there--Nowhere else in the house, though. She does the same thing... Head goes in the litterbox for a second and then she starts to creep around like she's thinking about where else to pee. A few times when she was sticking her head in the box, I'd just gently nudge her on the rump with my foot and she would get in it & go. Another odd thing which may or may not be helpful: I keep one litter box IN the bathroom. When my boy cat was being bad about peeing outside the litterbox, my husband and I would each take him to the bathroom with us every time we went and close him in with us. We'd talk to him while we went potty and eventually, he started using his potty while we used our potty!!! Three years later, he still follows each of us into the bathroom almost every time & goes into the litterbox when one of us uses the toilet. Sometimes he just sits there for a second, sometimes he goes potty. But for some reason he just really likes to come in the bathroom with us. Maybe it makes him feel special? (Another thing that could be a factor is the size of the box vs the size of your cat? Could it be hard for her to turn around in there? Have you eliminated all of those obvious factors?)

Answer 3

Cat pee is stronger smelling. There also would generally be a smaller stain than would happen with a dog.

Answer 4

Cats have a much stronger smell to their pee, and would produce less liquid at a time than a dog. If a male dog, would be more aimed at something. Good luck with your dilema.

Answer 5

cat pee stinks alot moreyou can reall only smell dog pee if you have to put your nose to the carpet and there pee is a light yellow

Answer 6

If it screams at you it's cat urine.
Moth balls keep animals out of my garden may be you can hide a few around the house. Of couorse you'll have to smell them too.
Another thing do you keep the litter boxes clean.
Are the cats angry with you. They will get even. Dogs do too.

Answer 7

Cat pee smells like ammonia... so if it doesn't smell like anything but pee, its your dogs. If it is overwhelming stench of ammonia its cat.

Answer 8

Have a talk with your vet. Some pets urinate more with diabeties. Ours couldn't make it to the litter box soon enough sometimes.

Answer 9

dogs smells worse