How to get cat to stop howling at my door during the night?

Question

About 6 months ago I had to stop letting my cats into my room because one pees everywhere on everything when I leave my door open, and the other (understandably) can’t hold his bladder all night. So I opted to keep them both out of my room now.

As soon as I started keeping them out my forest cat was fine, she would cry a bit but it was no big deal. My Maine coon lost his mind... he yowls and punches my door for hours. He will get bored and leave only to come back again not too long later. He does it whenever I am behind a closed door now for any reason (changing clothes, bathroom, but not when I leave the house).

I have tried everything. I’ve ignored him for months now, put trays of water outside my door, and put tape on the door. He will punch around the tape, cry anyway even though I completely ignore him, and the trays of water have been a pain to maintain for the last 3 months. The water did work for a little while but then he stopped caring about getting wet...

I want something that will work to get him away from my door. He has food in tubes out at all times (he has to hit them to get the food out), water fountains, a play mate, lots of toys...

Edit: apologies. My cat is a male 3 years old and has been neutered since 8 months. The female is also spayed.

Answer 1

To me the one cat's behavior is so extreme, I wonder if it might have separation anxiety. People are generally aware that dogs can have separation anxiety, but it's also possible for cats to have it. I mention this possibility because from my experience, it's pretty abnormal for a cat to be so desperate that it'll put up with being wet to try to get to you, and that it doesn't seem to tolerate being separated from you at all. I would talk to your vet regarding this behavior, and they may be willing to prescribe an anti-anxiety medication.

Another option is to simply put another litterbox inside your bedroom, and keep your one cat in the room with you. The only other thing besides what you're already doing, that I've heard of people doing to stop this problem is to get a motion activated air sprayer and place it outside your door. Cats hate the noise, and so normally run from it. However, since your cat is ignoring things it normally dislikes in order to continue this behavior, I'm not sure that this method would be effective either.