Help with Cat Litter Training, Please

pinkie_pie

Took in two kittens a few weeks ago (I think they are nearly 12 weeks). The girl kitten pickd up the litter tray quite quickly but the boy would pee on the doormat, in their bed, or on their blankets.

I took them all away and reinforcd the litter tray, and it stopped. I planned on letting them in the rest of the house but then found they had fleas so kept them restrained to the lounge, and i believe it has been successfully treated.

So today I let them in the rest of the house - with a small worry theyd pee on the beds or something! So far so good, I've moved their food to the kitchen and shown them where, and I've put one litter tray in the hall downstairs and one upstairs. Is that the best idea?

However, I also put their beds down (thinking that the problem was sorted) and the boy peed in it!!!

Is this due to moving litter tray, or does he associate it with toilet? Should i be worried there will be puddles behind everything? What on earth can i do?

kiraroo

hi

i've been fostering kittens for years and you're doing everything pretty much to the rulebook, which is great. Keeping them in one room and letting them know where their trays are.

The three things I can think you might want to try are:
1 - changing your cat litter. a nice snuggly bed is much more comfortable of kittens' toes than cat litter. So try a different cat litter like a fine gravel type
2 - put a litter tray back where it was originally in your lounge, so that when they are charging round the house and then need a wee they'll know where at least one tray is. And yep you are doing the right thing putting a couple of trays round the house, should always be one tray to one cat ratio
3 - re wash the cat bed and use white wine vinegar. I usually soak blankets with it and then chuck them in the washing machine. It really helps remove any hint of the smell and might need a couple of washes.

Hope this helps

pinkie_pie

Thank you. But ARGH what do i do now??! Followed the advice, which aside from the litter tray back in the old spot was what I was doing (and moved the litter tray back so still one up one down) and removed the bed again. He then peed on the door mat (he's peed on this before when I first had him) so I removed that also - that had been removed since the training.

So there's been a few wee's appearing in the litter trays although I was unsure if it was both cats or just the girl, and now - I went in my room, he ran in and explored and pee'd ALL over my bed, the most massive human size wee I've ever seen. So I poked his nose in it, took him to the litter tray a whole 2 metres away, and dug his feet in. Then two minutes later, he did a poo in the litter tray. ALthough he's never poo'd outside a litter tray anyways.

What on earth do I do now? I've binned the doona, I can't wash it my machine isn't big enough, and it would be cheaper to buy one than pay to go to laundromat, but what if he keeps doing this? The kids rooms I can just about manage to keep closed but my door doesn't actually close and I really don't know what to do!!!

kiraroo

oh goodness please don't put his nose in it. Cats aren't as intelligent as humans, he'll never understand why you've done that to him.

I know it's really frustrating but i think if it were me i would reduce him back to one room of the house. A jump from one room to the whole house is obviously a bit much and he's forgetting where the tray is, simple as that. Cats don't really have the knowledge to be naughty with regards to where they're having a normal wee; spraying to mark something as their territory is different thing which it doesn't sound like he's doing.

I think it really comes down to forgetting where the tray is or a possible urinary tract infection, that's can make cats/kittens wee more often and in unusual places.

Try him back in the lounge, couple of trays, remove all comfy things to wee on, including beds. I would keep an eye on how much water he is drinking if he is producing so many wees just in case he does have an infection