kitten pooing in random places

[SnailWhaleTail]

Hello,

We have a 10 wk old kitten (got from a friend) who is very happy and healthy but she will not poo in her litter tray.

I am getting a bit fed up of poo in the middle of the kitchen floor so am wondering if there is anything in particular I could be doing to encourage her to use the litter tray?

BTW she wees in the tray and I have been putting the poo that I find on the floor in the tray to try and demonstrate where she should be going!

Thanks,

Some of them are very fussy about what kind of litter you use.

What are you using at the moment?

Hello,

its that compressed sawdust pellet stuff; she will use it for wees (apart from a couple on my bed!) but has only had 1 poo in it so far.

Do you think she's just getting caught short as it were? I could understand that for the poos upstairs but the kitchen is 2 meters from where the litter tray is.

Thanks Bella

How close is the litter tray to her food? My cats pooed and weed places they shouldn't for quite a time after I got them at 13 weeks old. It drove me demented until they were neutered and able to go outside. Then I read somewhere that they don't like to use the tray if it is near their food. Ideally, the tray should be in another room although that was not practical for me as I had to keep them in the kitchen at night so the tray and food had to be in there too. But certainly try putting the tray as far from where you feed her as possible.

I have a persian and she was (and still is to a certain extent) a real pain about this. She had to have two litter boxes one for wee, one for poo and even then it was hit and miss whether she used the box for pooing, all her life she has pooed in random places all over the house, to the extent that she was turfed outside all night because she wouldn't use a litter tray but preferred my landing carpet.

She's better now (but she's 12, I let her stay in all night because I don't like her to be cold, but I do generally boot her outside from about 7.00 till bedtime, then when I call her in at bedtime I give her a very stern talking to about not pooing on the floor it's worked so far. I also only let her access to the kitchen and dining room as they have tiled floors so if she does decide to make a mess it's easily cleaned and not on the landing carpet.

Sorry that probably wasn't much use - but you could try the two litter box thing and see if it works.

Hey Snail

You could maybe try keeping her in one room with her litter tray for a bit? Or is the litter tray in the kitchen?

Litter tray is is downstairs loo which is just off the conservatory. Her food is in the conservatory, about 2 meters from the tray.

Last night she weed on my bed and pood in the au pairs room.

She could be shut in the conservatory / downstairs loo overnight I was just worried she'd cry all night.

I don't think she'll cry all night, but I do think she's maybe a bit confused. Aren't we all!!

Thing is, once you get the smell of wee/poo into everything it's going to be very hard for her to understand where to go.

I'd keep her in one room with a litter tray, even just for a couple of weeks till she gets the hang of it.

You can buy a special spray which puts the cat off doing its business where you don't want it. I used it, spraying after I had cleaned up the mess. It unfortunately does not smell that nice to the human nose either, but I think it did prevent my cats from weeing/pooing there again. The thing is, once they have used a place, eg the bed, once, if they can still smell traces of themselves in that place, they will use it again. You have to replace their scent with another one.

I am not sure 2 metres is sufficiently far enough away tbh.

Shutting the cat in one room all night is fine as long as it is a reasonable temperature all night. She may miaow a bit, but she will soon settle.

to clean the smell to put her off from going there again clean with washing powder. The enzymes in it help to remove the odour which will encourage her to return to the same place.

could you try putting a litter tray in the kitchen if that is where she is going.