litter tray situation about to send me round the twist!

[PinkPoinsettias]

ok, so at the end of summer a female stray i'd been feeding moved herself and her 4 kittens into the house, after much effort we managed to convince her to use a litter tray as opposed to the kitchen counters [vomit] and she took to it really well once she grasped the concept.

one of those kittens still lives with us as well and we've never had problems with him using the tray, they picked it up straight away.

momma cat has since had 4 more kittens who all use the tray too.... 3 of them are going to their new homes within the next few weeks and one is staying.

the problem is, neither mother cat or the 6 month old will go outside to go toilet..... i'm 35 weeks pregnant and cleaning the litter out completely 1/2 times a day as it's completely filthy, we have no rubbish collection so have 20 euros worth of bags full of litter to bring to the dump and i'm buying 2/3 bags of litter a week when we've barely got money to pay the bills this month

i know things will improve a little once 3 of the kittens are gone but right now the problem is that both mother and kittren are coming in from outside to go toilet

i've tried booting them out when they go at the tray but they often just sit on the step indefinitely til they can get back into it, and tbh, with 2 toddlers and a huge bump i often don't even notice them going for the tray... i just notice the smell when it's been used!

if i put the tray outside during the day they poo on the floor where it's usually kept (not immediately to be fair, only once they get desperate)

i can't kick momma cat out for hours as she'd get hysterical not being able to get into the kittens and i'm a bit nervous about booting the kitten out for too long as his littermate who we'd kept as well got himself run over before christmas and i felt so guilty as i'd booted him out to go toilet

i've tried putting used litter at the end of the garden and showing it to them but to no avail.

i know.... it's intensly boring but i'm seriously losing my mind here.

this evening the 6 month old was out for hours, came in, i turned round and got the food from the cupboard and when i looked round he was in the tray!

Your gonna have a problem with this. Our stray mother and her kitten were litter trained at cats protection before they came to us and come inside to use the tray. I think your just gonna have to put up with it but maybe someone will be along soon to help with better ideas..

BTW, Get mother cat spayed before she has ANOTHER litter of kittens. Contact the PDSA if you can't afford it.

we're just waiting for her to finish feeding this lot to do it... vets refuse to spay while they're still nursing which is how she ended up preg again. didn't feel right to spay her when she was preg.... i wouldn't abort myself so didn't feel i could do that to her iyswim?

she's a tiny wee thing though, must have gotton preg at 5/6 months as her kitten is bigger than her already!

hopefully someone has a foolproof way of training them to go outisde as the thought of putting up with it much longer depresses me!

just bumping for the vet nurses ;) not a cat woman myself! However, talk to your vet re a contraceptive injection for the cat to make sure she doesn't get pregnant again before the op.

Yeh we had that with the foster mum we had in. She was still feeding her kitten into its 11th week so we had to send her away for a hol to let the milk dry up.
She has to feed them till 8 weeks after that they can be rehomed so if she's still feeding the kitten and its older and you want to get her spayed (I dont agree with spaying while pregnant either btw unles its a medical thing) take the kitten away for a week (keep it locked in another part of the house) and milk should dry up then she can be spayed.

Good luck on the tray front. Wish I could get my 2 to listen! lol

well she's not gone into heat yet unlike last time and the kittens are going off over the next few weeks so we should be good this time. i hope! dp has taken the cat infestation fairly well so far but another 4 might tip him over the edge, lol.

Yeh probably. My DP agreed to let us foster either 2 kittens or 1 adult cat and wasn't best pleased when I agreed to foster a mum and her 4 3 week old kittens!! LMAO

the kitten we're keeping is the biggest of the litter and seems less interested in milk already so hopefully i can persuade him to give up the milk without too much bother.... unlike the last 2 who still nursed til 2 weeks before she gave birth again

may have to start another thread 'what's the longest lasting and cheapest compostable litter' if i can't find someone who has found a way to convince them to go outside

Tescos own - not the woodchip.

Ours lated roughly 3 weeks with 3 adult cats and 4 kittens. Since all have now gown except for my 2 and one kitten (still looking btw ) it now lasts roughly 4 weeks. only thing is it won't be compostable. The wood one would though?

worst thing was she moved the first litter in while dp was away for the weekend so i think he's still not totally convinced i didn't bring them from the nest myself! (had been checking on them before as i knew where she had them stashed)

good for you for fostering... think i'd be heartbroken giving them away again after a few weeks... find it hard enough trying not to bond too much with these kittens... and 2 of them are only going 500m down the road!

the tescos own i buy when i'm close to tescos and i do find it lasts a little longer than the cheap lidl stuff but even so a bag lasts about 3/4 days

i find i have to change it completely daily as they pee in it so much its saturated within less than 24 hours.

Get an extra litter box (we had 3 in our house at one point) and try to clean it every 2 days properly but if you can cope with it. Don some gloves and pooper scooper each night. If you can't do that dont worry as it should still last 2 days with 2 litter boxes.

Hey I make sure I get regular updates on my fosters. The mother has moved in with a friend so I get updates from her personally but I made the owners of the kittens register at www.rescuehelpersunite.co.uk and they update me via there.

i don't blame you, i've rehomed all of these with people we know and can ask for updates... 2 of them are going to my friends dad who lives at the corner of our road so i'll still see them tonnes.

i did try not to get attached but it's damn near impossible isn't it?

will try the extra tray idea..... will have to figure out somewhere to put it [eyes cluttered house with trepidation]

think i'll give the wood litter a go too if i can buy some loacally, it's the carting all the used stuff to the dump that's the really awful part... and having to pay to dump it!

worst part of all this is we live in the middle of the countryside with fields on 3 sides of us! they should be outdoor cats!

I had a similar problem with last new cat and in the end put the litter tray outside and used that spray bleach stuff all over the area where the litter tray was kept. If there is any trace of a smell of poo or wee left they will keep using that area as a toilet - and if you can replace the smell with something strong, like bleach, so much the better.

If all else fails you can get litter trays with lids and a door to go in, (sort of like a cat cage thing)which does help smell-wise, but I should persist while you can before the baby arrives.