Kitten pooing in house?

[CurlyWurlyCatcher]

We have a kitten and have had him about 8 weeks now. He was toilet trained before we got him. We did the normal routine of keeping him in one room with a litter tray until we were sure he was using it properly, then we slowly introduced him to the rest of the house. All was still fine with the litter tray, no issues at all for the first 3 weeks.

All of a sudden about 5 weeks ago, he started pooing on the carpet behind the TV. We thought that maybe he wanted more privacy so we moved the litter tray to a quiet part of the house. It worked for a day, but then he started pooing on the carpet again. This went on for a few days. We ended up shutting him out of this room, in case he was confused and thought that this room was an acceptable litter tray.

Instead he just chose a different carpet. We tried changing the brand of cat litter, changing the litter completely twice a day (expensive and still didn’t work), we even got his health checked at the vets.

His health check came back fine and nothing makes a difference. The only thing that works is shutting him in the kitchen and utility room with his litter tray. In which case he will use the litter tray. We have praised him loads and rewarded him for using the litter tray but it makes no difference. The strange part is that he will use his litter tray most days, he just chooses to poo on the carpet too.
We love him and he’s so settled in our family, super chilled and friendly, sleeps on my daughter’s bed and will sit with her for hours.

Why is he destroying our carpets?! Help us please wise ones!

Are you cleaning with an enzyme cleaner to totally break down and get rid of the smell?

Apart from that no tips, sorry!

When I brought my two home at around 10 weeks, I only had one litter tray. It had fragranced litter and one of the kittens wouldn't use it. She went behind a filing cabinet. I then got a seed tray and filled it with other non fragranced litter and placed it on the spot she had used behind the filing cabinet. She used it religiously from then on. She must have felt more screened or something. So I now have two litter trays. She let me know where her preference was. The boy isn't as sensitive.

Thank you both for your responses. We clean the litter tray properly once every few days now as we are using liners (non fragranced although we tried fragranced too which made no difference). I will look for an enzyme cleaner and try that.
We’re fast running out of options, he is staining all of our carpets
Rehoming him isn’t an option - unless he was desperately unhappy with us for any reason, but he seems dead chilled and happy, he just keeps pooing on the carpets (never the wooden floor or tiles).
Oh well, I’m off to google more ideas. Thank you!

We had the same problem just a couple of weeks ago with our kittens -the boy kept pooing behind the sofa and in one corner of the room. He would happily use his tray sometimes so think he was just getting caught short or fancied a bit more privacy. I was worried he would get used to the texture of carpet as being a good toilet so bought some carpet protector roll from amazon. It’s the stuff builders us eto protect carpet when working inside. It cost about £10 and we have laid it behind the sofa. They don’t seem to mind walking on it but he hasn’t once gone outside his litter tray since.

I was cleaning up with an enzyme cleaner each time but this seems to have broken the habit (hopefully!) and has the benefit of protecting carpets even if there is an occasional accident.

Thank you Jasper, I have just ordered some to try so we will see. The problem I have is that he seems to choose any room that he can get to, so I will have to just close all of the other doors for now otherwise I will need a whole lot of carpet protector