New kitten help!

[user1492621884]

Help!
9 week old kitten, any advice on how to litter train him!
Thanks!

He's only really in the lounge and dining room in the day though.

Just put him in when he woke up- jumps out. Smells poo turns away and goes to squat on another area of the carpet! Lift him up put in tray- jumps out.

My girl still poos outside of her tray and she's 7 years old! I found her when she was 4 weeks old and litter trained her - painful job - but she has point blank refused to poo in the tray. I gave up trying a long time ago. Luckily, my floors are tiled, so easy to clean. Mind you my old boy, now gone, spent many a happy moment peeing on my bedroom carpet, which had to be removed in the end.

I think some cats just have a certain mind set and are very contrary

Just a thought, do you think he is protesting about his name?

His eyes should be changing colour at 9 weeks. Are they pure blue?.

Hmm. Tricky one. I think you need behaviourist type advice. Are you using an enzyme busting cleaner? As soon as he's weed or pood somewhere/? Has to be the proper stuff from the pet shop ideally to remove all traces of smell.

Protesting about his name?! Do they do that?!

Yeah I got a spray cleaner/repellent from pets at home that gets rid of stains and smells so they can't smell their doings.

Fluffy they are not pure blue no.

Where do I go for behaviour advice for a 9 week old kitten?

I personally wouldn’t bother, this kitten just hasn’t learnt yet. He’s only a baby.

It’s litter training 101 from you because mum hasn’t had chance to teach him anything yet.

It’s like expecting a 12 month old human to know how to use the toilet.

I've put some newspapers and a bit of litter in the box now the one in the lounge.

He was just scratching at the carpet and looked like he was gonna wee so plopped him in the box and he didn't immediately jump out 👏🏼!!

Aw bless him you’ll get there OP.

In terms of behaviour advice, google is your best bet but I think most of what you can find has been covered on the thread.

Keep on with the vet to rule out health though, I very much doubt it’s because he is lazy!

I was a bit defensive to be honest when she said lazy I did say he's 9 weeks old, gps don't say 2 year old children are lazy when toilet training do they

He's not jumping out the tray now so we are making progress I think. It'll take time I suppose. I just didn't want to end up with piddling cat wee all over my house and furniture!

Thank you all so much for your advice and help, it really is appreciated

Get this.....

He just jumped in litter tray...... sniffed....Scratch scratch..... jumps out and pisses on the carpet right next to the tray right next to the puppy pad 😒😒😒

Can you put puppy pads - without litter - in the litter tray and see what happens? Alternatively, do you have a garden so that, if you install a cat flap, he can use that instead?

I had a cat who was a real pain to litter train, though he was extremely intelligent (by cat standards). Once I installed a cat flap he used the garden instead.

Could it be the litter itself he doesn't like? You could try wood chip litter. I found it a bit of a PITA when I used it briefly (got some free for some reason I can't remember) as the cats trod sawdust all over the place, but if it gets him using the tray it might be worth it.

He's too young to use the garden yet he's not had his vaccinations.

Can't install a cap flap - renting.

He wants to scratch over his wee/poo as he tries to do this on the floor so don't think a puppy pad will work in the tray without litter.
I have 3 bags of litter I'm getting fed up of buying it!
Will try wood chip, thank you x

Had a few problems training our wee fella, but he did get there in the end. Things that seemed to help:
Confining him to the conservatory when we went out, and only allowing him access to the lounge when someone was there to keep an eye out. This was for a good 3 weeks. (Obvs plenty of toys etc in there for him and he hits tonnes of attention from us whenever he wanted).
Enzyme spray then peppermint & lemon oil in areas he'd previously soiled.
Also tinfoil sheets in the corners we didn't want him to go in.
Relatively thin layer of cat litter (he only liked the paper pellets) and 2 trays in opposite sides of the conservatory to his food.
Arranging boxes/furniture to make his litter trays more secluded.
Putting him in the litter tray after his am and pm wet food meals (had access to biscuits all the time) and also if we started seeing him squat, and doing it on as calm a manner as possible.

He's now nearly 6 months old and has access to the whole house and outside and uses just the one litter tray. He took about a month to be reliably trained - and has only had one lapse in the front room (which I suspect was more of a marking-incident, which shouldn't happen now he's been castrated).
Good luck!!

Sorry - on phone and all my paragraphs have disappeared!

Thank you for replying!

We put Louie in the downstairs loo when we go out/bedtime. It's not big enough to be able to separate the litter tray and food but we put them opposite ends.

Would the kitchen be better do you think when we go out and bathroom at night?
I don't want to keep him locked up it breaks my heart.

I've put my Bluetooth speaker in again with calming cat music from Spotify on it and he hasn't meowed for ages. Hopefully he's work out from playing for ages bless him.

We managed to catch him squatting this evening and put him in the tray and he done a wee. He then jumped out and started scratching the floor like he was trying to cover it up on the floor 🤷‍♀️ I put him back and used his paws to cover it and he's been sniffing round it as well so maybe he's getting used to the smell.

Tin foil is a great idea thank you I'll try that in the morning.

Where do I go for behaviour advice for a 9 week old kitten?

Your local cats protection will have a help line, it might only be for a couple of hours a week.

As an organisation they sponsor PhD students working on cat behaviour so get copies of papers and up to date research.

I was joking about his name, it just seemed ironic that a Louie was sleeping by the loo and not using his tray

Try a pad in the litter tray with litter over half of it. It seems like he knows what to do but maybe doesn't like the feel of the litter.

Litter is supposed to mimic soil because that’s what they’d dig in normally.

Woodchips very big for little paws.

Got up and he's pooed in his bed 😟

Oh, dear. Are his poos normal, i.e. solid?

Yeah solid poos.

It's so bizarre that he looks for other places to do his business but scratches to cover up but won't do it in the tray!

I hate shutting him up at night but until he's fully litter trained I can't have him soiling everywhere in my house. He's been sniffing the tin foil of where he's been soiling and is framing up for something I think.

I've put him in the tray and surprise surprise.......JUMPS OUT!

This is going to end up in classics.

So he has pooed i his bed twice - try litter in the bed?