We recently adopted m/f siblings who are approximately 12 weeks old. Unfortunately their mum died after being hit by a car when they were only a few weeks old so they've had a tough start in life and, although the cat shelter which initially took them in placed them in a foster home with an adult female cat, they have still had the lack of having their own mum to teach them.
Our issue is with the boy who has been slower to pick up on how to do things, particularly with using the litter tray correctly. He just can't get the hang of digging a hole, doing a wee/poo, then covering it up. He tries and tries but hasn't actually done it properly once (and now his sister actually notices when he does a poo, jumps into the tray straight after him, and covers it up for him!). This wasn't too much of an issue until yesterday, when in his attempt to cover it up he actually flicked the poo all over himself and around the kitchen, then jumped out and walked around with poo on his feet. The smell was awful and it wasn't nice for him or us to clean him up.
Does anyone have any tips on how to teach him to use the litter tray correctly? Until now, I've just left him, thinking that with practise he would work it out - but he's still no closer to being able to do it. I had hoped that he would learn from watching his sister - but again, this doesn't seem to have helped. I've tried looking online for tips but all I can find is advice for trying to get your kitten used to using a litter tray in the first place, which isn't the issue here! He needs to be able to dig a hole of an appropriate size, then actually go in the hole he's dug (not next to it/on the other side of the tray) and then cover it up correctly. At the moment he just scratches everywhere, including up the sides of the walls, when trying to cover it up, but doesn't use the litter close to where he has been. The issue applies to both wees and poos, but it is only the poos I'm concerned about!
Thank you for any ideas on this unusual problem!