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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Two kittens - litter tray problem

7 replies

margaritasbythesea · 10/01/2020 09:56

We have two 7 month old kittens, brother and sister (neutered and spayed). We want them to be house cats although where we live is relatively safe for cats and they have had the right vaccines to go out.

The kittens get on well, play alot, groom each other, sleep together. If anything I would say the little girl cat is dominant (braver, faster, sleeps in higher places during the day, dominates new toys and boxes etc) although the males is bigger.

Boy cat has always used the litter tray perfectly, but also is clealy possessive of them. He pees in them as soon as they are clean and often goes to look at the girl if she's going.

Girl cat has always been erratic, mostly because of him we think. Sometimes she's spot on with them, but often not. She's clearly a bit weird about them. For example, she'll often go into a corner she pees in and look at me until I take her out and put her in a tray, where she will then pee. Usually it's just peeing that's the problem but I came down to a poo in the corner this morning, and it looks like the problem is just not going to resolve itself. We've had the kittens since 6 weeks old as there mother was killed and it's been like this off and on.

We clean the trays frequently. I remove poo pretty much instantly. We can't put a tray in her favourite peeing corner as it's inaccessible and too small. We have three in different locations. We had four before but it made no difference.

We're starting to think we'll have to make them outdoor cats, but I would like to feel confident we had tried everything else first.

Any ideas?

Compulsory Kitty pic attached!

OP posts:
margaritasbythesea · 10/01/2020 16:25

Please!

OP posts:
JanuaryIsNotTheOnlyMonth · 10/01/2020 17:14

No guarantees, but I've read that cats don't like to pee where they eat, so you could try putting a food bowl in the awkward corner rather than a litter tray.

Mia184 · 10/01/2020 19:12

Have you cleaned the corner she likes pee in with an enzyme cleaner? If not, you should do so. Then I would put some treats in that corner - cats don‘t like to pee where they eat.
Have you tried a different litter and maybe a different type of litter tray?

margaritasbythesea · 10/01/2020 20:48

I have tried the enzyme spray and I put silver paper and water down in her favourite corner today but she just chose another one.
Treats is a good idea.

I think I might get one of the trays that is covered and change the litter in them all as soon as I see them used.

OP posts:
Ells92 · 11/01/2020 12:38

Lovely kitties!!

I have two 8 month old kittens but when they were a bit younger i used to come home after work at night to find a poo in the corner of the room or something. The only things i would suggest is if you notice any strange behaviour like the cat going into a corner or acting a bit sheepish then plonk them straight into the tray, make sure it is nice and clean and well away from food. Also, i was recommended by the vet to have 2 x trays per cat (excessive as i have 4 cats but do not have room for 8 trays ha ha) maybe sticking an extra tray in a different room may help?

I'm sure they will grow out of it eventually!

margaritasbythesea · 11/01/2020 14:46

Thanks. I'll keep absolutely on top of cleaning the litter and maybe stick another tray elsewhere, fiddle about with it and be patient.

OP posts:
StCharlotte · 11/01/2020 18:30

I've always had pairs of siblings and have only used one litter tray with no issues. In fact I was looking after three extra cats for a while and still only used one between five. It was fine (although a bit like painting the Forth Bridge in terms of emptying and cleaning etc!).

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