How to get kitten to use litter box & not floor!

Mink

I acquired a new 7-8wk old kitten on the weekend having found her sitting on my car battery when I lifted the hood after hearing strange mewing noises!

She's quite tame but she is a stray who wandered into my garden/driveway so she may have been outdoors for ages.

I have another older cat who uses a litter tray with silicone cat litter (they are large white crystals). I got another tray with the same litter for the kitten to have in her room but she keeps going on the floor (wood floors). I've tried putting her poo into the litter tray & bringing her to smell it so she gets the idea, but to no avail.

Should I just try her with a more gravelly litter or bring in some soil from outside & sprinkle it on top. Any tips would be great.

Also my own cat is not best pleased by the new arrival & hisses at her & then sulks for hours (she was an only-cat all her life & she's 5/6). Will she eventually get over having another cat around & go back to normal?

Crafty-Chel

hi, it took my older cats about 2 months to get used to my new kitten so dont worry about it. maybe you should try a different litter and try spraying some cat nip in the tray (usually only works for male cats but mite help) iv never had this problem so i cant really suggest much more but im sure some1 here will help.

View Profile

Not to come across curt, but why not let her just crap outside like she has been up to now?
If she's not a house cat then why use a litter tray?

PCros

Are you sure the kitten is that young? It will need milk replacement as there is no mother around.

Its not unusual for a kitten of that age to make mistakes sure one of my kittens took alot longer than that to be 100% litter trained. Try the wood pellets as they smell more natural.

Also the important bit is to scrub with floor cleaner the area where your kitten went as they have a great smelling powers and will return to the exact spot if they can smell their previous poo/pee.

Best of luck and good on you for taking her in.:)

PCros

View Profile wrote: »

Not to come across curt, but why not let her just crap outside like she has been up to now?
If she's not a house cat then why use a litter tray?

A cat at that age would not last along time outside. It would only be safe for a cat 9 months+ to be let outside.

annefitzy

I would also put some earth on top of the the woodies or some peatmoss if she is used to the earth smell it will be a familiar smell for her...also wast the floor with som bio soap powder.....another tip use a brand new litter tray for the kitten as plastic stuff do tend to hold the smell no matter how much we scrub they smell clean to us but not to cats..
Good luck and well done for giving kitty a home

Mink

PCros wrote: »

Are you sure the kitten is that young? It will need milk replacement as there is no mother around.

Its not unusual for a kitten of that age to make mistakes sure one of my kittens took alot longer than that to be 100% litter trained. Try the wood pellets as they smell more natural.

Also the important bit is to scrub with floor cleaner the area where your kitten went as they have a great smelling powers and will return to the exact spot if they can smell their previous poo/pee.

Best of luck and good on you for taking her in.:)

Well I took her to some ladies at OSPCA & they weighed her & estimated 7-8 wks. When she's cuddling up she starts kneading & then continuously looking for a teat. I had given her some cows milk but I don't think that's good for cats. Will I get some of that Whiska's kitten milk?

Good point on scrubbing the floor - didn't think of that. I'm going to try the wood pellets & also bring in a little dirt from outside for good measure & see if that works.

No way I'm letting her out as she'd run off, get lost and be out in the wild again or she'd be knocked down. Going to wait til she's totally settled in. Also, we're not home much during the week so wouldn't be able to let her in and out. Don't want a cat flap for some reason as wouldn't be there to shoo out unwelcome visitors!

Mink

annefitzy wrote: »

I would also put some earth on top of the the woodies or some peatmoss if she is used to the earth smell it will be a familiar smell for her...also wast the floor with som bio soap powder.....another tip use a brand new litter tray for the kitten as plastic stuff do tend to hold the smell no matter how much we scrub they smell clean to us but not to cats..
Good luck and well done for giving kitty a home

Never heard of bio soap powder - do you mean biological washing powder?

PCros

Mink wrote: »

Well I took her to some ladies at OSPCA & they weighed her & estimated 7-8 wks. When she's cuddling up she starts kneading & then continuously looking for a teat. I had given her some cows milk but I don't think that's good for cats. Will I get some of that Whiska's kitten milk?

Nah don't use whiskas milk for kittens that young, you need kitten replacement milk which contains all the nutrients etc that a real cat would would be delivering to her kittens.

http://www.zootoo.com/cats_liquids/kmrkittenreplacementmilk

Also if you google it there are home made recipes for replacement milk.

annefitzy

Mink wrote: »

Never heard of bio soap powder - do you mean biological washing powder?

Yup
It seems to get rid of that lingering smell

PS, lactol a milk formula can be got at most vets or Maxi zoo ect, cimicat is another one or R/C vital... but at your kittens age I would go for the Lactol

Whispered

I had some kittens here and they were going on the floor instead of in a litter tray. I brought in some dirt and they TRIED TO EAT IT :eek:

(sounds disgusting) I scattered litter on the floor in their chosen toilet area and put the litter try beside it. It worked pretty quickly. Once they began to associate going to the toilet with litter, as opposed to a particular corner, it was fine. It probably took 2 days. That was with 6 of them, I don't know if it would be quicker or slower with a single one.

Fair play for taking the kitten in.

Alicat

First thing, don't clean the floor with any product containing ammonia, it smells too similar to pee and she'll end up going there again!

Secondly, when we found our little kitty at 8 weeks (also under the bonnet of a car!) we just kept bringing her to the tray every hour or two, and letting her stand in it. She would go if she needed to or sometimes she'd just walk away. After bringing her repeatedly to the tray she got used to where it was and started to go searching for it by herself when she needed to go.

It might work for your little one

Mink

Ok update - She seems to have copped on to the litter tray. I came home last night & there was an extra poo in the tray. There were a few messes on the floor, cleaned those up & put her in the tray & gentle got her to scratch the litter with her paw. About 5 mins later she had a number 1 & a number 2 in the tray & seems to be using it.

This morning, no messes elsewhere so I think it was a success. I'd gone and bought a big bag of the wood chip litter but the silicone doesn't seem to bother her.

Spoke to a vet nurse re the milk & she said it's fine, just take the dry food & mash it up with some boiled water as she may be having trouble chewing the hard dry food.

I also checked with the nurse if she thought my 6yr old neutered female cat could potentially kill the kitten or hurt her badly & she said no. My older cat does seem incremently more relaxed around her.

Lastly, just to see if anyone has any ideas. She doesn't seem to clean herself properly & I can feel grit & grease coming off her fur when I pet her. Again cleaning is something they learn off their mothers. Or do ye think as she relaxes more she'll just start doing it herself?

Whispered

Thats good news.

With regards to cleaning, I think you can use a slightly warm damp towel (think cats tongue) and rub her with that.

Mink

As a thanks for all the help, here's a pic of the little scut, whom we have called Scut! :P

Alicat

She's gorgeous Mink!

Ours took a little while to get used to cleaning herself too. For the first month or two it kinda seemed like she was just dribbling on herself, not actually cleaning :pac: Scut will learn soon enough, it's only natural!

cosnochta

She's identical to our little kitten. She was found abandoned in a car park, but luckily someone brought her to my vet and I offered her a home. Maybe they're littermates!!

Mink

Aww she's gorgeous. Lovely brown eyes. You never know cos like I said, my kitten looked like she had travelled in a car as she was so dirty with car dust so she could be from anywhere really.
The farmer beside me says there is a mother cat & more kittens somewhere nearby. If I see them I'm going to get one of those traps from ISPCA so they can be caught & neutered.