Help! Wierd Kitten Behavior

My new 6 week old kitten has been using his litter box perfectly for the past week.
Today, he jumped up from sleeping on my lap and went into the dining room to potty on the carpet. He tried to cover it and I immediately picked him up and put him in his litter box.
He jumped out of the litter box and scampered off. I proceeded to clean up the carpet, and went to look for him about 5 minutes later.
He was hiding under the bed but had pooped in the corner of the bedroom minutes after having just been in his litter box!
He has never done this before, so I am so confused. He has been using his litter box without fail before this episode.
Any suggestions?

Hello and welcome to TCS!

Your kitten is very very young and isn't going to have everything learned by this stage of his life, usually it is recommended that kittens stay with their mum for at least 10-12 weeks to learn such things as appropriate litterbox behaviour.

Do not fret! Often a new kitten comes home, is shy, and uses the litterbox because it is within sight. Then they start exploring a larger area, forget where the litterbox is or have a sudden need to go, and do their business right where they are.

A kitten this young needs to be confined to one small room with his litterbox in sight. Don't punish him when he gets it wrong, you have a very tiny baby and he doesn't know these things automatically.

If he's peed anywhere he shouldn't, you need to clean the area with an enzyme cleaner such as Nature's Miracle so that it doesn't smell of pee to your cat any more. Keep him in one room until he has learned where to go. If he picks another spot in that room, clean it and move the litterbox there.

Don't worry that this is going to be a long-term problem - he's too little to have learnt this properly and with a bit of training will be able to get it right

Welcome! You just received some good advice . Kitty is way too young to know. You will just need to keep working with him and he will get it.

Thanks for the advice! This is my first kitten so I am very inexperienced!
He was brought to a shelter at 3.5-4 weeks, so I guess a lot of his behaviors were not learned from his mom.
Any suggestions on how to train him to use the box consistantly?

Hi & welcome to TCS!

If this is a change in your kitten's behavior, you may want to take him to the vet to make sure there is nothing physically wrong with him, just to eliminate that possibility.

Secondly, have you recently changed anything about his litterbox? A different litter, a different box, or a change of location? Any of these could confuse him.

When you are not home, make sure to confine him to a smaller room (even a bathroom) with food, water, a place to sleep, toys, and of course, a litterbox. He's so young that he may not be able to find his way to a litterbox fast enough.

When you are at home, you might want to put another box or two around the house so he is closer to one when he needs it. If it has been awhile since he pottied, you may want to take him to a litterbox & put him in it. I have even taken their little paws and helped them to start digging.

I hope this is an isolated incident, and that the vet finds nothing wrong.

If you have any questions about TCS, please feel free to click on my username and send me a private message. I'll be happy to help.

Hola y bienvenido a TCS!..
(Translate: Hi and Welcome to TCS!!!... ..)

See you on the forums!

Hi and Welcome to TCS!

I agree with all the advise you were given! Give it a try.

Welcome to tcs
Kittens take time and patience but I'm sure a lot of the people on the site will be as supportive as they can with their advice.

Welcome Oliver and little guy

to TheCatSite and you've definitely got the 411 on this matter! Sure do hope everything's all right with your little one, and that he's soon confidently doing what he needs to to right where he should! What's his name? We'd love to see pix if and when you want to share...and all the best to you both! THANK YOU for adopting him and caring about him! You sound like you're going to be a great friend to him.