7 week old kitten.... runt

So I received a kitten on 9/25. lady we got her from cant pin point when she was born, says that mom cat gave birth 3 days apart(not sure if its possible). but that she is now 8 wks old(really tiny tho) she is eating hard and wet cat food. lady said she was litter trained, but i bought the same litter and she refuses to use box. tried different litter, still nothing! she uses the "bathroom" on our bed  and floor. she only does 1 of each a day( 1 &2)  and we cant seem to get her interested in the box. HELP.

we are keeping her in bathroom when we are not home. and she has a sep box there too.

Might I add that the lady supposedly given her front line and she was wearing a brand new flea collar but she was covered in fleas/

Please, this is my first kitten. help!

Try  with   Dr Elseys Kitten Attract  litter.  Not  cheap, but you  dont need  to  use   everything  at  once.  It is enough  the  upper  layer is,   the  rest  may  be a  common, non  clumping  cat  litter.

How  does the litter  box looks?  It  must  be  quite shallow for  such  a  small kitten,  so she can go in  without problem.   Many  uses  aluminium  baking  pans.

And  do  praise  her  much  every  time she  manages  at  the  right place.

Yes,  it  is  entirely  possible  they  are  born a couple  three days apart.  They  do manage  all  babies are not born  simultaneously.

Mom  was  perhaps  mated on   two diferent  occasions,  several days  apart,  causing  the  big  difference  in time.

Although,  not  impossible  she is  somewhat younger than the  lady  said.  Common enough  they do bend  the  thruth  a  little.

Welcome  to   our   Forums(Including the   Kitten   and pregnant forum)

Good  luck!.

I  gave you  some  answers  at  your  similiar question  in the behaviour forum.

Take of the  flea  collar,   they   are   often poisonous!    Although  dont threw away  the  collar.  You  can have  it inside  your  vacuum cleaner  when  you  vacuum  your flat after  these  fleas.

If you  can  get  hold  of  Revolution,  takes  fleas and most worms.   She probably needs  deworming  too.

Good  if   you  can  get a  vet to do  a  check  up,  and rrecommend  you  suitable dewormers.

A couple of bath  with Dawn soap   help quite well off  fleas.  It has  been  described in treads  here  several time.

Good  luck!

TY! yes we did take it off immediatly because she was throwing up.

Ty I never thought about putting it in vacuum!
she has receieved 1 set of deworming treatment

I am a little concerned that you say she's only going to the bathroom once a day. Kittens have tiny tummies and tiny bladders so they should be eating and drinking small amounts often. This also means they go to the bathroom often. I would first check if she has gone to the bathroom anywhere else in the room/house. If not, then she really needs to see a vet to make sure she doesn't have an underlying problem. 

If she checks out okay with the vet then there are some things you can try to help train her to use the box. First, make sure the box is small enough that she can climb in and out of it. And, be sure it's in a private location without a lot of noise so she isn't scared going in there. If she still isn't using it then I would try Dr. Elsey's kitten attract litter. It's very fine so kittens love it and has a very enticing smell. I've had great success with it. It is clay based so keep an eye on her at first and make sure she isn't eating it. 

Stefan gave you good advice about the flea collar/getting rid of the fleas. While at the vet you can also talk to them about starting her vaccinations and having her spayed. 

Did the woman give you any paperwork on what she had done? I don't know that I would trust everything that she told you. It's very odd that she wouldn't know what day the kitten was born (it's unusual but possible Mom was pregnant with two separate litters) but still, she should know which kittens came when. Not only that, but the claiming the kitten was litterbox trained and de-fleaed when clearly not also gives me concern. It's possible the kitten has not been wormed at all yet, and may be younger than she told you she was. All the more reason to make a vet appointment! 

They can have kittens some time apart even if only mated once.  It's normal for mating to extend over several days, but the homonal chances leading to ovulation are triggered by the first mating, not the subsequent ones.

I suspect your kitten is younger than you think, and is very stressed and overawed by suddenly being away from her mother and litter mates.  Losing litter tray training is one of the common problems with very small kittens, and it sounds like you are going to have to train her all over again.

Did she have an open tray or a hooded one before?  A change there can cause problems.  You can also get problems with the tray being too clean or not clean enough.

If you Google for 'litter training kittens' you will find lots of pages with various suggestions for how to do it.

Bella F said:

she has receieved 1 set of deworming treatment

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ah,,which one? Many over the counter medicines  arent good, precisely like  these flea collars...

While some others are OK  or even  good, like  the  metioned Revolution,  which  is  nowadays prescription  free.

If  mom was outgoing cat, or  not  dewormed properly,  kittens  probably  did got  round  worms from her.(Revolution helpstoo)

As   she  was  flea   ridden, she may  also  got  tape  worms from them. Revolution  doesnt help)

Today she went pee twice but no poo. Yesterday 2 pee and 1 poo.
And all she said(on Monday) was " I gave her a deworming treatment at 6wks old she needs another one in week and half

We did just buy the kitten attract, she does seem to sniff it more then last brand. And stood in it for few seconds longer.

Bella F said:

We did just buy the kitten attract, she does seem to sniff it more then last brand. And stood in it for few seconds longer.

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That's a good sign. If she poops anywhere outside the box be sure to pick it up and put it in the box. A few times of doing this and she will start to identify her scent with the box. 

So she pooped today it wasn't a hard poo tho so I did best I could to get it in box she keeps sniffing and scratching at the area after I cleaned the carpet area. Should I be moving the box there?

Are you using a good enzyme remover to clean up her messes? Otherwise she will keep going in those places. If it's somewhere you can feasibly move the box then absolutely put it there! 

how's it going with your little one? thinking of you both...

jlc20m

it sounds like you'll have to litter box train your baby. wait 15-20 minutes after she eats to pick her up and place her in the litter box. when she's in the box, let her get interested in it by gently stirring it with your finger. let her jump in and out of it at will. never use force. it must be a place of need not fear or anxiety. once she does her business in the box, calmly praise her and give her gentle pat. make sure the litter box is far from food/water bowls and flower/citrus deodorizes and noisy places, not too full, and -if you want- lightly sprinkled with baking soda. just an idea, i'd have her checked out by a vet to rule out medical issues. keep us posted???

jlc20m

SO! we switched to a cake pan, thinking maybe she was scared of the walls this afternoon. well before we did that she took her morning poo. so we just covered it and then did the foil cake pan, placed poo on  top of litter and left her in bathroom while we worked. when we came home there was a pee spot(using the kitten attract stuff) and her poo was buried at bottom! so we fed her the wet food dinner, left her in there and as we were checking in on her she was in box going her nightly poo! it was the biggest she's gone so I'm hoping she'll let it all out and go more often. Should we be keeping her confind to bedroom while we home instead of free range? or just place a box in each room? till she is lil older( I got 3 boxes incase 1 for ea room)

Sounds like good progress! It's really up to you if you want to confine her or let her free roam. Obviously there are benefits and detriments to each. But, once you start letting her free roam good luck trying to confine her again! 

It is a good idea to have a box in each room but be careful: some kittens/cats are very particular and get used to a certain spot. Once you move the box she may continue to go there without it. 

If it were me I would probably confine her for a little longer until she really gets the hang of it. I wouldn't add boxes to the other rooms but would set her in her box, open the door, and let her decide where to explore- that way she knows how to get back to it. 

It just depends on the kitten if they can hold it long enough to make it back to the box or if they are better off with one in each room. 

Small kittens are basically infants/toddlers in the human scheme of things, so they easily get lost in the house and depend on their sense of smell.  If they have gone to the bathroom somewhere in the house once, they are likely to go there again, because they can smell that from quite a ways away.

We usually keep kittens confined in a small room for a week or so, letting them get used to using their litter box that they can find easily.  It's much easier to avoid accidents in the first place than to try to remedy the problem later.
 

Thank you everyone! We had company over, and im a sucker! we left the litter box(foil) in bathroom, and put one of each(foil and the origional) in bedroom(both in places she's gone) and then one in living room also where she's gone before and put her in bathroom and let her decide!(ty EB24) she did run to the bathroom litter box once, but she also went and used the big one!!!! such progress! 

QUESTION! It appears she could be teething, she has her teeth in, but she wants to chew on everything like she's teething( knuckles, heels and fingers) suggestions? she does like dry food but she doesn't like those temptation cat treats, she licks them doesnt chew.