7 week old not using litter box…...

 I just got two 7 week old kittens two days ago, a boy and a girl. A friend of mine, her cat had kittens and couldn't keep them all. Anyway, I've always had cats. Never had a problem with them using the litter box, till now. The female mostly. For example, this morning we woke up, i took them out the not so secluded bathroom where i also found poop by the door, she ran up my bed and peed then jumped off. This is just one of few she has done. Her poop is soft but nothing out of the ordinary looking. I keep putting her in the littler box. Where ever she goes, she does scratch at it like if she's gone in the box. Could it be stress from leaving her home? Wait it out? I am making an appointment today with the vet. 

7 weeks is a bit too young. they should be with mommy at least 8-10 weeks. 

they learn everything from mommy and litter mates including how to use the litter box.

i would suggest keeping a litter box at close reach for them both at all times. if you are keeping them in the bathroom over night, they should have a litter box in there, if there isn't already one in there...try adding some cat attract herbs to attract kitty, mix it in with existing litter. also put kittens in the box right after eating...(but i'm sure you probably already knew that lol)

also are you having issues with the brother having accidents?? maybe try putting them both in the litter box at the same time. she will learn from the brother.

my cat Charlie is older than my cat Jet by 2 months. when i adopted Charlie he was 3 months old. perfect kitty. used the box and ate well and no health issues. when he turned 4 months old, i wanted to get him a buddy. so i THOUGHT i adopted a 3 month old kitten from the shelter, Jet. I was told she was litter trained, and she was good, and no issues. after bringing her home i realized something was wrong with her, she wouldn't eat, she didn't use the litter box, she had accidents all over the place. turned out she was only 8-10 weeks old when i got her, and she was away from mother since the age of 4-6 weeks (guestimations...she's a former stray, that's why she didn't know how to use the litter). confirmed by a vet visit after having her for 1 week. 

whenever she would go into the litter box, charlie would jump in there with her...and pretty much taught her how to use the box...

maybe that's what your girl kitty needs. 

i hope others can chime in and offer better advice.

definitely do take them both to the vet.

JackSally said:

 
 I just got two 7 week old kittens two days ago, a boy and a girl. A friend of mine, her cat had kittens and couldn't keep them all. Anyway, I've always had cats. Never had a problem with them using the litter box, till now. The female mostly. For example, this morning we woke up, i took them out the not so secluded bathroom where i also found poop by the door, she ran up my bed and peed then jumped off. This is just one of few she has done. Her poop is soft but nothing out of the ordinary looking. I keep putting her in the littler box. Where ever she goes, she does scratch at it like if she's gone in the box. Could it be stress from leaving her home? Wait it out? I am making an appointment today with the vet. 

Click to expand...

I hear lots of times how at 7 weeks old kittens should still be with their mom.

The truth is, at least from the countless (literally) times I have had moms and babies here as having a rescue group, that moms get tired of nursing, starting off with taking breaks away from them around 4-5 weeks, and quite often by 7 weeks she is darn tired of nursing altogether and wants to be done.

So there has been many times at 7 weeks old I pull those babes from her to allow her to dry up and be spayed.

However, at 7 weeks they have an extremely short attention/memory span, which in short means, keep them contained to a very small area with a low sided litterbox they can easily climb in and out of.

Problem will be solved. Don't expand their area until they grow more, by 8 weeks a full sized bedroom for instance, by 9 weeks+ they can go throughout the home on one floor and will still find their box.

Younger kids have to have it pretty much right under their noses to remember and be near enough to use it faithfully.

Ive rescued cats younger then them and never had a problem. Im gonna try that. Other then that, i don't know what to do. I put them in the litter after they eat, after a nap, and i still find them peeing on my bed

Some kittens just take longer to get the hang of using the litter box.

We had a group of kittens over the summer that took about 2 weeks to train. They were 6-ish weeks when we got them. Kitten Attract litter and LOTS of litter boxes is what is finally took to get all these babies trained. They were confined to a bedroom and we had 8 litter boxes in there. Every corner of the room had a box, there were boxes in the middle of the floor and even a box at the base of the cat tree in the room.

Once all were using the boxes, we *slowly* started to reduce the number of boxes, finally getting down to 4 large boxes.

Im gonna try that! Thank you