Kittens and litter

Hi everyone,
If this is the wrong place, I apologize.

Several weeks ago, we took in a stray who'd been hanging around our house for months until she decided to adopt us. We took her to the vet before moving her into the house and found out she was pregnant. Unfortunately, we do not have a place in our house to completely isolate her from our dogs and other cat so she and her babies are living in two extra large dog crates in our living room (with blankets for privacy). Not ideal, I know, but it's the best we could do. Mama Minerva had her babies almost three weeks ago, right in the middle of one of the crates. She had three healthy kittens and she has, luckily, been very relaxed about the whole thing. She's feeding them, cleaning them, and being a good mama cat. She will be spayed as soon as they are weaned and the three will be vaccinated and spayed/neutered as soon as they're old enough.

The kittens will be three weeks on Sunday and from what I've read, they'll start litter training soon. I have Minerva's box set up in the second crate, covered for privacy and that's where I plan to put smaller, easy to get into boxes with non clumping litter for the babies. Should I have the individual boxes for the babies? I've always done one for each cat plus an extra but will that keep the babies from learning how to go from Minerva? Also, what help do I need to give for them to be litter trained (aside from cleaning)?

The smaller boxes for the babies will be good as long as they are close to mom's box. They'll watch her and want to go where she goes. There is usually one kitten in each of my litters that always insists on climbing into mom's box (it's a HUGE climb haha). Don't be too surprised if they don't begin going potty on their own yet. My current group is 4.5 weeks old and their mom is still cleaning them up.

As far as training, just keep an eye on them and if you see them begin to squat, pick them up and place them in the box.

The kittens start using the litter box when they start weening and eating wet food. They usually start around 4 weeks.

Dry food is to hard for them so soak it in KMR or water if that is what you are giving them or try Royal Canin Baby Cat and Mama.  Wet food is best.

Thank you for the replies. Everything has been such smooth sailing so far, I'm trying to make sure this goes as well as it can, too.

The small boxes will be with mom's and they'll all be using the same kind of litter.

Mom's free feeding dry food and gets wet food twice a day. The babies will get the same wet food Mom's getting.

Mix the kittens wet food with water or KMR to make a mush so it's easier for them to lap up.  Be prepared for cute and messy faces and paw.s

You can get by with one kitten pan for now. They will probably all climb in together! As was mentioned, litter training is a skill learned anywhere between 4-6 weeks. I recently had 2 who learned early and 2 who learned later from the same litter. Just like children toilet train at different ages. When training, put them in the box before and after every meal, and any other time you see them "needing to go"!

Once they get bigger they will climb in mom's box for sure!

Handsome Kitty said:

Mix the kittens wet food with water or KMR to make a mush so it's easier for them to lap up.  Be prepared for cute and messy faces and paw.s

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I hadn't thought of that, but will do. And I can't wait for messy faces and paws

It's better to not use a different box for mom and kittens. I would suggest putting a kitten litterbox for both mom and kittens and removing the bigger one to make sure mom uses the small one at least a few times. It's mom's scent that teaches kittens to use the litterbox properly. They follow their mom's example. Sure, those without a mom will learn too, but it's best to let the mom teach them and let it go naturally without human interference. For me, my kittens learn it automatically, and I only help those that still don't get it a week later (by putting them on the litterbox after eating). I do get some accidents this way, but I can deal with that

When they start eating solid food (canned and/or kibbles) mom will stop helping them poop and pee regularly, and they will start pooping and peeing on their own.

Biancavd said:

It's better to not use a different box for mom and kittens. I would suggest putting a kitten litterbox for both mom and kittens and removing the bigger one to make sure mom uses the small one at least a few times. It's mom's scent that teaches kittens to use the litterbox properly. They follow their mom's example. Sure, those without a mom will learn too, but it's best to let the mom teach them and let it go naturally without human interference. For me, my kittens learn it automatically, and I only help those that still don't get it a week later (by putting them on the litterbox after eating). I do get some accidents this way, but I can deal with that





When they start eating solid food (canned and/or kibbles) mom will stop helping them poop and pee regularly, and they will start pooping and peeing on their own.

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I was thinking the different boxes because mom is kind of picky about her litter. She flings it everywhere, so it's a framed box, and she has to have a deep layer of litter before she'll cover her poop, like more than a usual littler box would hold. Until I realized she needed more litter, I kept finding her blankets in the box, covering her poop. Once I added extra litter, she's been good to go. But I can take it out if need be.

Kimchi40 said:

 

Biancavd said:

 
It's better to not use a different box for mom and kittens. I would suggest putting a kitten litterbox for both mom and kittens and removing the bigger one to make sure mom uses the small one at least a few times. It's mom's scent that teaches kittens to use the litterbox properly. They follow their mom's example. Sure, those without a mom will learn too, but it's best to let the mom teach them and let it go naturally without human interference. For me, my kittens learn it automatically, and I only help those that still don't get it a week later (by putting them on the litterbox after eating). I do get some accidents this way, but I can deal with that

  
When they start eating solid food (canned and/or kibbles) mom will stop helping them poop and pee regularly, and they will start pooping and peeing on their own.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the different boxes because mom is kind of picky about her litter. She flings it everywhere, so it's a framed box, and she has to have a deep layer of litter before she'll cover her poop, like more than a usual littler box would hold. Until I realized she needed more litter, I kept finding her blankets in the box, covering her poop. Once I added extra litter, she's been good to go. But I can take it out if need be.

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If there's no other way, then 2 boxes will be okay too. It's all about what is best for mom and kittens, if you think mom needs this you should go with that. If you notice the kittens aren't understanding the litterbox well, you can also scoop some of mom's poop/pee in their litterbox so they can "smell" it. Might help instead of mom using their litterbox as well ^^

Biancavd said:

If there's no other way, then 2 boxes will be okay too. It's all about what is best for mom and kittens, if you think mom needs this you should go with that. If you notice the kittens aren't understanding the litterbox well, you can also scoop some of mom's poop/pee in their litterbox so they can "smell" it. Might help instead of mom using their litterbox as well ^^

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I'm thinking mom definitely needs the framed box. And who knows, they may all end up in there- we already have one brave adventurer who figured out how to crawl/climb out of the cage. Thank you for your help!

You could always build them a ramp.

Handsome Kitty said:

 
You could always build them a ramp.

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This what we're going to go with. They are able to climb out of the cage with the help of a low box pretty easily so we're putting the same at the entrance to the box. That way Mom still has her needs met and she can teach them.

They are exactly three weeks today and I think we're in for it. Each morning, Mom gets her food and water replenished along with a can of moist food. The kittens are normally asleep and Mom is chirpy but doesn't make a move to come out of the cage. Today, however, all three kittens were in various places in the cage, not sleepy at all, their blankets were all askew, Mom's dish was overturned and the second I opened the door, Mom bolted to the cat tree. We are in so much trouble. 

They reach this point around 3-4 weeks old where they need to begin exploring and moving around a lot. The best thing you could do is to contain them in a room, such as a bedroom, that is kitten-proofed, with food, water, and litter in it for mom, so they are free to move around. When they get bigger, they can explore other parts of the house. Right now they do not need to be contained, nor do they need more than one room.

sarthur2 said:

They reach this point around 3-4 weeks old where they need to begin exploring and moving around a lot. The best thing you could do is to contain them in a room, such as a bedroom, that is kitten-proofed, with food, water, and litter in it for mom, so they are free to move around. When they get bigger, they can explore other parts of the house. Right now they do not need to be contained, nor do they need more than one room.

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Sadly, we don't actually have a room to contain them. We had already committed to taking their mom in when we found she was pregnant and we figured she'd sleep in an extra large dog crate while we acclimated her.

Right now, the best we can do are the two crates hooked together and we leave the door open so they can come and go while we're nearby or in the room (it's the living room, someone is almost always there). Not perfect, I know, but we'll have to work with it.

Some members have made large pens by taping boxes together.

I seen on YouTube that someone used a child's plastic pool. It was deep enough to keep the kittens in but low enough for mom to easily get out. When it was time for litter training they cut a hole in the side and connected a box with litter. It was really cute and they learned what to do. easily

I like these ideas! I do want to give them more room to explore, and I know they need it, just the logistics were giving me a problem.

Thought I'd give a quick update. We were able to arrange things so that the kittens have much more room to roam around and mom can come and go as she pleases. They still sleep in the cages at night, but we let them out in the morning and they can move in and out of the cages as they wish. 

We have a little chunk who weighed the least when he was born, now he's over a pound. His siblings are nearly the pound mark. They've started playing pretty hardcore so there's lot of squealing around here. Mom seems pretty happy and healthy. Here's mom and two of the brats. The one on the right is Smaug, the biggest, who will be keeping along with Mom.