need help with cats that are used to being in the wild

Hi all,

Hope someone can give me some advise in dealing with wild cats. I must add that I don't have any experience at all in having pets around.

When we first moved to our house in the country, we had a wild cat hanging round the house and tearing up the garbage bags left outside.

We immediately started leaving food out for her, hoping she would start to trust us (she was very wary of any humans) and it being winter time, she was very thin.

By the end of spring, we didn't see her for a few weeks, when suddenly she showed up with 4 tiny kittens, of just a few weeks old. She looked exhausted and terribly malnourished. It looked like she came to us begging for help. Which, of course, we were but gladly to give.

Now the kittens are about 4 months old, and enjoy eating, sleeping and playing inside the house. And I must say, I immensely enjoy the commotion they make But none the less, they are still wild cats, that spend most of the time outside.

One thing bothers me though: 2 of them have peed on the couch several times already, so here is my question: how do I stop them from doing this?

The advise I get from friends and family and on the internet, does not help me at all, every one says I should get a litter box, and some spray to attract them to it, some even say 1 litter box per cat (that is 5 of them), but that advise does not suit us: they all do their thing outside.

And I don't think they are marking territory. I think 4 months is too young for that, the pee is every time in another place and the amount of pee each time seems too large.

The couch is from IKEA, with removable covers. Every time I see it, I immediately throw the cover in the washing machine, with vinegar to make sure the urine smell is gone. If it has seeped through the cover, I treat the area with soda and vinegar, as well as any other areas that need treating.

Punishing wont work, since every time I see the pee, the moment has way passed for punishing to be effective. I also do not want to keep them off the couch, since they so enjoy sleeping on it (which is so damn cute by the way).

So any other tips on keeping two of my four kittens from peeing on the couch are very welcome.

Donna

Hello Donna, Welcome to The Cat Site.

It sounds like you are dealing with a family of semi-feral cats. Feral cats are just the same as domestic cats, except they've had no human contact. The mother cat trusted you enough to accept food from you and to bring her kittens to your house, so I suspect she may have had some human contact when she was younger.

The most important thing to do now is to get the mother and all the kittens spayed and neutered. The mother will get pregnant again very soon and the kittens can get pregnant at 4~ 5 months, so please do this straight away. You might need to trap them to get them to the vet. Here is an article about TNR that will give you some good advice,

 [article="0"]The Abc Of Tnr​[/article]  

Once you've had all the cats fixed you can start teaching them how to use a litter box. Nearly all of my cats started off as feral, even though they are outside most of the time you can litter train them. Put a litter box in the room near to the couch. You can buy cat litter called Cat Attract, which will encourage them to use it. If they pee on the couch again use some tissue to clean the couch and put these in the litter box. They need to be able to smell where they are supposed to go.

The best thing to clean your couch with is an enzyme cleaner. Ordinary cleaners don't fully get rid of the smell of pee, which is why they keep using your couch. Here's another article on how to clean up properly.

 [article="29728"]How To Remove Cat Urine​[/article]  

Please make sure you get all the cats fixed as soon as possible though. They breed so quickly and it's really heart breaking to see how hard it is for the mother cat to keep all her babies safe.

Let us know how it goes.

Hi Norachan,

Sorry for the late reply.

Thank you so much for your reply and the advise you gave me.

Meanwhile we have 6 of them instead of 5 lol.  A few days after I posted my question, another kitten showed up.  Only eight weeks old. (probably dumped)

I contacted our town hall, to see if they had some advise, and they informed me they had a program for catching and sterilizing feral cats. They gave me trap boxes and the name of the vet they appointed, and I was able to get all 6 of them done at once, for free.

Turns out it are 4 girls and 2 boys. So thank you so much for pointing out to me that they can get pregnant so soon I really had no idea.

The peeing has stopped, they sleep in the living room now, and we haven't had any "accidents" for quite a while now.

There is just one thing that I'm curious about: the kittens are now about 5 months old... is it normal that mom is still nursing them? It's not like they are underfed, they always have a big bowl of dry food in the kitchen, they get 2 cans of wet food in the evening (all six eat together, see below) and they get milk in the morning and evening. And I think you can see from the picture, that they are not exactly skinny

There: caught in the act >^.^<

Its not that common, but it surely happens.  Apparently its mosty a comfort thing for all of them, a nice pleasure...  Usually mom gets enough, and makes an end to it.  Here she is happy with it she too.   

This story made me smile. First off, the fact that you stepped forward to help this little family and that you are doing the right things. Getting them all fixed will make all the difference in their lives. I don't have to tell you how your life has changed. :lol3:

We have six cats inside and use the large storage totes for litter boxes. It helps prevent the bigger cats from over-spraying. They are the equivalent of two boxes, so I have four in different rooms. Sounds like overkill but I have never had a marking problem, so I think it is working.

Blessings on you for doing this!

Tnx for the support 

She'll soon tire of it and make them stop.  There may be some whining and crying but they will learn.

For now, make sure she has some good wet food - kitten food may help replenish any nutrients she's lost bursing those big lugs!