Litter training stray cat

twobecamethree · May 29, 2016

Hi everyone,
There had been a stray cat hanging around our house so I began feeding it, after a month it would wait every night for us to get home and by two months it was happy for love and cuddles! As winter set in I put a bed outside and it slept in that l, but it started to have watery eyes so I decided we needed to bring her in and get her to the vet etc.

They thought it was cat flu so she was on antibiotics for two weeks, now they think it's an eye infection so she is on eye drops.

she has been inside for two and a half weeks but litter training is not going well! I had her in a dog crate for the first few days and she was using it fine, now she has the bedroom to spread out in she just wont use it!
She will pee in it no worries, but poo next to it and if I don't clean that up straight away then she pees next to the poo, as I work I can't get it straight away (we also have two other cats so she will eventually be sharing litter boxes so she needs to learn) so I'm not sure what the next step should be.

Should I not give her freedom and go back to crate time unless supervised?
I tried putting some of her poo in the tray and that didn't help, I bought a bigger tray but that hasn't helped either so Any help would be appreciated

Thanks!

raina21 · May 29, 2016

twobecamethree said:
Hi everyone,
There had been a stray cat hanging around our house so I began feeding it, after a month it would wait every night for us to get home and by two months it was happy for love and cuddles! As winter set in I put a bed outside and it slept in that l, but it started to have watery eyes so I decided we needed to bring her in and get her to the vet etc.

They thought it was cat flu so she was on antibiotics for two weeks, now they think it's an eye infection so she is on eye drops.

she has been inside for two and a half weeks but litter training is not going well! I had her in a dog crate for the first few days and she was using it fine, now she has the bedroom to spread out in she just wont use it!
She will pee in it no worries, but poo next to it and if I don't clean that up straight away then she pees next to the poo, as I work I can't get it straight away (we also have two other cats so she will eventually be sharing litter boxes so she needs to learn) so I'm not sure what the next step should be.

Should I not give her freedom and go back to crate time unless supervised?
I tried putting some of her poo in the tray and that didn't help, I bought a bigger tray but that hasn't helped either so Any help would be appreciated

Thanks!

Some cats are strange and don't like to pee in the same litter that they poo in. I know it sounds wierd but its true. Try giving her 2 litterboxes. She may pee in one and poo in the other.

If she used the liiter fine when she was in the dog crate, it may have been because she had no other choice. She basically had to use the litter for both pee and poo or be stuck inside a cage with her stinky poo on the floor of the cage.

twobecamethree · May 30, 2016

Thank you for the advice. I will give that a try. I did give her a brand new tray just before and have just gone in to check on to her to see a poo on the floor next to the tray and she had not even used the tray to pee yet!! Hopefully two tray works as picking up poo and cleaning wee everyday is not too fun! She is super sweet though!

shadowsrescue · May 30, 2016

You can also try to bury the poo in the litter when you clean it up. This will put her scent into the litter.

Here in the US we have a product called Dr. Elsey's Litter Attract. It works to attract a cat to the box. It contains special herbs.

Using two litter boxes as suggested above is also a great idea.

twobecamethree · May 30, 2016

Thank you, I have tried putting her poo in the tray and it didn't make any difference unfortunately.
Im Australian and haven't heard of that brand but I will have a google and see if we have something similar.

Hopefully two trays and some time make a difference

mani · May 30, 2016

@twobecamethree it is available here at this site. Not cheap, though.

But I've had at least four cats who won't do both in the one box.. mine all pooed in the box and wee-ed in the shower or the sink, which was sort of handy..

It always amazed me that they did that.

That was before I discovered the two box thing (or in my case, with two cats, the four box thing.....)

xxdonna · May 31, 2016

Hi I had experience with this. I started feeding a feral kitten about 4-5 months old last summer and this April she gave birth to 5 kittens that are in my basement now 7 weeks old.

My vet told me to try this. Put the litter box and add about an inch of potting soil to the top. As soon as I did this she started using the litter box. I then just started sprinkling the potting soil and eventually stopped using it maybe a week. She is now freely using the box and never soils anywhere else.

I hope this helps.

My kitty is such a good mama. I'm looking for homes now as they are soon good to go. I'm keeping mama and one of her kittens. Two are going to my son and daughter in law. So I just have two to adopt out.

Wish me luck.

twobecamethree · Jun 2, 2016

Thank you , I put a second litter tray in there, but she just wee'd in both, then did a poo next to a tray and then wee'd on it. sigh. It is so very frustrating!

Thanks xxDonna, I will give that a try! She is so good with weeing in the tray, until she does a poo then she wee's on that instead, such a big mess and so smelly too! Good luck with adopting the other kittens out, you are so good for looking after them!

twobecamethree · Jun 6, 2016

Two days of potting mix on top and she is still doing the poo then wee on it thing. I don't know what else to try! She can't be an outside/inside cat due to council laws which require that cats must stay on your property at all times and I don't have the set up for that (my original two are completely indoors)

xxdonna · Jun 6, 2016

Maybe try only one litter box instead of two? And the potting soil too? Its worth a try.

ondine · Jun 6, 2016

I have a plastic shower curtain under all my litter boxes - mostly to catch litter as the cats jump out. But it sounds like you my need to do that, at least until she learns to poo in the box. For now, I would keep both boxes and use soil on top.

Make sure your soak the areas where she's pooped and peed with a good enzyme cleaner. It will get rid of the smell (even if you can't smell it, she probably can).

BTW @ Mani - I had a friend whose cat did not use a box - she always went in the tub. It was fabulous for cleaning up. Flush the poo and wash the pee away, then spray the shower with bleach. No scooping, no litter tracked around the house. The only problem was, they had to check the tub before running a bath and if the cat had to go when someone was in the bath, she would let them know!

twobecamethree · Jun 10, 2016

Thanks everyone,

few days on and she is now using the litter box!! (ish) when I get home from work there is one in the tray, and one next to the tray so it's a start!! Haven't had to clean up any wee either!!

Her tray is in a dog crate so the wee is contained in that and easy to wipe up then clean away (I am using enzyme so it doesn't leave a smell) so hopefully with more time she gets even better!

ondine · Jun 10, 2016

Good news! Hopefully, she will improve bit by bit.

Litter training stray cat

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raina21

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