Need litter advice for a 4-6 week old kitten

I recently rescued a kitten that appeared to be abandoned and barely moving.  She was very malnourished and had infections in her eyes and lungs.  Now 5 days later, she's got a little belly, her coat has improved, her eyes are wide open, and her purr is strong.  I've been trying to work with her to box train, but I'm nervous about the litter.  When I had Taz at this age, I used the Swheat Scoop and never had a problem with him trying to eat it.  I bought the Swheat Scoop again for this baby and as soon as I put it down for her, she immediately started to eat it.  She seems to attack her food when I feed her and I figured it was due to the fact that she was so hungry when I found her that she's afraid to be hungry again.  I ended up tearing up strips of towel to put in her box instead of the litter because she was eating it.  I tried setting it down for her again a couple days later and she immediately started to eat the litter again.  I'm afraid to leave a litter box with this litter in it for fear of her eating too much of it that it is harmful to her.  Is there another alternative that she would be less likely to eat?  Is she able to eat this wheat litter and not be harmful to her?  I didn't have this problem with Taz at all, but he was also healthier and in better shape when he was found.  She's also not consistent using the box.  She's done her business in the box the last few days, but today she has peed outside of the box that I've had to change out the towels at least 3 times today.  Since she's so small I have her in a big dog carrier to keep her safe especially at night when everyone is sleeping.  Any ideas or help anyone can provide would be great.  I feel like I'm a fish out of water with this one.

Amy   

She thinks it's food as she's been deprived. There is probably no litter at this point that she would not attempt to eat, and no litter is healthy for them!

As inconvenient as it is, I would continue using towels in the litter box, and around it, until she has settled down more and is comfortable with food. Could be a couple of weeks. She's also still within the normal time frame for litter training!

She needs 24/7 access to kitten chow. She's growing and needs unlimited food.

Thanks for rescuing her! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

We had been feeding her about a teaspoon of wet food every 3 hours per the vets instructions. We've since spaced it out a little further and given her more. Since her baby teeth are still coming in I wasn't sure if it would be good to give her kibble yet. We go to see the vet for a follow up tomorrow, so I'll ask him. Do you think if she has constant access to kibble that she would necessarily go for the litter?

Oh, your title said 4-6 weeks. If her teeth are still coming in, then she's barely 4 weeks old. She may not eat kibble yet, but when she does, it will probably solve the litter problem since she will have ready access to food. You can try kibble anytime you think she's ready.

Her issue seems to be food. With a kitten that young and having starved, I generally recommend more frequent feedings of small amounts until they are bigger. She can also have a dish of kitten formula a couple of times a day to lap.

The vet had estimated her at 4-6 weeks old. He said the eyes open at 3 weeks and they start to get their baby teeth at 4 weeks. Her teeth had already started coming in when I found her. She's been teething and chewing on her towel and my clothes when I hold her. I tried feeding her some KMR in a bottle and she wasn't interested. She did lap up some from a dish, but hasn't been that interested in it the other two times I tried to give it to her. She does like her wet food and devours it fairly quickly. I'm ok with using the towels until she can have litter, but I'm trying to figure out why she had been using the box initially and now the last two days seems to do her business outside of the box. she likes to play with the shredded towel, so a lot of it ends up outside the box anyway. However, I did notice her use the box and try to cover up, which was hard to do with the shredded towels (which also kind of explains why her poo was outside the box). For the last two days though she hasn't used the box at all and is peeing outside of the box. I tried moving the box to where she was peeing and she ended up peeing in the back where the box used to be. It almost seems like a little game. Since she's still so small I've been using the little boxes that the cans of wet food are sealed on. The smallest litter box I found was almost as tall as she is. Is it possible that she's not liking the cardboard box for a litter box?

It's possible. You can buy a kitten-sized plastic box, and a bag of sandbox sand, which is sold at places like Home Depot. She will probably not eat the sand. It may help get her trained better.