Just got a new kitten and i need help!!

[kierstin hoyt]

I just got a kitten about a week and a half ago. She is just to cute and is very well behaved around my almost two year son. But i have problem. She will use the litter box no problem, but she she will not cover her poop. I know this shouldnt not be a big deal but then she will step in it every single time! and then walk around the house and wont clean herself. /my husband or i have to start cleaning her hind legs before she will even remotely start to clean herself. I can not keep her if she doesnt figure out how to either A) clean her poop up so she doesnt step in her poop or B) clean herself as soon as she gets out of her litter box!!! I JUST CANT HAVE IT!!!! I would really hate to have to get rid of her because of this. Also after she gets done going to she goes all the way around her litter box and scratches at the side of her litter box. i dont know if this is her trying to do it but doesnt get it!! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!!!

 

[mrblanche]

So...your two-year old?  Does he always  poop and pee in the toilet neatly and wipe himself?  Never any accidents?

Your dealing with a child when you deal with a kitten.  They're just not up to the adult skills yet. 

Also, if her bowel movements are very soft, you may need to have her checked at the vet for health problems.  Normal poop is the classic "tootsie roll" shape, and fairly firm.
 

 

[kierstin hoyt]

I didnt come here to be bashed i just want help. I understand that accidents happen. I also have a dog. its just that i cant have poop tracked through my house when my son plays on the floor and picks things up and put it in his mouth. She still steps in it and its regular poop. I have had two cats before when i lived at home and we never had this problem so i was just wondering if this is normal or not. because like i said i really dont want to have to get rid of her she is very good other than this issue.

 

[Willowy]

mrblanche wasn't bashing you at all. He's only pointing out that she's a baby and you can't expect too much yet. She should outgrow the awkwardness/clumsiness eventually. Although sometimes kittens who are taken from their mother too young (and most are; they really should stay with her for 12 weeks and almost nobody does that) have some trouble learning their proper cat manners.

Has she been de-wormed and gotten all her other vet work?

 

[catapault]

I can sympathize with you. When one of my now 2 year old cats first came to live with us he did just the same thing - poop and stroll away. With maturity comes improvement - he now buries his poop, almost too enthusiastically. But it did take a couple of months.

What kind of litter are you using, how big is the litter box, and how deep is the litter? Sometimes if the litter box is kind of small it is difficult for them to scratch-and-cover. And if the litter is more than a shallow layer it also seems to encourage digging = covering.

Another thing you might try is get a small door mat kind of carpet and put it where your kitten has to stap on it when getting out of his box. That will collect stray bits of litter etc.

 

[kierstin hoyt]

willowy- i got her when she was 11 weeks almost 12 and as far as vet work she is. also the house i got her from there was two other kittens and the mom and then another mom and two younger kittens. so i dont know if it matters that she cam from a multi cat home, and a dog where the dog would also clean them. so i dont know if she expects my dog to because she will not even let him get close..

Catapault- im using fresh step extreme odor control. and the litter box is large so i dont think that is a problem and i have it filled to just over half because thats how high i used to fill it with my old cats.right now i have put a towel out in front of her litter box to help because i havent been able to get an actual mat for in front of it. 

I really just wanna make sure it gets better because my sons health comes first above all else. and like i said before i really would not wanna have to get rid of her, but it sounds like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

And as of right now she is sitting on my lap/computer making this very hard to type!!

 

[rad65]

I wouldn't worry about if she can learn to do this or not, it will happen. My kitten had the same problem for the first month or so after I brought him home. His stool was a bit softer than normal because I switched him to a better food than the shelter had him on, and it seemed like every other day I would have to give him a bath to clean some poop off of his paws or his rear if the soft stool was really bad. He started cleaning up after himself better and better as he got used to his new food and stopped having upset stomachs all the time, and now he's very good at covering his waste and cleaning himself, though he does take his sweet time cleaning himself sometimes. Some cats just don't clean themselves right away after leaving the litterbox, opting to do it 20 or 30 minutes later.

 

[maggiesvineyard]

I had one cat for about 15 years and she never covered her poop (and she didn't track it out of the box), so not covering it isn't the issue. You have a kitten that will more than likely correct their behavior (by not stepping in it) as they get older. Maybe experiment with different litters and/or litterboxes, because what's comfortable for one cat may not work for another. Also, is your kitty declawed? I just learned that for declawed cats, some litters may be uncomfortable on their paws (especially the large clay ones) so if that's the case, they may not want to spend large amounts of time in there to tidy up their business.

BTW, even if you didn't have this problem, you would still have traces of urine & feces on and around your home, even if you can't see it! I mean, they're hairy "down there" so things (no matter how small) may stick to their hair, and transfer to where they sit or where their back end brushes up against. Just something to think about before you decide to get rid of her!

 

[riccadawn]

I agree with the advice about trying a couple different kinds of litter boxes (different sizes, shapes, covered vs uncovered) and different brands of litter to see how she does. Truthfully, I think she'll grow out of it as she gets older, but for now, if you can find a kind of litter that she really LIKES digging in, that might help speed things up. We recently tried a new brand of litter and one of my guys likes it so much that he actually claws at the unopened package to try and get to it!!! That's the kind of enthusiasm we like lol

 

[kushmama89]

My little girl JUST turned 12 weeks. Her momma was a feral and got hit by a car so ive had her since 2 weeks. As soon as she was old enough to go on her own without stimulation shes done very well with going in the box. As for stepping in her poop it happened only a few times the first week or two when her poo was really runny and she was having a hard time going...but she was bottle fed.

Im wondering...what size box does she have? Covered or uncovered? Shape? Like is it round or does it have actual corners? You may try waiting to see when she goes and following her and then taking the scooper and covering her poo and making sure she sees you covering it. She may not have learned right. If you got her at almost 12 weeks then taking her away from momma and the litter too young doesnt sound like its it. And my baby didnt have any issues and she definitely was taken away too young but i sat and covered her poo every time she went =\....

 

[leomist]

Hey! There are a couple of things you could try. One, change the litter type. I was using Cats Best litter until recently and had to change to Happy Cat litter since the stock of the other one ran out. I noticed that my kitten who rarely covered up her poop earlier, seems much more inclined to cover it up after the litter change. Must be the texture or something. of course, the earlier litter never stopped my older cat from covering up...but perhaps some cats are pickier than the others!

Second thing is to try and teach her. If you are there when she poops, you could use the rake to cover it up right in front of her. If you do this routinely, she might learn to do it herself eventually.

Good luck!
 

 

[kierstin hoyt]

Okay everyone!! thanks for the help! She is not declawed i won't do that to here and second she does have runny poop and i have changed her food to see if that would help it hasn't! (i may have not found the right food yet) i do follow her to make sure she does it, and now she is trying to cover it up. before she wouldnt even try and now she at least getting some litter over it before she leaves the litter box and this is more times than not! i also help her cover it up when i can get to it. by taking her paws and having her do it other times if im to late i just cover it up with the scooper. also the litter box has rounded edges to it but it is also a size large litter box. I understand that there is said germs carried through the house because of hair and what not but i can not have her carrying a paw full of poop through my house. but she is getting better i went through a three to four day stretch where i did not have to clean her!! Also its not like she doesnt like her food because she eats everything!! she is like a dog i have to keep her away from our food when we eat because she thinks she is aloud to have people food!!!

 

[kushmama89]

The square litter box seem to work best usually (there are always special cases and different cats and people prefer different things) so i dont know when you say rounded edges..do you mean rectangular/square but the corners are softly rounded or its an actual round box?

Cats are usually pretty good with backing their rear up into a corner of the box and pooing. =] so if you habe a round box you may try and get a square/rectangular box and try that as well.

And if her poop is runny at this age it may have nothing to do with her food. You may want to get a fecal test done by the vet for things like worms and coccidia(sp?). she could very well have worms without actually seeing them in her poo. Its very common in young kittens.

 

[kierstin hoyt]

Sorry i wasnt very clear. it is square with rounded edges. okay thank you i will do that. i plan i taking her to the vet next month when i get the extra money to make sure everything is good to go!!

 

[maggiesvineyard]

Oh my gosh your little girl sounds just like my new kitten! When I first brought Romy home (he was about 4 months old), he had runny poop w/ a little bit of blood & mucus in it. Since he had just checked out with the vet before I brought him home, I just assumed it was him adapting to the new food I was feeding him. He did step in his poop and was tracking it everywhere, too. A mess, to say the least. And just when I thought it was getting better, it would start getting runny again. When I took him to the vet a week or so later for his first visit after adopting him, they gave me 4 packets of a probiotic (I think it was called ProFlora) to mix in with his food. It cleared up his runny poop in no time! It's definitely good to get her checked out to make sure she doesn't have any parasites or anything like that, which is very common in kittens, but if you aren't due to take her in for a month or so, maybe stop by your local pet store and see if you can get some ProFlora to see if that would help. Worst case is that it does nothing.....I don't remember the exact price since I had other things on my bill that day, but I think it was very inexpensive.

 

[kierstin hoyt]

Okay thank you so much!!