Kitten playing with poop in box

[selinakyle]

We recently adopted a kitten is around 12 weeks old and it was said by the person that surrendered her that she was litter box trained. Well, she has been pooping in the box that i clean daily but before i can scoop i have found her or heard her at night a few times playing with her poop batting it around and skattering litter all over the bathroom. She also has been peeing on things rather than using the box. Im not new to having a cat but its been a few years. Anyone know how to fix this problem?

 

[catlover73]

Some cats do not like to pee and poop in the same litter box.  Have you tried adding a second litterbox?  One of my friends had this same problem and adding a second litter box stopped it. She figured this out accidentally when she adopted a 2nd cat and set up the 2nd litter box.  Does she have access to toys she can play with on her own.?  I am not sure if this is correct but maybe she is bored while you are sleeping and just needs some distractions. Also it is possible that if she was not the only cat in her previous home than she may be used to having access to more than one litter box.

Also has the kitten had a vet exam since the peeing outside the box started?  This could be a sign that she has a urinary tract infection (UTI)  which can cause pain when they pee.  I would take her to the vet to rule out medical issues first.  If this turns out to be a UTI issue it is very treatable and the issue may resolve itself on it's own once she is feeling better. Cats are really good at hiding pain.  If she is in pain it is possible she has associated peeing in the litter box with the pain. 

As to the playing with poop I have never experienced that with any of my cats even when my cats were kittens. The only thing I can think of is to set up a feeding area across the room from the litter box because cats do not like to go to the bathroom where they eat.  My thinking is that putting food there may help stopping with the poop being taken out of the box.

Hopefully someone else will come along that has more experience dealing with these issues.  I have not dealt with either of this issues personally.

 

[selinakyle]

I did have a second litter box set up upstairs which she was using but after i was sure she was use to the stairs and could find her way around i took it out. She was peeing on the carpet then on my kids little couch which i have since cleaned with baking soda and vinager. Her food isn't near her box its in the kitchen whereas her box is in the bathroom, ive found she tends to play with her food too. She has toys and me and my kids do play with her daily but i will try getting her more she might be bored of the ones she has already or something lol she's been with us around 3 weeks now and playing with the poop is a relatively new problem id say the last week or so.

 

[catlover73]

Was she still peeing outside the box while you had the 2nd litter box set-up?  How many floors is your home?  When I had younger kittens and seniors I had a litter box on each level and I am in a 3 story townhome.

I never had any accidents unless one of them was sick.  One of my seniors years ago ate something he should not have and wound up with a tummy ache for a week while I was out of town.  My poor cat sitter had to clean up his poop squirts for a week.  She even added litter boxes to my house but he just could not get to them in time. Thankfully he was other wise acting normal. If he had stopped eating my friend would have taken him into the vet immediately.  Once his tummy ache resolved itself the problem stopped.  I had to steam clean my carpeting to get rid of the stains.

If this has been an issue from the beginning then I would definitely take her to the vet to rule out a medical issue.  It is also possible that her previous owner lied about her being properly litter trained.

I have an adult cat that has does this too.  I have yet to find a solution. One of my friends fostered him as kitten and he has always done this.  She tried to putting his dry food on large trays but it did not help.  My litter boxes are all currently in my basement and mine our fed in our powder room to confine the food mess. I used to feed in the kitchen too but go sick of having dry food all over my entire 1st floor. Once I moved the food to the powder room the mess stayed confined to one room so I just sweep up the food daily.

 

[selinakyle]

We have 2 floors, the first time she peed outside of the box i still had the second box in place. It was early on but she does use the box to pee in sometimes too she just seemed to like peeing in certain places also? Its odd, im thinking maybe the previous owner wasn't completely honest about her using the box or didn't know as she wasn't a strictly indoor kitten where she was born but with me she's only indoors. After i cleaned the carpet spot with vinager she didnt pee there again, she peed on the kids couch 3 times each time i cleaned it hard core with disinfectant but i completely forgot the vinager and baking soda i believe maybe she could still smell with her kitty senses and kept using it as a pee pad so i finally cleaned it with vinager and baking soda and moved it to a room she hasnt been im yesterday and im not 100% sure if shes peed anywhere else because her pee isnt very smelly and unless the carpet is damp or feels strange its hard to tell. My mom who can smell a cat from a mile a way said she couldn't smell anything when she was here yesterday so.. im hoping she hasn't.

 

[selinakyle]

To be clear i HAVE checked the house for pee lol its just hard to tell because the color of my carpet is stain forgiving and her pee doesnt really smell unless i go up to it and check (gross i know but i have 2 toddlers and i have to play the sniff the stain game often, most of the time crossing my fingers praying its juice)

 

[catlover73]

I was curious so I did a search on Amazon.  There are several different types of black light pet urine detectors for sale on their website.  This might be useful to you to check for questionable wet spots on your carpet.  

Have you taken her to a vet to rule out a medical any medical issues for her issues? 

Also there is a link for articles at the very top of the behavior forum.  There maybe some helpful advice there on how to deal with these issues.

Another place to look for advice might be on Jackson Galaxy's website.  He is a cat behaviorist that has a tv show.  There is a lot of information available on the Learn tab at the top of his website

Here is a link from his website that may be helpful to you.

http://jacksongalaxy.com/category/pee-poop-problems/. 

You can also do a search of the behavior forum itself for litter box issues to see if there are any articles that may be helpful to you. Also you can look at some of the threads on this issue to see if there is something other members have done that may something else you could try.

 

[selinakyle]

Awesome!! Thank you for all of the info! Im going to check all of this out! I haven't taken her to the vet just yet, other then the peeing outside the box she seems healthy but you are right it is hard to tell with cats because they tend to mask symptoms and so If it continues after ive done more research then i will get her check up sooner rather than later as I had planned.