Kittens sleeping in litterbox

[huntercats]

Hey guys, just joined this site and you all seem like a friendly bunch. About 3 weeks ago our housekeepers cat had her first litter of 3 kittens. She's an outdoor cat so she does her business outside but I'm raising her kittens to be indoor cats so they can find good homes. Since they're almost 4 weeks old I decided it was time to start litter training them so I placed a shoebox lined with plastic in their pen and filled it with some homemade cat litter. Problem is, they keep wrestling and sleeping in it! I went to check on them in the morning and they kicked half the litter out. I played with them till they were tired and put them in their bedding on the other side of the pen. But they crawled back to the litterbox and huddled in it to go to sleep. Is this okay? Will they eventually learn how to use it? Their mum can't teach em coz she's never seen a litterbox in her life. I try to stimulate their bowels but they walk/squirm away. Any advice?

 

[minka]

Hmm.. I would be a bit worried about keeping them away from their momma like that. Kittens taken away from their moms tend to not learn how to act properly, and don't know biting and scratching isn't acceptable. I would bring momma in and keep them together. They still need to be nursing and I think are still too young to learn how to use the litterbox.

I would also get momma fixed so she doesn't keep having kittens. It's quite possible she is pregnant again already.


Welcome to TCS!

 

[huntercats]

Their mom still looks after them. She's just a little clueless sometimes and doesn't seem to enjoy being around them. She doesn't even know how to pick them up. She feeds them for a couple of minutes and hops out. I have seen her clean them up too. We have to lock her in the room most of the day so she stays with them and give her long mommy breaks once or twice a day. One of them has taken to baby food and moistened dry food already.

I can't spay her because she's not my cat and I'm 19 and don't have a job. I live in Central Africa and the vets here are ridiculously expensive. There's only one animal shelter here but they're underfunded so they can't always do free spaying. I've saved up money to get the kittens vaccinated and buy them food. Unless vaccinating isn't all that important I could probably sacrifice that money to spay her. What do you think?

 

[huntercats]

So should I take the litter box away and wait till their old enough?

 

[catwhisperer1]

Its the mother who usually does teach the kittens how to use the litterpan at about the age your kittens are at now.  When kittens first start eating solid food, their feces start changing & the mother cat starts teaching them to go to the litter pan.



Since this mother cat goes outdoors, she probably used to using soil to relieve herself in and like most outdoor cats, doesn't know what litter is for.  What you can do with the mother cat is offer her a litter pan of about 3/4 potting soil & 1/4 clay litter.  If possible get a little of the mother cats own feces and put them in her potting soil/litter pan so her own scent is there. Put the cat and kittens in a bathroom or other small room (make sure there's no holes, etc they could crawl into) & provide the mother cat food, water & the litter pan of 3/4 potting soil & 1/4 clay litter in it.  The mother cat should use that litter pan just fine.  In a few days, when you change the litterpan, this time mix 2/3 potting soil & 1/3 clay litter in the pan.  After that mix 1/2 potting soil & 1/2 clay litter.  Continue gradually reducing the amount of potting soil in the litter pan & increasing the amount of clay litter in the litter pan until the mother cat has been successfully converted over to using litter. If at any point the mother cat should happen to refuse to use the litter pan (I've never had one do it) go backward one step to mixing the potting soil with the litter in the same proportions as you mixed it when the cat last used the litter pan fine & wait at least a week this time before increasing the litter portion of the mixture.



I've had to start out with potting soil mixtures with a number of cats who were brought to me with kittens where the mothers had been outdoor cats and had never used litter before & gradually convert the cats over to litter as above described & it worked with all of them.



Also try to keep the mother cat inside until you can afford to get her spayed or until the shelter can spay her for free or at reduced cost.  A cat often comes right back in heat when her kittens are around 8 weeks old and if not kept confined she most likely will get bred again that soon.

 

[orientalslave]

I think spaying is more important than vaccinating.  Mum presumably wasn't vaccinated and will have passed some immunity on.  If you vaccinate and don't spay / castrate (expect some of them are boys) they will keep reproducing.

 

[minka]

Definitely get her spayed before you vaccinate the kittens. :nod:

 

[huntercats]

Thanks CatWhisperer. I'll try that method. She's a quick learner so I'm sure she'll take to it.

Okay, so when should I get her spayed? At 8 weeks? I still think I might not have enough money though. I'm considering convincing my housekeeper to surrender her to a shelter if I wont get the money in time. She's really nice and has good manners so I'm sure someone will want her. Or hopefully I can convince the shelter that I need a free spay. I don't know. We'll see I guess.

 

[huntercats]

Btw, what exactly are kittens vaccinated against at 8 weeks and 12 weeks? Didi (the housekeepers cat) has never been vaccinated. She seems healthy. Could she be carrying some underlying pathogen or virus that can be transmitted to humans as a result of not vaccinating her?

 

[Willowy]

I think rabies is fairly common in Africa so she really should be vaccinated against that (the kittens won't be old enough). The rest of the diseases, I don't know how common they are in the area, that would determine how important the vaccinations are. De-worming is pretty important, but that's quite inexpensive (ask the shelter for what they use).

I agree that spaying the mom cat is more important than vaccinating the kittens. Otherwise you're going to have 2-3 litters a year to find homes for. And that's going to be extremely expensive, even if all you do is feed them, and disease transmission is hard to keep a handle on when there are too many cats.

 

[minka]

Spay the mother first, not the kitten.
:nod:

 

[huntercats]

I see, so it's for regional diseases? Rabies isn't too common here especially since I live on an isolated farm outside town. There is the occasional rabid dog in a township but ever since the government decided to start shooting down stray dogs to reduce any incidences you berely see any dogs out. Though I have no idea where some of these feral cats come from so I would probably be better safe than sorry.

 

[Willowy]

No, the vaccines are for the same things everywhere. But not all the diseases are as common everywhere. Make sense?

I wouldn't want to live with an outdoor cat who isn't vaccinated against rabies. Vaccinated pets are an important barrier between wildlife and humans. You may be able to ask for the vaccine and give it to her yourself.

 

[huntercats]

Lord no D: I'm a wimp when it comes to needles. I wouldn't jab her myself. I'll let them handle it when I take her to get spayed.