My kitten doesn't go in her litter box.

[nikkisand]

Hi there, 

I recently adopted a 7 week old kitten (she was four weeks when I got her--she was orphaned at three weeks) who is having litter box issues.  She goes in the litter box when she is confined in a room.  But when she is roaming the house, she tends to go wherever.  I clean up after her with an enzyme cleaner so she doesn't smell her pee but she still goes in certain areas.  I have two litter boxes, one in the bathroom, one in the laundry room.  I clean it twice a day! Is there any other advice someone could give me to help her go in her litter box?  

On another note, same little kitten licked a piece of onion.  Thankfully, she still makes slurping noises so when I heard her making that noise, I quickly grabbed it away from her.  Should I be concerned?  What symptoms should I be looking for?

I should add I'm a new kitty mama to a seven week old kitten and a 13 week old kitten.  Absolutely love them but they keep me on my toes!! lol.  

 

[catlover73]

How many floors do you have in your home?  Ideally there should be at least one on each floor.  I got one of my cats Starbuck when she was 6 weeks old and she was orphaned by some jackass who threw her out a car window at 3 weeks old.  She was so tiny when I adopted her that she could not really navigate the stairs in my house well.    She would shoulder surf to get up and down the stairs.  She is a munchkin.  She had full access to the house but I had extra litter boxes all over.  I had one upstairs in my master bathroom, 1 upstairs in our den. 1 hidden in my living room and the three litter boxes for all the cats in my basement.  I would add more litter boxes to make sure the kitten has time to get to one.  Starbuck slept with us at night and would hang out with us in the den and living room.  She never had any accidents. 

I got Casey when he was 7 weeks old and he was bigger than Starbuck and could navigate the stairs easily on his own.  I kept my regular litter box set up in the basement and added one to the master bathroom upstairs.  He never had  an accident.

Kittens do not always know they have to go to the bathroom fast enough to get to the litter box.   I took the kittens and gently placed them in a litter box in each location so they knew where the bathroom was.

I do not have any kittens right now so all my litter boxes are in the basement.

I also added another litterbox upstairs for my senior kitties when they got older and had some health issues.

I hope someone else comes along that has more experience with this issue,.

 

[Anne]

Welcome to TCS! 

Two kittens at home is definitely a lot of work! 

As for the onion - if she only licked it, I think it should be ok. Ingesting a substantial amount would be more of an issue. I'll move this thread to the behavior forum since it's mostly about the litterbox issues.

I agree with @catlover73  - she may find it difficult to get to a litterbox in time. You mentioned she uses two other spots regularly? How about temporarily placing small boxes there for her? You can try and gradually move them back to where you want them later on, after she gets used to using them.

Another consideration is the other kitten. It's possible that he's deterred her from using the litterboxes you placed for them. It only takes one or two bad experiences there for her to seek refuge elsewhere. Here's a link to solving litterbox issues. It has tons of info and internal links to follow, according to the situation you have -

 [article="32366"]How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats The Ultimate Guide​[/article]  

 

[nikkisand]

 
How many floors do you have in your home?  Ideally there should be at least one on each floor.  I got one of my cats Starbuck when she was 6 weeks old and she was orphaned by some jackass who threw her out a car window at 3 weeks old.  She was so tiny when I adopted her that she could not really navigate the stairs in my house well.    She would shoulder surf to get up and down the stairs.  She is a munchkin.  She had full access to the house but I had extra litter boxes all over.  I had one upstairs in my master bathroom, 1 upstairs in our den. 1 hidden in my living room and the three litter boxes for all the cats in my basement.  I would add more litter boxes to make sure the kitten has time to get to one.  Starbuck slept with us at night and would hang out with us in the den and living room.  She never had any accidents. 

I got Casey when he was 7 weeks old and he was bigger than Starbuck and could navigate the stairs easily on his own.  I kept my regular litter box set up in the basement and added one to the master bathroom upstairs.  He never had  an accident.

Kittens do not always know they have to go to the bathroom fast enough to get to the litter box.   I took the kittens and gently placed them in a litter box in each location so they knew where the bathroom was.

I do not have any kittens right now so all my litter boxes are in the basement.

I also added another litterbox upstairs for my senior kitties when they got older and had some health issues.

I hope someone else comes along that has more experience with this issue,.

Thank you for this!  I live in a one bedroom apartment.  I'm not sure what the deal is but a few days after I posted this, she started to regularly go in the litter box! Yay!

 
Welcome to TCS! 

Two kittens at home is definitely a lot of work! 

As for the onion - if she only licked it, I think it should be ok. Ingesting a substantial amount would be more of an issue. I'll move this thread to the behavior forum since it's mostly about the litterbox issues.

I agree with @catlover73  - she may find it difficult to get to a litterbox in time. You mentioned she uses two other spots regularly? How about temporarily placing small boxes there for her? You can try and gradually move them back to where you want them later on, after she gets used to using them.

Another consideration is the other kitten. It's possible that he's deterred her from using the litterboxes you placed for them. It only takes one or two bad experiences there for her to seek refuge elsewhere. Here's a link to solving litterbox issues. It has tons of info and internal links to follow, according to the situation you have -

 [article="32366"]How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats The Ultimate Guide​[/article]  

Thank you for your response!  She started to go in her regular spot so I squirt her and she ran to the litter box.  She started to go there ever since! Maybe she matured a bit haha.  

 

[Anne]

Maybe she realized you went to TCS and figured she would have to go back to the box now, one way or another 

Thanks for this awesome update! I hope you stick around and share more about your kitten. One thing though, it's generally not a good idea to squirt water at a cat. It can stress out some cats. Here's more about that - 

 [article="32493"]The Dos And Donts Of Cat Behavior Modification​[/article]  

 

[nikkisand]

Thank you for that!  I had no idea, I feel so bad now!!