Advice on kittens? Cat owners please :)

[babyjan]

My family recently (last Friday) got a kitten it was about 8 weeks. It keeps peeing and pooping around the house especially near the curtains and my mother has removed and washed the curtains only for it to repeat again!

Any advice on how to get it to use its litter tray?

Also because this is all new to us, how often should they be fed? And do they only need water?

 

[Bella1185]

Don't have cats but had many growing up and my uncle is a vet so we occasionally foster kittens.

8 weeks is fairly young, but in general, kittens/cats should take naturally to using a litter box. Your family needs to put kitten in smaller, enclosed area with litter, water, food, toys etc for several days or maybe a week. As long as it takes to get the hang of using the litter box. Maybe a spare bathroom or small bonus room. By no means do I mean abandon the little guy (should have lots of socialization and playtime!) it just needs to be isolated from the rest of the house so it can learn where is the appropriate place to go potty.

Cats do well with dry food left out (refresh often) and a bowl of fresh cool water that is changed often.

Also, has the kitten been to the vet? If it hasn't been then it needs to go asap. The vet will also be able to make sure it doesn't have a urinary tract infection or other bacteria/parasite, which could be causing the random accidents around the house

Good luck!

 

[suzib76]

Sounds silly but have you shown the kitten what it's for? You can gently put them in and scrape their front paws through the litter to mimick the cast actions when they toilet, also if you catch them doing anything anywhere else just place them in the tray and make a big fuss of them so it enforces positivity.

ETA also you could try putting the tray by the curtains where kitty was going before

 

[Louise88]

Hi, is kitten definitely 8 weeks? usually kittens learn from their mums where to go toilet, cats in general are clean animals and if its doing its business in the same area try putting the litter tray in that area for now and if you catch the kitten in the act move to the tray (just like you would with a puppy) and when the kitten is confidently using the litter tray move the litter tray into the area you want it and hopefully the kitten will start using it all the time.

I have 2 kittens who I was told were 8 weeks but were only 5/6 weeks luckily I knew this as my mum used to breed and show pedigree cats when I was little. they also chose an area to do their business luckily putting the litter tray in that area got them using it and they use it full time now however if I don't clean the tray frequently (every other day) they refuse to use it and will let me know by taking a casual poop right in front of me while staring at me

look at a few pictures of 6 week old kittens, 8 week old kittens etc. and if you think their undder 8 weeks id personally buy some kitten milk (or goats milk) from the suermarket and just offer some once a day for a week or 2,

 

[Hayley90]

ours was kept in one half of the kitchen for a week till he mastered the litter tray. once they have weed somewhere once, chances are they will do it again unless all trace of the smell is removed, they have marked that area otherwise. we had to throw out our duvet for this reason!

ours has 3 small meals of kitten food a day, some websites said more and others said less, but breakfast/lunch/dinner is easy to remember for us.

ours just has water.

 

[mummylove]

The cat is still young and will still need litter training. Get them to keep showing the cat the tray and putting the cat in. This is normal for a cat so young. I have 3 cats and all my 3 cats did it when they was that young. Might sound silly but if the cat does a wee or poo say to the cat good boy/girl