Hello,
I have read most of the messages in this thread, and although my problem is similar, I am still stuck.
We adopted two 8 week old kittens in May. We kept them in the bathroom at night and when we were not home because I was not sure how litter trained they would turn out to be. They did fine, but started pooping in the tub after several weeks. We started leaving a small layer of water in the tub and that stopped the pooping in the tub. We scoop the litter every day, usually several times (my kids like the litter locker), and keep the litter very clean. I stressed to my children that kittens need a very clean litter box, and they have taken it as a personal mission to keep it clean enough because they want the kittens to have house freedom. After a couple weeks they started pooping on the floor, right up against the inside of the bathroom door. I thought they might need a larger box, as I had gotten a smaller one to train them, so we have replaced the box with a larger one. Again we will be fine for a day or two, then not. The stool is loose, so we have stopped the wet food and are only feeding kitten dry food. We are cleaning up the messes with Nature's Miracle Orange Oxy Power, which claims to be 'just for cats - stain and odor remover'. We have had one accident in my daughter's room, but she thinks they were locked in her room and unable to get out.
The kittens are allowed to run free during the day because my kids are home from school for the summer. My problem is two-fold. One is I am getting very tired of having the kittens poop on the floor, especially right inside the door where the door has to rub over the poop to be opened. The second is that I am unsure whether they can be let out unmonitored, because I am unclear whether this is in protest to being locked in the bathroom or whether I will just have this problem on carpet as opposed to tile if I let them out.
The kittens were adopted from a shelter which assured me that they were in good health. They had all their shots etc as of the adoption, and they are due to go to the vet in September. I do not think there is a medical issue because they were completely trained for several weeks before they started pooping in the tub and on the floor, but I may be wrong.
Most of the posts suggest that I retrain them by locking into a room with the litter box. The problem is that this behaviour only happens when they are locked in the bathroom.
I have had my daughter put the smaller box back into the bathroom also, in case they want two litter boxes. Hopefully this will help.
We are trying to sell our house, and I am getting very frustrated. Hopefully someone with more cat experience will see something I do not.
Thank you in advance!
laurieannc
