Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi! I got a kitten from a friend's coworker about a month ago. I love the kitten dearly, but am having some issues. I've named her Jamma (yes, like pajamas). She had tapeworms, earmites, and fleas which she was treated for. Ever since I got her when she was 8wks old, she won't cover her pees or poops. I've tried to teach her by grabbing her front paw and gently scratching with it in the box- didn't work. Also, I have a 2 year old female Beagle. The kitten and dog get along great! They play all day, their quite comical! But this is where the funny buisness ends... The kitten does her buisness where ever she wants. I kept her in a small bedroom for the first couple of weeks- no litter box issues. Now I let her roam the house and she poops and pees wherever she is when she has to go. I have two litterboxes- one in the small bedroom, and one behind the couch( area she poops the most). I also put down newspaper behind the couch, and I guess it helps a little. Just today the kitten was in the living room and pooped behind the table which is maybe 10ft from either litterbox. This is a real problem, since we are renting the house we live in, and the carpet is getting stained up, and the Beagle thinks cat poop is a gourmet treat. I clean the litterboxes several times daily and sometimes she will use them and sometimes not. Is she just lazy, and goes potty wherever she is? Will she grow out of it? Please advise!
Jessica

You will need to retrain the kitten to the litterbox. You will need to confine her in a small area again for awhile, at least 2 weeks and see that she uses the litterbox. By placing her food and water within a few feet of the litterbox, she may decide to cover her "stuff". I wold not expand her area untilshe's used the litterbox consistently and then expand her area a little at a time, giving only supervised "outings" and then praising her when she does use the litterbox in your presence. Once the retraining is completed you may want ot invest in a Littermaid if she still does not like to cover her "stuff". I have 5 of them and the litter is always clean and the smell is gone as soon as it is raked into the recepticle (which I line with plastic grocery bags because the recepticles can get expensive. While she is confined take this time to use an exymatic cleaner Like Zero Odor or Simple Solution to clean the areas she has soiled (a couple of times)so she won't repeat, a professional steam cleaning would help as long as you tell the cleaners what areas need to be specially treated and why.
Sometimes it is just a matter of wanting a cleaner litterbox or a different kind of litter or stress from a source that you don't necessarily notice unless you look for it.

Hi Jessica,

I agree with the other poster about retraining the kitten to use the litterbox. I don't know how big your house is, but once she is using the box all the time, and you give her the run of the house again, you might want to add another box.

As far as covering up, some cats just don't do it. I have 10 cats here and a few of them never do. In some cases it might be a cat's way of marking their territory, in others it may be poor training by the mom, or being taken away from mom too early. I'm just glad that all my babies use the litterboxes, not covering up isn't an issue for me. I don't have a dog here, but I know how they love cat poop. It's almost impossible to keep some dogs out of the litterbox.

Take care, and please keep us updated.

Regards,
PHKitkat

I've kept Jamma in the small bedroom when we aren't around to supervise her "outings." She cried and cried for hours! I had to resort to a spray bottle of water to get her quiet. After the first three sprayings, she learned, and I just had to show it to her. Our house is a cottage, and isn't very big, so I thought 2 litterboxes would be enough. Jamma has gone in the litter box all day and yesterday, but because she doesn't cover up, she steps in it and drags poo onto the carpet. She also doesn't clean her bottom, so she leaves spots too. I'm starting to think her mamma cat wasn't around much...