My kitten is peeing all over the house! Please help me!

[Ginger]

I am going insane. We got a male kitten 12 weeks old about a month ago. He is a lovely kitten and is great with the kids, but he pees and poos all over the house. He also uses the litter box. At first i just accepted that he has a few accidents here and there as he is young and new to our family but seriousley, this is getting beyond a joke. the whole house stinks and it feels disgusting to be here. He wees all over our beds constantly and yesterday he pooed on my ds's doona. The washing he is creating at the moment is doing my head in. Today i have had to wash 3 doonas and a mountain load of linen. He also pees all over clothes if they are left on the ground and bathmats. If you can't already tell, i am at breaking point. can anyone help me?

[Elocin]

When we first got our 2 kittens in Jan last year, they were the same. I spent a fortune on blankets and pillows for them, only to have to throw them all out due to the fact that they were stained with wee and poo.

If DH and I kicked the doona on to the floor, we'd wake up a nice brown present every time.

Are they only weeing on things on the floor? Or are they jumping onto beds to do their business?

In the end, we had to simply lock them out of every bedroom / the bathroom (oh did I mention they would jump into the bathtub and wee on the clothes in the dirty clothes basket??). They were only allowed in the kitchen and lounge/dining room for a good couple of months.

I could leave NOTHING on the floor, which might be harder if there are little kids in the house, but blankets, beanbags, cushions, everything had to be picked up. Even now, if the girls have the matress or the beanbags out in the spareroom, the door stays closed until everything is picked up.

Cats don't like citrus, so could you get some citrus smelly things / spray in the areas you don't want them in?

GL hun xo

[CrazyLady]

i was going to suggest citrus too. I think they have lemon scented washing powder too which may help prevent them soiling clothing. I make sure my cat's food bowl is right near his litter tray and remove solids clumps and poo once a day. i found the crystals tend to last longer because they smell fresher to him. otherwise he digs holes in the garden and buries it camping style... hth

[Aussiegirl777]

So sorry that you are having such a stressful time with your kitten. Can I ask:

1. Is he an outside cat at all? If so every time he eats you should take him outside to the garden to go to the toilet.

2. Where is his kitty litter tray? It should be kept well away from where he eats and sleeps. It should also be cleaned every day. Cats are very tidy animals and very particular about where they go to the toilet. Going to the toilet on the doona or on blankets is quite common for a new cat, it feels nice and comfortable to them so they keep doing it until you train them not too....if he wees or poos on the doona take him straight to his kitty litter tray and pop him in there.

3. What type of kitty litter are you using? It's the same thing as the doona. If your cat doesn't like the feel of that particular type of kitty litter then he is less likely to use it all the time. Sometimes it's trial and error and you have to go through a few different types to find the litter that your cat prefers.

4. At night try locking him in the laundry or some other small 'safe' room. Put his bet and his food and his litter in there (with the litter as far removed from everything else as possible) and try to get him used to sleeping in the one spot.

That's about all I can think of for now. I hope that it is useful information and that some others come on with some more suggestions for you.

Good luck.

[Elocin]

3. What type of kitty litter are you using? It's the same thing as the doona. If your cat doesn't like the feel of that particular type of kitty litter then he is less likely to use it all the time. Sometimes it's trial and error and you have to go through a few different types to find the litter that your cat prefers.

Aussiegirl has reminded me... when we first got the boys, I was using crystals - which they hated. Considering they kept going on the doona / clothes / pillows etc, I opted for the recycled paper kitty litter... anything that had a similiar feel on their paws. Since we changed to the paper, we've had less accidents...

[MummaBear79]

We got a 6 week old kitten a few weeks ago and so far she has been pretty good. Just a two accidents when we got her. I actually used to breed cats and I have to say the opposite to Aussiegirl. We keep her litter tray very close to her food. Young kittens will generally need to pee/poo straight after they eat, so we found having the litter tray close to where they eat caused less accidents. As they get older, you can move it away. We also keep her confined to the laundry at night where her food/litter box is so she has no choice but to use the tray. We also did this whenever we went out. We've also found that she has more fun digging around in the clumping litter, however if you use this, make sure they dont eat it!!!

Also, is he desexed yet? You can do this now too

[CrazyLady]

Aussiegirl has reminded me... when we first got the boys, I was using crystals - which they hated. Considering they kept going on the doona / clothes / pillows etc, I opted for the recycled paper kitty litter... anything that had a similiar feel on their paws. Since we changed to the paper, we've had less accidents...

My older cat which we seemed to keep after no lost ads and several weeks prefers the crystals but we have sandier, silt type soil here. He is well trained althouh he seemed a tad feral when we first got him. I never liked cats but this one is like a dog