17 week old kitten not properly litter trained

[freak_unique]

Hey I wonder if anyone can help me, we have 4 kittens ( 3 of them are brothers and sisters and are 20 weeks old and are perfectly litter trained) but one of them he is the cousin of them and is 17 weeks old isnt properly litter trained, he will always poo in the tray never out, but will never go and wee in there. Always on the carpet!we are at our wits end, have been cleaning carpet thoroughy, it has even got to the stage every few hours i will place him in the tray and he will wee then come out so he obviously needs it just seems he will go where ever he is. He has taken to doing it in the bath now :S anyone have any other ideas what we can do? or have any similar experiences?
TIA

[DSJ]

It is strange to have this problem with a kitten or cat. As you probably already know, they normally use a litter tray by instinct & don't have to be taught. What does your vet say? Your kitten may have a bladder problem which can be sorted.

[jules77]

give it time, you have to have patience, the more you fret the worse it will get. At least the bath is as good a place as any, within a few weeks he will be doing it in the loo!!

animals are like babies, and they all mature at different times, some babies are potty trained at 9 months, others are nearly 3 years old.

Try putting the litter tray in the bath.

[Katy May]

How many litter trays do you have? In a multi cat household it's recommended that you have one tray per cat plus a spare, placed in different rooms/locations around the house. This is in case one cat claims the litter tray for it's own, if you only have one tray it's possible that one of your cats is banning the cousin from entering. Having said that, I've got 4 cats and have two litter trays. Couldn't stand the thought of 5 litter trays!

Also, what kind of litter are you using. We had problems when we used the paper pellet litter as it was uncomfortable for them to walk on, so they didn't bother.

Finally, your kitten might be attracted to places smelling of his urine and consider them his toilet areas. You can buy sprays from the Vets to neutralise the urine scent or try washing the area in biological washing powder (not bleach based cleaners, they don't work for this).

Apparently, it is possible to train your cat to use the toilet - there was a website showing the steps to take, but it would freak me out seeing my cats use the loo (and I bet they wouldn't flush it or put the seat down after!)

[freak_unique]

Jules77 - thankyou for your answer. I think the thing that was confusing me is that he was fine at the start, yeah the bath is a better place than the carpets hehe! I think i have cracked it now anyways, ive put an open litter tray (rather than litter box) and he seems to use that all the time, maybe as hes got bigger hes not as keen on the litter box? (lidded trays)!

[freak_unique]

katy may - I had 2 litter boxes but have just added an open litter tray and he seems to use that all the time so maybe he didnt like the enclosed ones? i think ive cracked it! well fingers crossed hehe thanks for your answers all :)