Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi all, I'm a new member and have a question.

I rehomed two kittens last Saturday (5th September) they were thought to be about eight weeks old. Both were eating fine and using their litter tray that I had placed into my lounge area.
(I had confined them to the lounge area with them being in a new place, the kitchen, dining area and leading to the stairs are all open plan so didn't want them going missing behind the washing machine or anything)
Anyway, they had been great using their litter tray with no problems.
Throughout the week I have been letting them explore the rest of the house. All seemed perfectly fine, so I moved their litter tray into a spot in the kitchen.
The problem now is that they are not using it through the night.
They are using it fine during the day but since getting up each morning since then, they've used one of their blankets as a litter tray instead.
I have no idea why.
There are no obstacles, nothing stopping them from taking the short walk into the kitchen, but they are not doing.

Any advice welcome

How many litter trays have you got? The general rule is one per cat plus one extra, so if you have just one might be worth trying a couple more.

Yes, as Greenkitty says, an extra tray would help, and also, cats, even kittens, can get very set in their ways in a very short time.

'We go to the loo in the lounge, don't we? Well, yes, the tray's in the kitchen now, but the lounge is where we go, especially at night when we wake up, sleepy and caught short...'

If you get my drift lol. They're set in a routine at the moment. It may be your lounge but to them it's their loo.

It might be a good idea to reinstate the lounge tray for the time being and also keep the kitchen one, and slowly accustom them to being shut out of the lounge when you're not there to supervise, so that they get accustomed to using the kitchen tray more and more, and eventually switch their bed to the kitchen, if that's where you want their tray/s to be. They'll catch on and as they grow up you'll be able to allow them the freedom of the house with no worries.

All the best with them

I had 3 litter trays for my 2 kittens. The only times they didn't use them was when they needed a clean! I used to clean them all out every 7 days, but after switching to every 5 days I never had a problem again.

They go outside now but I still keep one on the landing, but it only gets used once every couple of months, usually when it's pouring with rain!

Where do they sleep? In the lounge? My guess is that they know exactly where the litter tray is but just can't get there in time. They're still very little babies and the time it takes for the brain to twig that they need to pee they don't have a lot of time. For now, until they are older, I'd have a tray in the lounge at night as well as the one in the kitchen. With time as they grow older they'll have enough control to hold on long enough to make it to their tray