Help!!! 14 week old kitten scared of tumble dryer

[Aln32]

Hi.
I’m new to here but just need abit of advice.
We already have two cats age 5 and 2 and 8 weeks ago adopted a gorgeous little kitten.
When we brought him home he was brilliant, really confident and friendly, so much so that we could only manage to keep him in his safe room for a week max.
We have a litter robot (it’s amazing - like a clean litter tray after every visit) that the other two are using that’s located in a utility room.
The kitten started using it quite happily on his own with the other two cats and didn’t seem to bother anymore with the extra litter box we put out in his safe room.
A few weeks ago he started having little wee accidents on the carpet and we couldn’t work out why when he’s been using the litter robot happily. He was still using it for poops.
We’ve since moved the litter robot into the dining room and have had no accidents.
We have since realised that we think he is scared of the tumble dryer in the utility room so guessing this was the cause of the wee accidents.
Is there a way we can get him used to the tumble dryer so we can put the litter robot back there as it’s not the best place in the dining room?

[fjm]

You could try associating the tumble dryer with treats - drop a few some yards away from it, and let him decide whether to approach, and gradually move the treats closer over several days. If he does not want to get that close move further back and start again. Once he is happy close to the silent dryer begin again with it running empty or with only soft things (no bangs or bumps), again starting far enough away that he is happy to find the treats and very gradually moving them closer. Is the machine on a timer? If it came on suddenly when he was concentrating on peeing I can quite see how it could have startled him!

If the older cats can be persuaded to sprawl in the vicinity of the dryer that may help him to decide it is not a horrible Kitten Munching Monster. Whatever you do, don't force him - he is much more likely to get over it if you take things slowly.

[Mollycat]

Slightly strange response coming but here goes.

First off, you should really have one tray each plus one for the number of cats, so 3 cats 4 trays in total.

Second, I think I'd be happy if my cats were scared of the washing machine and tumble dryer. I have known one of each be fatal to cats and I am so paranoid because of that I put all the washing in the machine, close the door, then make sure I have sight of every cat before turning it on. Also it's not really surprising for the sudden noise while a cat is inside an enclosed litter tray to frighten the cat.

[Kay]

could you not simply shut the cats out of the utility room when the tumble dryer is on, while moving the litter tray out of the room temporarily