HELP! With New Kitten?

Question

We got our new 7 week old kitten today (female)
She is so cute but i have put her into the litter tray and she is eating the cat litter ???

we have got 2 other cats and i dont remember them eating the litter when we first got them.

Dont worry we are keeping them apart when we go to bed. Ive put kitten food down and done everything right , I just dont know what to do about the litter tray. should i remove it completely and just put newspaper down ???

anyone else who has had this prob, I would appreciate your advice. Thanks

Answer 1

This is natural behavior. She is just curious as most littles ones are and is just tasting it. It won't harm her, and she will get over it, are you giving her some soft food? As with any little one to make a big deal out of it will get her to continue, ingore and redirect will get the responce you want!!! Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I dont know why she is eating the cat litter,but she has just left her Mother so I would make sure she gets lots of milk at the moment.You could take the litter tray away and put some paper down first and take her in the garden first thing in the morning and at night but stay with her to see what she dose,then you could put the tray out in about two weeks time and see if it happens again,also put a little clock in her bed under a cover and she will think it is her mothers heart beat.Hope things go well for her.

Answer 3

If you got your new kitten from the animal shelter, it is possible that she used to sleep in the litter box and this is one reason why she would be in there eating the cat litter. I had this problem when I bought a cat from a shelter, but they soon stop doing this because they realise that it tastes foul and is no good for them.

Even though you are keeping your other cats away from her when you are in bed, she could be stressing about them because she cant see where they are. As she can smell them and she most likely thinks she has done something wrong because she is not with them and you.

I am so glad that you are doing everything right as a lot of people don't, and that's when they have big problems.

Good Luck and I hope this helps

Answer 4

hi
I have grown up with cats my whole life and i have never heard of a cat eating the litter. yuck. (saying that I have a dog who will eat the cat poo in my litter tray if I am not watching, so that is even more disgusting).
Anyways have you tried a woodbased cat litter. I used to use something called beauticat. It is made of of sawdust type pellets. when the cat pees the pellets open up and absorb the liquid. Some cats don't know waht to do at first when you get the woodbase cat litter (it smells really nice like fresh cut pine) but beauticat has a an oduor added (that we can't smell) so the cat know it needs to do its business in the pellets
That is really the only thing I could think of doing other than newspaper but isn't that just a pain to clean up?
Hope it helps

Answer 5

Oh my, one of my kittens did that when she was a baby. If you are using clumping or clay litter, that stufff can congeal like cement inside their little tummys.

I suggest to get some chucks pads sold in the incontinent section of a drugstore (where the Depends are). They are pads with a waterproof backing and absorbent paper-like fibers on the other side. They come in packages of around a dozen. Put one of those in her box and then put newspaper on top so she won't be tempted to chew THAT!

I have found that the "eating litter" habit goes away at around 3 months. If all else fails, there is a litter called "Yesterday's News" sold at places like Petsmart. it's made up of little pellets of recycled paper, and is totally harmless if eaten.

Answer 6

i have small kittens (only 2 weeks old) and spoke to the vet about when to train he said to put in a bark litter as they will chew in the kitty litter and the bark wont hurt them it will help with teething, also to help train it i was told by vet to put the kittens in after each meal and on regular basis once u place kitten in the litter tray wipe ur kittens bottom with a warm cloth this will make it pee or poo then take it out and let it play, this is ment to encourage it to use the kitty litter tray. hope this helps

Answer 7

The litter can definetly be harmful to your kitten if she swallows it.

Try a larger pellet style compressed paper litter, such as Yesterdays News. You can get it at the grocery store. This will hopefully prevent her from swallowing it.

Do not use sand litter, because they'll eat it like crazy. Clay or Pellet would be better.

Could you spray a taste deterrent like bitter apple spray over the litter before you let the cat use it?

Answer 8

i wouldn't worry about it, unless there is something in the litter that could make her sick she will probably find out quite soon that there are lots of other things to eat and that those things are much yummier. we have 3 cats all together we have had 5 and all but one who was the only boy (ginger) have been pregnant and all but 2 have had 2 litters of kittens. one of the cats we got had ginger, and many other kittens and all of them had a good scratch in the kitty litter. i think it is normal for them to look around, scratch around and eat around ( in your case ). i hope every thing goes fine with your three cats, you will probably find that your cat likes to eat something else more than litter.....

Answer 9

i had that same problem with my 2 day old kitten that was abandoned and when i started potty training him. eating the litter is definently not got for her health so you have to correct this problem now. you have to put newspaper down but you want it to seem like it is still a litter box, so what i did was i shredded the news paper. try it it works.

Answer 10

Perhaps the type of litter u are using contains catnip to attract her to use the tray. why dont u try using another type of litter and see how u go? I wouldnt recommend removing the litter tray or u might have worse problems on your hands!!!! lol

Answer 11

She may be just curious in all honest, as kittens tend to be litter trained quite quickly by their mother.

I've found something that may be help though.

I hope she stops soon and comes around for you.