Help ! Kitten peeing on bed even though she uses the litter box

[bipsoucolline]

Hello everyone,

I'm writing you because my partner and I are a bit at loss over our kitten's behavior.

For a bit of context : we got this 9 weeks old kitten four days ago. She needed a bit of time to adjust but now she seems pretty happy with her new home - not scared anymore when we move around, stopped hiding when sleeping to stay near us, started to look for every mischief she can do and every furniture she can climb on ... She is my first ever kitten and I was impressed at how quickly she learns. At first, we had some issues like scratching/biting to play with our hands/feet, not using the cat condo, but we followed every advice we could find to change that and she made a lot of  progress on these points. 

Still, one problem remains ...

The little girl learned where her litter-box was and what the point of it was. We still have to carry her or accompany her there to encourage her to use it, but she started to use it by herself too. And she never does her business anywhere else except ... on our bed. Every single evening since she's here, she peed on it. When we were in the room to see it - but not always fast enough to stop it. And she even did it when she just had a pee in the litter-box minutes before.

The first time it looked like an accident - frightened kitty in her new home - but now it can't be only that. We're short of ideas to make her stop and we're a bit tired of being always wary when she goes on the bed. 90% of the time it's just to run around on it and play, or sleep.

We tried the following :

 - close the access to the bedroom while we're not home or while we're home but not in the bedroom to keep an eye on her

 - placing her in the box after nap / meal / playtime

 - placing her in the box everytime she squats to pee 

 - scolding her everytime we take her doing it - which is everytime she did it, and I swear she perfectly understands when we say "No" by now

 - we washed one set of bedsheets already

 - we put vinegar on the place she peed on

 - we placed a second litter-box in another room, but she never used it, she just played with it, so we removed it

Despite all our efforts, she still did it yesterday evening

We've read about Dr Elsey's Litter Attract but we live in France and we can't find it here. Today, i'll try to find a different litter to try and see if it changes anything, but since she uses the one we already have, I'm not very confident it will work ...

Are we just being impatient with our still adjusting kitten ? Any advice ?
We don't want her to take a definite habit of peeing on the bed every night.

 

[bad cat chris]

I think preventing access to your bed was the best idea, you just need to stick with it and make sure it is 100% of the time. It is now either a habit or she can smell traces of urine on the bed which prompts her to want to pee there. Dr. Elsey's worked for my cat's pooping problem. Perhaps you can buy it online. It is worth the price.

 

[bipsoucolline]

Thank you for your answer !

We'll think more about Dr Elsey's but I fear for the price ( litter + transport ) and the delay to get it from US to France. But a lot of people are saying it works very well, so it may be worth it. My only concern is : if we buy some, will we have to use Dr Elsey's forever or just for a while ? 

As to preventing access to the bed 100% of the time, it's a bit difficult. She was used to sleep with her previous owner and she stuck to that habit right away with us, even the first evening when she was still a bit wary and scared. Plus, she doesn't mind if we close the bedroom ... as long as we're not inside it without her. We tried once to close the bedroom as we were going to bed and as soon as she realized it she began to meow as loudly and desperately as she did when she was terrified on her way from her birthplace to her new home ... 

 

[lynsgems]

You say this kitten is only 9 weeks old?  This poor little baby doesn't know yet that she has to jump off your bed and go find the litter box.

Please keep her in a small area while she learns how to be a big kitty.  She may not be happy at first, but babies need time to learn they need to find the littler box when they need to potty.  9 week old babies don't know how to do this yet, especially if they are on a very big bed with room to move around.  They will stay there and use an area that is close.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

 
You say this kitten is only 9 weeks old?  This poor little baby doesn't know yet that she has to jump off your bed and go find the litter box.

Please keep her in a small area while she learns how to be a big kitty.  She may not be happy at first, but babies need time to learn they need to find the littler box when they need to potty.  9 week old babies don't know how to do this yet, especially if they are on a very big bed with room to move around.  They will stay there and use an area that is close.

  She is the equivalent of a human toddler at this age.  Her potty training isn't perfect yet.  I would keep her in a smaller area where she won't have far to go when she suddenly realizes she has to go!  It may also help to temporarily have those extra boxes around.  Keeping her out of the bedroom for a few months might be a good idea too.  Do wash what you can with an enzyme cleaner so it removes the traces of urine that she may be able to smell (even what our human noses may miss).  These are just temporary things.  She should get much better at her bathroom skills over the next month or two; but it's best to encourage good habits sooner rather than later.

Welcome to TCS!  I hope you have many happy years with your new kitten!

 

[bipsoucolline]

 
You say this kitten is only 9 weeks old?  This poor little baby doesn't know yet that she has to jump off your bed and go find the litter box.

Please keep her in a small area while she learns how to be a big kitty.  She may not be happy at first, but babies need time to learn they need to find the littler box when they need to potty.  9 week old babies don't know how to do this yet, especially if they are on a very big bed with room to move around.  They will stay there and use an area that is close.

It seems like it was it the first time she did it ! But  then, she willfully jumped on the bed to pee. I mean that she jumped on and less than 2 minutes later, it was it ...

We tried to put a second box of the same litter closer to the room she spend her day in and easier to find. But she only used it to play. We would find her scattering the litter around the living room and chasing the rolling bits. She never did that with the other box.

Yesterday though, we tried replacing this second litter with an entirely different litter to see if she would prefer it. She had a surprising reaction ! She sniffed around it, jumped in it, was about to do her business ... then she changed her mind and ran straight to the first box to do it there ! Yesterday was the first day she didn't pee anywhere else than in her box 

 

Other than this little issue, she is really sweet and more and more daring as days pass. She loves to play with us and then cuddle to rest a bit, and then play again until she just can't run anymore 

 

 

[bad cat chris]

Dr. Elsey sells just the attractant that you add to litter. The shipping should be cheap for that but you have to use it with unscented litter only.

 

[bipsoucolline]

News from the unruly kitten !

It's been five days now that she has two different litter and we're convinced for good that she knows what they are for. She even developped a weird habit of peeing only in one of them and pooping in the other. 

But the pee on the bed is still an issue.

There's been progress, though. We still often accompany her to the litter box or put her in it. But she also goes there by herself more and more often. She doesn't pee on the bed daily like she used to.  She spend a lot of time on the bed playing - it's fun when you can jump and fall down without hurting yourself, right ? - or sleeping, but never when there's no human to keep an eye on her, which is fine by her as she prefers to be in a room with one of us.

However, she did pee in the bed two times in the last five days. First time , it was really irritating as she was on the bed, purring, lying on her side while I was peting her, and just peed right there ... Second time, it was in the morning. She wakes up before us and plays around in the bed and this time she peed right after playing. Our vet told us to use an indirect object to scare her when she does that, like  water spray, would it work ?

We also thought about keeping her out of the bedroom for days or weeks until she completely forgets about peeing there, but it's too hard to do. Whenever we tried to close the bedroom at night, she cries incredibly loud just near our door. I didn't think such a tiny thing could make such a loud noise. It makes sleeping impossible and we fear she'll wake all our neighbors. We thought she would stop, gritted our teeth and did it several time anyway ... but no. She meows for 5 to 10min full, then stops, ... then meows again half an hour later. 

We also noticed that when she sleeps in our bedroom, she just doesn't go anywhere even though the door's open. She doesn't go eat or go to the litterbox. When she plays, she plays on the bed and no matter how much efforts we put in convincing her to play on the floor or in the next room, she comes back to us in minutes. It was like that even before we tried to lock her out of the bedroom. On the other hand, the full night she spent in the living room, between meow sessions, she ate quite a lot of her kibble, when to the potty, and played by herself.

 

[bad cat chris]

This probably won't work but it may be worth putting a litter box in the bedroom to see what happens.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Progress is progress! 

  I still think it might help to temporarily have an extra box in your bedroom. 

I have heard others talk about having cats who will only use one box to urinate and one for poops.  Apparently it mimics what they would do in the wild.

 

[bipsoucolline]

We had the same idea about the box in the bedroom. Worth a try !