- Joined
- Dec 11, 2021
- Messages
- 5
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Hi! this is my first post here, and also our first young kitten (we have a 6 year old cat, Willow, that joined our family when she was 9 months). Baby Cedar is 8 weeks old and super sweet and adorable...very confident and outgoing, and VERY crazy. He is settling in well, already co-existing peacefully with our 3 dogs and older cat. Right now he is staying in an XL dog crate with an attached exercise pen. He's 100% on using his box when confined to this small area, but I was letting him out to get acquainted with the rest of the house, and he has now had 2 potty accidents. Both times were the exact same spot: on our Christmas tree skirt. I washed it in the washing machine both times. It seems when he is out of his confined area, he never goes back to the box on his own (he just wants to play!) I usually will let him explore for 30 min or so at a time, then bring him back to his pen and he'll go to the bathroom. I even put a litter box right next to the tree after his first accident, and he used it, only to go in the tree skirt about 15 min later. He was using pine pellet litter, is it possible the smell of the (real) christmas tree reminds him to go potty? I bought him some kitten attract litter and put it next to the pine litter, and he definitely prefers the softer clay litter to the pine pellets. Long term I'd like him to use the pine pellet litter which is what Willow uses (more natural, less dust, less odor, less tracking). Should I stick with the pine pellet or try to switch him from clay to pellet when he's older and more consistently trained? Is 8 weeks just too young to trust him free roaming? Willow has always been perfect with her litter box habits, so this is new to me! I know he's just a baby, but I don't want him to form bad habits!
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