New kitten, trouble with litterbox and meowing all night

[pepsiandmax]

Hey, my friend just got a new kitten, but they are having loads and loads of trouble. They have had kittens before snd never have they encpubtered something like this and they are very much considering taking her back.

I really want to help, but I thought I could ask if people have advice.

The new kitten (who they were told were toilet trained) have not used the litter box once. She peed in the bed and duvey and all other places and rally did not seem interested in the litterbox (they have the same sand as she have used before).
And the kitten was up all night meowing running around crazy, biting and scratching their feet up. They hsve more or less nott really sleps at all. And today have a lot lf cleanip to do.

So I ha e adviced to play with the kitten a lot before to make her tired. And like with a baby, just let her cry and hope she learns that it does not help.

The litter box have been used by a previous cat so I suggested cleaning it, and maybe buy more and also different litter.

And I did mentioe catnip. Google said different things, that it can attract the kitten to the box by habign a little right outside of it, but not sure of that idea, anyone tried this? Did it work or was it a really bad idea?
I said I myself when having problem with my kittens peeing on the floor, got a second box, put it in the spot, and moved it later when they were used to it (due to smell not the most optimal to have a litterbox right next to the sofa).
Inalsp told them to "be on her"- put her in the box again and again.

So any more advice I could give them?

 

[molly92]

Physically putting her in the litter box won't really help, and might make her have negative associations with it. And I'm not sure catnip is a good idea either, because you don't want them to play with the litter box and young kittens aren't sensitive to catnip anyway. There is a product called cat attract that you can add to litter, or get cat attract brand litter, and it works pretty well for non-medical issues.

Otherwise, your suggestions are good. They definitely need another litter box at least so she has the option, plus cats do best with at least one litter box per cat plus one extra in the house, for precisely this reason. If that doesn't work they can try different litter, different styles of boxes, different placement, etc to see what she prefers. If necessary, she can be confined for a period of time in a bathroom with her litter box (and food, water, and toys) so she doesn't have much of an option, and learns to use it. Also, they need to make sure they use an enzyme cleaner like Nature's Miracle on spots where she has eliminated so there are no residual pheromones that could attract her to using that spot as a bathroom again.

For her energy, I honestly think the best and easiest solution would be to get a second kitten so she could have someone to play with. This also helps a lot with biting and scratching, because when cats grow up with a friend to wrestle with, they learn that biting and scratching is not tolerated much more effectively than any human could teach. Otherwise, it sounds like she has a lot of energy and does need to be played with a lot. If she's trying to get them up in the night, the only thing that will work is to act as if she's not there. Any kind of response at all, positive, negative, or sometimes just a slight movement, is enough for a cat to think they're getting closer to getting the human to do what they want to do, and they don't give up unless they're convinced that they can't wake them.

 

[talkingpeanut]

Quick question - how old is this kitten?

 

[artiemom]

yes, how old is this kitten? and is she neutered?

These are important questions. She could be marking her territory, Or she could just be a kitten who is not trained.

Kittens play a ton! They are always running around, playing. She need lots of stimulating toys to play with at night, some food left out for her to nibble on, more Clean litter boxes and of course, they need to use an enzymatic cleaning to clean up the messes, otherwise she will just return to the same areas to pee..

Also, the owners should ignore her when she wakes them up...If they can...

Kittens are full of energy.. Cats are all nocturnal..meaning they are up at night.