Kitten peeing in her bed? How do I stop this?

My husband and I acquired a 4 week old kitten a few days ago. I am in
the process of trying to litter train her, which is proving difficult.
She seems to have a thing for towels (I think?) I have been making
her a bed with towels, and she keeps peeing on it. I also put a towel
on her litterbox with litter over it, so she'd link the two together,
but why does she keep peeing in her own bed? She SLEEPS there? I'm
surprised she'd soil it.

Any suggestions on training her not to use her bed? I should note
that she's currently living on our ground floor which is tiled, and I
don't want to take the bedding away because I don't want her to sleep
on a hard floor. Additionally, any ideas of what to use instead of
towels for her to sleep on, in case she associates toweling with
urine?

Is she just too young to "get it"?

Many thanks!

Eden

I also put a towel
on her litterbox with litter over it, so she'd link the two together,
but why does she keep peeing in her own bed? She SLEEPS there? I'm
surprised she'd soil it.

She's a baby. Way too tiny to be without her mother. Laura's given some great
links; I just wanted to add, that when I've raised orphans, I used a small pan
with 1" sides The sides are too tall on commercial litterboxes. Good luck with
your new baby.

Thanks for your advice. I am using a baking tray (not to be cooked
with later!) as her litter box, and have placed a soft towel with
litter on top of it. I put her in there quite often and she does pee
in there too (although poop has ended up on my husband's desk!)

I thought 4 weeks was too early too, but when we went to visit the
woman with the litter (she has 10 cats), this was the last one left
and she said the kitten was eating solid food, and was fine to go.
And because of the food issue, we thought it was okay. We figured she
knew what she was talking about!

So, just so I understand - will our kitten finally get the hang of
this all? Is she just too young? Additionally, what are the links
that Laura has given? I haven't seen them.

Thanks so much!

Eden

circa 15 Jun 2004 08:38:28 -0700, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav, Eden
) said,
I thought 4 weeks was too early too, but when we went to visit the
woman with the litter (she has 10 cats), this was the last one left
and she said the kitten was eating solid food, and was fine to go.
And because of the food issue, we thought it was okay. We figured she
knew what she was talking about!

So, just so I understand - will our kitten finally get the hang of
this all? Is she just too young? Additionally, what are the links
that Laura has given? I haven't seen them.

Thanks so much!


Sorry, Eden, I have a no-archive header on my posts, so they don't
show up in Google. I'll pull the header off of this post so you can
see it. This is what my response was to your original posting:

"She's too young to be away from her mother, let alone know how to
use
the litterbox. What caused her to be taken from her mother so early?

As far as the litter training:

http://utut.essortment.com/cathowdolitte_rqwp.htm
http://cats.about.com/library/howto/htlitter.htm
http://www.mismatch.co.uk/catlitter.htm
http://www.healthypet.com/Library/pet_behavior-5.html
http://www.healthypet.com/Library/pet_behavior-6.html

And as a side note:
http://www.showcatsonline.com/at_wha...en_go_to_a_new
_home.htm "

Unfortunately, the person who gave you the kitten at such a young age
was wrong. With that said, if you act as your kitten's "mother" for
the next month or two, she should be fine. :-)

I fell for the same song and dance sixteen years ago when I got my
Jacob- the people swore up and down that he and his brother were
older than they were, and they said they'd have to "cut their heads
off with a shovel" if they couldn't get rid of them. Obviously, I
took Jacob and his brother that day. Gabriel died at age four, sadly,
but Jacob is still going strong. :-)

Laura
--
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
-Oscar Wilde

circa 15 Jun 2004 08:38:28 -0700, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav, Eden
) said,
I thought 4 weeks was too early too, but when we went to visit the
woman with the litter (she has 10 cats), this was the last one left
and she said the kitten was eating solid food, and was fine to go.
And because of the food issue, we thought it was okay. We figured she
knew what she was talking about!

So, just so I understand - will our kitten finally get the hang of
this all? Is she just too young? Additionally, what are the links
that Laura has given? I haven't seen them.

Thanks so much!


Sorry, Eden, I have a no-archive header on my posts, so they don't
show up in Google. I'll pull the header off of this post so you can
see it. This is what my response was to your original posting:

"She's too young to be away from her mother, let alone know how to
use
the litterbox. What caused her to be taken from her mother so early?

As far as the litter training:

http://utut.essortment.com/cathowdolitte_rqwp.htm
http://cats.about.com/library/howto/htlitter.htm
http://www.mismatch.co.uk/catlitter.htm
http://www.healthypet.com/Library/pet_behavior-5.html
http://www.healthypet.com/Library/pet_behavior-6.html

And as a side note:
http://www.showcatsonline.com/at_wha...en_go_to_a_new
_home.htm "

Unfortunately, the person who gave you the kitten at such a young age
was wrong. With that said, if you act as your kitten's "mother" for
the next month or two, she should be fine. :-)

I fell for the same song and dance sixteen years ago when I got my
Jacob- the people swore up and down that he and his brother were
older than they were, and they said they'd have to "cut their heads
off with a shovel" if they couldn't get rid of them. Obviously, I
took Jacob and his brother that day. Gabriel died at age four, sadly,
but Jacob is still going strong. :-)

Laura
--
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
-Oscar Wilde

circa 15 Jun 2004 08:38:28 -0700, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav, Eden
) said,
I thought 4 weeks was too early too, but when we went to visit the
woman with the litter (she has 10 cats), this was the last one left
and she said the kitten was eating solid food, and was fine to go.
And because of the food issue, we thought it was okay. We figured she
knew what she was talking about!

So, just so I understand - will our kitten finally get the hang of
this all? Is she just too young? Additionally, what are the links
that Laura has given? I haven't seen them.

Thanks so much!


Sorry, Eden, I have a no-archive header on my posts, so they don't
show up in Google. I'll pull the header off of this post so you can
see it. This is what my response was to your original posting:

"She's too young to be away from her mother, let alone know how to
use
the litterbox. What caused her to be taken from her mother so early?

As far as the litter training:

http://utut.essortment.com/cathowdolitte_rqwp.htm
http://cats.about.com/library/howto/htlitter.htm
http://www.mismatch.co.uk/catlitter.htm
http://www.healthypet.com/Library/pet_behavior-5.html
http://www.healthypet.com/Library/pet_behavior-6.html

And as a side note:
http://www.showcatsonline.com/at_wha...en_go_to_a_new
_home.htm "

Unfortunately, the person who gave you the kitten at such a young age
was wrong. With that said, if you act as your kitten's "mother" for
the next month or two, she should be fine. :-)

I fell for the same song and dance sixteen years ago when I got my
Jacob- the people swore up and down that he and his brother were
older than they were, and they said they'd have to "cut their heads
off with a shovel" if they couldn't get rid of them. Obviously, I
took Jacob and his brother that day. Gabriel died at age four, sadly,
but Jacob is still going strong. :-)

Laura
--
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
-Oscar Wilde

Thanks for your advice. I am using a baking tray (not to be cooked
with later!) as her litter box, and have placed a soft towel with
litter on top of it. I put her in there quite often and she does pee
in there too (although poop has ended up on my husband's desk!)

I thought 4 weeks was too early too, but when we went to visit the
woman with the litter (she has 10 cats), this was the last one left
and she said the kitten was eating solid food, and was fine to go.
And because of the food issue, we thought it was okay. We figured she
knew what she was talking about!

So, just so I understand - will our kitten finally get the hang of
this all? Is she just too young? Additionally, what are the links
that Laura has given? I haven't seen them.

Thanks so much!

Eden

Thanks for your advice. I am using a baking tray (not to be cooked
with later!) as her litter box, and have placed a soft towel with
litter on top of it. I put her in there quite often and she does pee
in there too (although poop has ended up on my husband's desk!)

I thought 4 weeks was too early too, but when we went to visit the
woman with the litter (she has 10 cats), this was the last one left
and she said the kitten was eating solid food, and was fine to go.
And because of the food issue, we thought it was okay. We figured she
knew what she was talking about!

So, just so I understand - will our kitten finally get the hang of
this all? Is she just too young? Additionally, what are the links
that Laura has given? I haven't seen them.

Thanks so much!

Eden

"Eden" wrote in message
om...
My husband and I acquired a 4 week old kitten a few days ago.

Laura is right, she is way too young. I had always heard that kittens should
be at least six weeks old, and now I think the recommendation is that they
be older than that before separated from their mothers. If her mother is not
dead or otherwise unavailable, someone has made a bad decision.

On 15 Jun 2004 00:59:08 -0700, (Eden) wrote:

My husband and I acquired a 4 week old kitten a few days ago. I am in
the process of trying to litter train her, which is proving difficult.
She seems to have a thing for towels (I think?) I have been making
her a bed with towels, and she keeps peeing on it. I also put a towel
on her litterbox with litter over it, so she'd link the two together,
but why does she keep peeing in her own bed? She SLEEPS there? I'm
surprised she'd soil it.

Any suggestions on training her not to use her bed? I should note
that she's currently living on our ground floor which is tiled, and I
don't want to take the bedding away because I don't want her to sleep
on a hard floor. Additionally, any ideas of what to use instead of
towels for her to sleep on, in case she associates toweling with
urine?

Is she just too young to "get it"?

Many thanks!

Eden

You might trying some hospital pads or baby diapers. As you know, she
is much too young to be away from her mother. She won't learn any
"cat" things. The woman just wanted to get rid of the
responsibility.. (IMHO) MLB