We have got a new kitten about a month ago and since that time our two cats will not use their litter tray. They are not going anywhere else in the house, just saving it to go outside. We have got them a new litter tray as the kitten did step in theirs but he didn't use it. But they have still not used this once.

The kitten is kept away from our cats as they are still no where near accepting him.

How can I get our cats to use the litter tray again?

Help

what is their reaction when around the kitten

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Thank you for the reply.

One of the cats is about as unhappy about the situation as possible. Won't go near the kitten, will stay out of the house most of the day.

The other cat, comes in for food and does mingle a bit with the kitten. However, she still hisses at the kitten, as the kitten is bonkers and will either try and ride her like a horse or get milk from her.

awww the manic kitten syndrome lol i have this problem with my foster she isn't keen on my kittens. Have you tried having them in the same room with you holding the kitten letting them smell her tail

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How many litter trays do you have?

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A month seems quite a long time to still be at this very early stage of integration.

May I ask how you went about introducing the kitten to your other cats and also ask the ages of all three at the time you got the kitten?

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The two cats we already have are female and 4/5 years old, kitten is male as we have been informed this is the best gender combination. As far as introducing them, we let the more sociable one in the same room and have held the kitten to be smelt. As far as the other cat she was clearly not happy as soon as she was aware there was another cat. So there has been no official introduction other than if our cat control strategy breaks down and they meet. Which ends in the older cat going MAD trying to get away.

We now have 3 litter trays, one for the kitten, the cats old one and a new one we thought the old cats might start using.

I hope that all the questions answered, thank you for your interest

well with one of mine i messed up the introductions so it took longer to settle him, what i did though was kept the cats inside for a while letting them know they have not been replaced, you may find that the one who is completely freaked by the kitten will never become friends but will learn to tolerate each other have you got any pics of these babies

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Thank you.

First up, girlie cats are (quite surprisingly) much more territorial than boys so they will take a while longer to get used to your new addition.

Secondly, I think your introduction may have been a bit off base, a bit too quick and this is what is causing the problem. May I suggest that you go right back to the beginning and start again.

Put kitten in his own room with his litter tray, food & toys. DO NOT let your other cats into that room at all for at least 3 days but really, ideally, closer to a week. I appreciate that this will be difficult as he has now had the run of the house but you need to give ALL your cats time to settle down and for the girls to feel safe and unterrorised in their own home again.

Over the course of that week, work on scent transferral. Put some bedding for him to lie on (old towels, blankets, jumpers, tee-shirts will do) and put some down also for your girls. Over the week, swap this bedding around so that they all become used to the scent of each other.

Get some old socks, put them on your hand and then rub the kitten all over, paying close attention to the areas around the mouth, chin and bottom as this is where the best scent glands are located. Take these socks and then rub the girls down with them - this gets his smell 'onto' them and mixes it up with their own scent. Also - cats have 'smell' glands on their tongues so this will be taken in when they groom themselves. Keep doing this over the week - also rubbing down your girls with the socks and then putting their scent onto your lad. Keep mixing the scents up as much as you can and as often you can.

After a week, take the kitten out of his room, put him somewhere else and allow the girls in to have a damn good sniff about. It is possible that they may have already been sniffing around the bottom of the door to his room in the previous week. If they do this - still DO NOT let them into the room until you are at this stage.

At this point, you can allow Jnr back into the other rooms of the house but ONLY when the girls are either safely asleep on your bed and you can close the door on them or when they are out. As soon as the girls are back in the house or wandering about, Jnr must go back into his room. Let the girls get used to smelling him around their home without actually seeing him.

By the 10-day point you can allow the girls to 'see' him. Now if you have a room with a glass door, this is one of the best ways of doing this. One cat in one room, the others on the other side. They can see each other, hiss at each other but cannot attack each other. Give your girls treats for good behaviour - ie not hissing at him. Once they are at the stage of looking through the glass with minimal hissing, you can start to allow them into the same room. As a precaution, you may want to put him in his carrier the first time around. With a bit of luck, the girls will not be quite as fazed by him at this stage. If you do not have a glass door, I would suggest that Jnr be put in his carrier in one room and someone hold your other cats in turn in the other room and you can allow them to 'see' each other but not be near each other. Work on reducing the gap between them until they are close.

By this time, you should find the hissing down to a minimum and you can start to allow him free roam of the house again. After this, work on getting them close to each other during play & eating. Gradually going from distance to being close. Give treats for good behaviour and ignore any cat giving bad behaviour for a short time. If there is hissing, distract the cats with a play toy like a feather wand for example.

Whilst you do all of this, you may benefit from some Feliway plug-ins which give off cat pheramones and help to relax cats. Your girls might appreciate this.

Hopefully, this slower and proper introduction will help with your girls weeing in their trays again. However, if it doesn't, it might be because your boy is not yet neutered (I am assuming this of course) and his wee may smell a bit stronger and this could put the girls off. Once he has been done, you may find that everything is more chilled.

Let us know how you get on if you do decide to try this.

If I have missed anything here, or anyone else can add to this, please do so.

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Mb might be right there there is also the trick of putting newbie in the carrier and letting the resident kitties to sniff him whilst in there they will feel a lot safer being the free ones lol

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