I've had a good read of previous posts and recieved some good information. I was just wondering if diet had any cause for this behaviour. Our kitten is 17 weeks old (ish). She uses the litter tray 80% of the time. She was weeing on the beds, then after we started shutting the doors, this morning she had weeed in the back of my double pram. We have 2 older cats 4yrs old both spayed/nutered. We have 4 litter trays and i have tryed changing the litter, also the feliway diffuser. Would locking her in the bathroom help (because she usually uses the trays). We also are on the brink of rehoming her!
Any information greatfully recieved (we've got 2 dogs as well)
Thanks Aly x

you have older cats, dogs and children....

the first thing I would be checking is that there's no "litter tray bullying" going on. This is kinda hard to explain and it invloves a lot of watching your cats beheviours... often in a multicat household one or more cats will stop a new-comer getting to the trays. But a dog or a child can do this too.

This can be veryyyyyy subtle beahviour on the part of the bully cat or cats. It need be no more than sitting in the space where the kitten has to go through to get to her tray. Or say the litter trays were all upstairs, all a bully cat would need to do was sit on the stair. A bully cat can block 3 trays in 3 different rooms JUST by sitting in the hall outside of those rooms.

The same can be true of the dogs or the kids... the kitten has to be able to get to her tray with no difficulty and she has to be feel absolutely secure and safe in her tray.

if there's dog, cat or child blocking her path to the tray(s) peoblem can arise

if there's a dog, cat or child waiting in lure for her coming out....

well that's often when they start going in the wrong places

and... this bit is crucial... it's not what you or I define as "blocking the path" or "waiting in lure for the exit" -- it is how the cat perceives it.

Thank you for your prompt reply. The litter trays are upstairs, 2 in bathroom (with lids) 2 on landing (without). The dogs or kids don't go upstairs ever, havn't seen any bullying! She gets on with male really well and our other female is scared of her (she is skittish anyway). I don't usually wash the trays just completly empty and fill with fresh litter, only wash once a mth or so! Should i be washing them after every change? Noything to do with food, they only get dry food (bowl always full)
thanks again (never had this with other 2)

She could have some kind of physical problem (like a UTI) so it may be worth having the vet give her the once over. Many peeing problems are the result of a UTI but generally in older cats (I think, not 100% sure of that). Personally though I would want to rule this out.

The older cat that is scared of her…. Keep an eye on this cat that it is not in any way blocking access to (or exit from) the litter tray, all she would have to do is lie at the top of the stairs and she effectively blocks 4 trays, or if the kitten is in the bedroom and the older female is in the upstairs hall…. The kitten might be having difficulty getting in or out the tray with zero hassles. I know you say the older female is scared of her, but litter tray bullying is a very passive form of aggression and passive aggression is a tactic usually used by those too scared to be openly confrontational. That goes for the human world as much as the cat world, lol.

I know a litter tray downstairs isn’t the most hygienic thing (or the most pretty) … but I would opt for one for the time being. And I would put it in a corner of the living room (or kitchen) or wherever you guys spend the most time. That way you can actively monitor what is “going down on the ground”. You can see all the time that the older female isn’t passively hassling the kitten. You can also pop the kitten on to the litter tray every half hour or so (paying more attention to the times after meals and the times after she wakes up). Do make sure though that it is in a quiet corner and that when the kitten does go on the tray that the dogs/cats/kids can’t hassle her in any way. This doesn’t have to be a permanent solution, just for a month or so. Once she is successfully using the tray 100% of the time, then leave it as is for a fortnight or so, then gradually move it upstairs by about a meter per day. This is a pain as it would mean a litter tray sitting on your stair, but it need only be a for a day or 2 at most.

I don’t think you have to clean (wash) the trays more frequently than you are currently doing… and as you have covered and uncovered trays all the bases are covered there. The only one thing I can possibly add is putting a different kind of litter in one of the trays. It could be something as simple as she hates the type of litter you use.

I don’t think this has to do with food, no. I can’t lay a link between a dry-fed cat and peeing outside the litter tray EXCEPT for the fact that cats that are fed a dry diet and more prone to UTI’s. This sounds horrid, but to be honest if it was a UTI that would be the quickest fix for you. I really would take her to the vet and rule out any physical problems first. And I do think a temporary litter tray downstairs is needed just because she is so young. Juts a temporary stop-gap type of solution though.