kitten not using litter box, but sleeps in it

Question
Hi. We just got a new kitten. It is 9 weeks old - we still can't tell if it's a boy or girl. Anyway, We have a large cage we put him in right after we brought him home and his litter box is in there. When we came home, he was sleeping in there. It looked like he may have used the litter box a little to go to the bathroom. The next day, we did not see him use the bathroom all day, nor was there anything in his box. Then, this morning, I saw him run behind the couch and pee. I cleaned it up and put him in his box, but a few minutes later, he went to the same spot and pooped. How do I get him to use his litter box? Right now, his food and water dish are near the box. Is that why he is not using it? We figured we would keep everything near one place until he get used to all his things.

Answer

drawing of male and fe A cat will not use a litter box anywhere near his/her food. You need to put the litter box somewhere he can use it all of the time but that is out of a high traffic area and no where near his bed. food or water. That is why he thought his litter box was a new bed!

Put some plastic or aluminum foil over the are he used on the rug because they don't like the feel of the plastic or foil.

It's easy to tell the sex of a kitten. They you hold up their tail and it looks like they have two dots (rectum on top, tip of penis below) you have a boy. If it looks like an upside down exclamation point( ! but upside down)it's a girl.

Color also can help at times. Calico's are always girls. Orange cats are about 55% of the time boys.

Don't use Purina kitten chow on this baby either. Kitten chow is covered with milk which they are intolerant to. Use Science Diet Kitten Growth to grow a healthy, strong kitten.