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Q.: I adopted a pregnant female in March. She had three kitties in April and all seem quite healthy. The kittens are all weaned and litter trained now; the problem is their mommy.
She has "accidents" (poop, but not pee) every now and then. When I first brought her home, she pooped in the bathtub; I put that down to being unfamiliar with the house. She did that once more before her kittens were born (two weeks later) then twice more after they were born, at what seemed to me odd intervals--nothing unusual or particularly upsetting had happened to her.
Well, when the kittens were five weeks old, I moved them to the garage to litter train them. I put two boxes out there--one for the kitties and one for the mommy. They all got along quite well until a few days ago, when I gave away the first kitten.
Mom doesn't seem particularly depressed, but she is pooping all over the blanket I have out in the garage for them to sleep/play on.
She's done it every day for four days, and twice! today. Is she upset because one of her kittens is gone? What can I do for her? I really don't want to punish her for being upset, but what else do I do?
A.: If the kitties were born in April, I gather they were about eight weeks, when the first one was given away. That is a bit too young, twelve weeks is the best age for them (and their Mom) to leave home. So it is possible that this has upset her a bit.
Also I think that moving with her kittens to the garage may have upset her, too; seen from her point of view she had just gotten a home with you and hardly gotten used to it and then she was moved again.
Normally it doesn't make much mess when kittens are litter trained (not nearly as much as with dog puppies), and often it happens all by itself if a suitable litter tray is available near the kittens' nest.
So if it is possible to move the mother and her kittens into the house again, maybe in one room only, with their litter boxes, I think that this would be the best solution.
Otherwise feel free to write me again.
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