I have an orphaned kitten that was around 4-5 days old when we found that she lived through a coyote attack. She is now 4 weeks old and ate her first "solid" food yesterday. Now I'm feeding her Special Kitty Select, soft, mushy food and some of her KMR from the bottle.
This is the third time in the last week that she had a bowel movement in her containment. It is still jelly-like and is a huge mess. Though I still stimulate her with a wet wipe to go before and after feedings, she's also figured out how to stimulate herself per-say by rubbing on her bedding to go pee. The tote I have her in is too small to put anything large with litter in it. I can't let her wander around the house and the messes only happen in the morning. Any advice?
By Heather79 from TX
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I'm having a hard time picturing all of her equipment. Does she have a litter box? Plain one that she can get into? Just feed her her breakfast and if she hasn't gone, put her in box and keep her there by picking her up and putting her in box until she goes. The food and swallowing will stimulate her digestive tract. If she seems to go before breakfast, try to get her in her box and keep putting her there first thing in morning.
I would try putting her in your kitchen on your days off with her litter box. Since she is tiny, the box shouldn't be too gross. Block it off with boxes or something so she can't get out. Feed her there and put her in her litter box quite a few times a day. She'll go accidentally but will understand in no time it's her spot to pot.
I get that you are stimulating her with the wipes as her mother would with licks. She's just a little young for litter box though. Maybe another week or ten days.
When we found our most recent cat (two years ago!), he was wee little. Not as small as yours was, but too young to be away from his mama. Initially we put him in a large pet carrier, and I bought an inexpensive plastic (shallow) food storage container for his litter box. He knew what to do with it. He was in bad shape when we first got him, but after a week or so he was doing much better, and we kept him in our bathroom for quite a long time (no more pet carrier). He had fleas and worms and we didn't want to introduce him to our other two grown cats.
If space is limited, you don't have to buy a marketed litter box. You can find shallow rectangular food storage containers, or probably even something where they have plastic organization containers. Since she's so small right now, it'll be okay. You can upgrade when she gets bigger (and hopefully she'll understand the litter box by then!). Best of luck with your kitten!
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