Habits and how to break them!

**teejay** · 7th January 2014, 10:39 AM

Hi all, my MC kitten, Neo, is only 8 weeks old and we had him at 6 weeks old (which I personally thought was a bit young...........but breeder knows best!). He came to us pretty much litter trained, which we were very chuffed about.

As we have three other cats, we locked him in our living room for his first night, and then, the next morning, we brought him up to bed with us for a cuddle. In hindsight, this was a bad move, as the first thing he did was pee on the duvet

.......I've read all of the potential reasons for this....anxiety, scent marking, etc.....but I'm pretty sure that he just needed to pee and I put him on the bed before letting him use his litter tray!

Anyway, he's started doing this regularly, but only when we're in bed, which is really frustrating. He sleeps on the bed with our other cats during the daytime, but he never pees on it then, only ever when we're in bed.

The bedding has been washed more times than I care to think, and I've also machine-washed and dried the duvet thoroughly twice now - not easy when it's a ridiculously large and heavy duck-down duvet - but Neo just keeps climbing on and peeing again.

What to do now? He's so good overnight, he sleeps with the other cats and doesn't get into any mischief at all......apart from the 'peeing-hour', which tends to be about 4am. He has a (clean) litter tray both upstairs and downstairs. I suspect this this is just a habit we formed that first morning, which we/he now can't break.

I've read lots of tips and advice on the internet, and it seems that my best options would be to lock Neo in a room with a cosy bed, his toys, his food/drink and his litter tray at night and basically wait until he grows out of the habit.

Can anyone else suggest anything?

Many thanks in advance

Tracey

**donnad** · 7th January 2014, 02:02 PM

Tracey, Welcome to MCF! Sounds like you have your hands full. I got my girl Ginger when she was 11 weeks old. I am not sure but 6 weeks does sound a bit young. I have never been able to figure out cats behavior when it comes to not using the litter box. Maybe he can still smell the urine on the duvet? does he always go to the same spot? Maybe try a new spread on the bed for a while and see how that is? I am sure Jackie will have some idea, everyone always says take them to the vet, maybe they have a medical issue? Maybe the little guy thinks he is back with his litter and its ok to pee in the bed? who knows. Good luck with Neo! Lets see some pics please

**jckkerrison** · 7th January 2014, 03:18 PM

Hi & welcome..... Sorrry to say your first instincts were right that is far too young for even a normal kitten to be away from mum,from six weeks she is teaching her babes the niceties of life & it learns right & wrongs,it also starts to learn to socialise & this should be done with its litter mates.....
A good mainecoon breeder would not let their babes go until they have had both of their vaccinations done plus kept it a week to make sure there are no reactions to it so the earliest you should look to be getting your babe is 12 to 13 weeks......
He shouldn't arrive pretty much litter trained he should be fully trained & again that side of his life would have only just been starting,mum would have still been cleaning him up at that point too,I think you have hit the nail on the head that as he obviously wanted a pee at the point you put him on your bed his little brain is now associating it with being the right place & as hard as it seems as poor little fella should still be with mum I think the only way you will break it is for him to be shut up at night with his tray,could you leave one of the other cats with him, I always used to have a "nannie" cat that slept with my babes the first few nights so it didn't feel lonely before putting it into the big cats bedroom. Poor little mite I feel so sorry for him,he obviously is better with you & being loved but those type of breeders no matter what breed they have make me very cross as no way is that a good breeder at all,you should have pedigree papers with him but i would lay a bet that you haven't......!
With donnad though post some pictures of him so we can have an arrrh session.....xxx

**MandyCoonie** · 7th January 2014, 04:41 PM

6 weeks is way too young to be away from momma! I took in a heavily pregnant stray and she kept nursing two of her massive seven kitten litter for 12 weeks. I posted the ad for adoption when they were 8 weeks but told every prospective family they would have to wait until Mom weaned everyone. And these were just average cats!! Mom was a bit lazy with teaching litter box habits, and I had to take over that part of her job. You may need to start "re-training" your little one or at least finish his education.
I would use an enzyme based cleaner to get the urine out of your duvet. I was cautioned against using bleach or bleach based detergents because they actually make the cat more willing to mark the spot again.

**teejay** · 7th January 2014, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by jckkerrison

Hi & welcome..... Sorrry to say your first instincts were right that is far too young for even a normal kitten to be away from mum,from six weeks she is teaching her babes the niceties of life & it learns right & wrongs,it also starts to learn to socialise & this should be done with its litter mates.....
A good mainecoon breeder would not let their babes go until they have had both of their vaccinations done plus kept it a week to make sure there are no reactions to it so the earliest you should look to be getting your babe is 12 to 13 weeks......
He shouldn't arrive pretty much litter trained he should be fully trained & again that side of his life would have only just been starting,mum would have still been cleaning him up at that point too,I think you have hit the nail on the head that as he obviously wanted a pee at the point you put him on your bed his little brain is now associating it with being the right place & as hard as it seems as poor little fella should still be with mum I think the only way you will break it is for him to be shut up at night with his tray,could you leave one of the other cats with him, I always used to have a "nannie" cat that slept with my babes the first few nights so it didn't feel lonely before putting it into the big cats bedroom. Poor little mite I feel so sorry for him,he obviously is better with you & being loved but those type of breeders no matter what breed they have make me very cross as no way is that a good breeder at all,you should have pedigree papers with him but i would lay a bet that you haven't......!
With donnad though post some pictures of him so we can have an arrrh session.....xxx

Hi there! Many thanks for your reply; it's all what I guessed really. When we first visited to meet him and put a deposit on him, I did ask the breeder why she was planning to 'move him on' so young, but I was made to feel a bit like an interfering fool, to be honest!

Then when we received the "come and get him" email, and we were told he was only actually 6 weeks old, I queried it again. Again, I was looked at as if I was an idiot. After all, who am I to argue with someone who is, apparently, an experienced breeder?

Anyway, thankfully he has my older cats to teach him some manners (he's had a couple of swipes to the head already, but he'll soon learn not to pounce on and chew another cat's tail!). Apart from the peeing, he doesn;t seem to be suffering from being away from mom.....he's confident, well balanced, calm and settled......although, come to think of it, he's very mucky straight after using the litter tray - we're getting through baby wipes at a rate of knots! - so maybe he does need mom's influence a bit!

I think we'll have to start locking him up in the living room with one of our older boys, as he seems to be the most tolerant of Neo's kittenish ways. We don't mind doing that; I know he'll use the litter tray so the only risk is shredded carpet by the closed door, but he's never clawed at carpet til now so I can't see that being a problem. The older cat might object to being locked up though....we never really close any of our doors, the cats have free rein.

To be honest, and I don't really care if she sees this post (not sure she's the type to use a forum), but she wasn't what I'd call a "good breeder"....when we first went to meet Neo (newly born), the house stunk to high heaven and the floor was covered entirely in rubbish and animal hair. I couldn't get the smell out of my nostrils and I felt sick all the way home. Then when we went to collect Neo, he was in a complete mess.....he smelled so bad (not cat smell, just dirty house smell), he had a bloody-coloured crust around his nose and gunked-up eyes, his bottom was matted with dried poop, and, as the breeder handed him to me, she casually ran her fingers through his coat and said something about him possibly having fleas.....she didn't think he did, but she said "you never know". She also tried to weigh him, and kept saying he was 200g......he probably weighed more than that as a newborn!

As soon as we got into the car, my husband and I both agreed that we needed to get to a pet shop ASAP to get some suitable flea treatment. When we got him home, we cleaned him up a bit (it took a few days for the 'dirty house' smell to go from his coat, though). I was very concerned about his young age, so I did take him to see my own vet the next day to get him checked over....he got a clean bill of health, thankfully.

Oh, and no, we got no pedigree papers.......but he was cheaper than a papered kitten. We saw mom when we went to first meet Neo, who looked like a pure bred ginger tabby MC and we were shown a photo of 'daddy' who is a regular tabby MC

In hindsight, we should have waited and found a better breeder who took better care of her kittens, but we loved him and we went with our hearts over our heads! We don';t regret having him though, he's part of the family already!

Here are a couple of 'day he came home' pics to be going on with.....he's a bit wet on the second photo, cos he'd been rubbed with very diluted flea spray

**teejay** · 7th January 2014, 05:03 PM

Double posted for some reason!

**teejay** · 7th January 2014, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by MandyCoonie

6 weeks is way too young to be away from momma! I took in a heavily pregnant stray and she kept nursing two of her massive seven kitten litter for 12 weeks. I posted the ad for adoption when they were 8 weeks but told every prospective family they would have to wait until Mom weaned everyone. And these were just average cats!! Mom was a bit lazy with teaching litter box habits, and I had to take over that part of her job. You may need to start "re-training" your little one or at least finish his education.
I would use an enzyme based cleaner to get the urine out of your duvet. I was cautioned against using bleach or bleach based detergents because they actually make the cat more willing to mark the spot again.

Hi Mandy, thanks for your reply. We've been using Simple Solutions enzyme based cleaner for the mattress, and laundering the duvet and covers on as hot a wash as possible. We've had the odd 'toilet accident' as well, so we've been using the Simple Solutions to clean up those too. Neo's pretty good considering how young he is.......during the day-time, he uses his litter tray pretty much 95% of the time, it's only at night that we have the problem.

Apparently, Neo's breeder weaned him a couple of weeks before he came home with us, so 4 weeks old.....hmmm......that explains all the 'nursing' behaviour he displays (sucking on chins and ears, etc)

Tracey

**jckkerrison** · 7th January 2014, 07:38 PM

That poor poor babe,think this is one "breeder" who should be banned & let her furries have a chance of leading a happy loving life,for sure quick turnover & money is the only thing that person is thinking about not the welfare of the animals.
Now going to go & arrh over photos......xxx