4 month old kitty not cleaning butt!!

by Marissa
(Surrey, BC)

Hello!

I have a 4 month old kitten and we always have to wipe his butt when he finishes pooing in his litter box. We've had him for 3 and a half weeks now and I would have thought that wiping his bum after he poos would have taught him to lick himself clean. How do I teach him to clean his own butt?

Answer by Kate
It is rather strange as cats are instinctively clean animals. However he would also learn a lot of the cleaning process from his mum and siblings. May be he did not have enough contact with them to learn these things properly.

unfortunately I don't think there is a way to teach this. Does he groom himself otherwise? if so what I would do is to stop wiping him after he goes and give him time to clean himself. he will eventually learn to do this sooner if he needs to. He shouldn't be having very messy bowel movements anyway that would require immediate cleaning, if he is then his diet may need to be looked into or even possibly a trip to the vets to check that he doesn't have worms etc.

I have a page about cat diarrhoea for further information
https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-diarrhea.html

Best wishes Kate
P.S he is adorable, who could not love that face. :)

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