Our MC is 6 mos old and doesn't clean himself well after using the litter box. He gets fecal material in his fur and he smells for quite for quite a while until he gets around to grooming himself. We've resorted to cleaning him occassionally with baby wipes, but we hope he doesn't think we will do this forever. Any advice?

-- Anonymous, April 27, 1999

Answers

My 3 month old kitten has the same problem, and since she does not like anyone messing with her hindquarters, my vet suggested that as long as I wasn't going to show her, to clip the hair around the problem area. We did that yesterday and it seems to help a bit -- there was still some residual stinkiness last night -- but it seemed it took her less time to clean herself up than usual. Good luck.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 1999

i'd watch it if i were u! if u clean him up all the time he'll get lazy or end up not knowing how to clean himself properly. leave him to it and show him disdain or disapproval when he doesn't clean properly. iknow thas sounds mean but it'll help him in the long run and it'd show that u really cared.good luck!

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

My MC neutered male is 14 months now and when he was little, he used to get himself very messy in the litterbox: not only he did not drop his feces properly, hanging it in his hind fur, but also used to step backwards right onto it before starting the ritual to dig it under - both hind paws were completely covered and very very smelly... I could not be harsh on him because he was convinced he was doing right: didn't he dig around the box for quite a while?? So I started to wash his hind legs and all the messy areas with a cloth with warm water and he loved it. He even started to come to me when he was dirty, to push his dirty paw or whatever was dirty into my face, looking to me as he were saying: clean it for me, please! I too thought I was spoiling him, thinking that he would never learn to do it by himself, and keeping him to his baby-manners by helping him. But my experience is, that as he is getting older, he's learned not to mess himself up so badly in the box, and the cleaning with warm water has learned him, to wash the parts that had to be cleaned: he wanted to lick it clean and dry. So whenever I wet his paws or any other part of him (he sometimes gets in from outside looking like a mud-monster) he finishes it off neatly by washing his whole body. While as I do not wipe him, thinking he should do it himself, he sometimes forgets to start at all and falls asleep somewhere dirty and all. So: your cat will learn to groom himself better as he gets older, and he will appreciate some help from you. Being his surrogate mother, he expects you to help grooming him. The older he gets, the more selfsupporting he'll be. I advice not to use baby wipes because of the taste. Just warm water will do and stimulates him to finish himself.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001