Animal Welfare Professionals

We have a litter of orphaned kittens at our shelter that grew up in a garage where (we assume) they were allowed to go to the bathroom all over the cement floor.  Once the kittens were brought to us they acclimated to using the litter boxes fairly well, except there is one little stinker that refuses to poop in the litter box (he pees in the box just fine).  We've tried different litter boxes, putting additional litter boxes in the places he poops, tried different litter, tried litter attract litter as well as adding litter attract to the regular litter, tried putting towels under the litter boxes, no towels under the litter boxes, pheromones, tinfoil on the floor in his "hot spots," everything we can think of.....  And he still poops outside the box.  He does this regardless of whether he is in the kitten community room or a cage.    He's been seen by a vet and there are no medical reasons for it that they found, so we are thinking it has to be a behavioral issue.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Thanks in advance!

A bit more info: the kitten is about 12 weeks old, not neutered YET, and is housed with his siblings.  

I am impressed with your tireless effort!  😳😳  I wish I had another idea.  

How you tried different textured litters?  such as Yesterdays News, walnut hull litters etc. Have you tried offering a buffet of litter boxes with different litters, he might show a preference...I would even offer covered versus uncovered boxes 

Thanks Pamela!  We've tried wood pellets, litter attract litter, clay litter, and we've even tried NO litter- just an empty box- to mimic the floor the of garage that he's used to.  No luck so far :(

Darn, i am out of suggestions, sorry.  Hope you can solve the mystery ! 

There may be some ideas shared on this post that could help 

 https://maddiespetforum.org/thread/do-you-have-a-cat-struggling-to-use-their-litter-box/

Since he is using the box to urinate in, I doubt it's a substrate or location issue. In my experience, when the kitten is using the box consistently for urination but not defecation, I would thoroughly investigate a medical or pain response. Have you tried changing his food? 

Have you housed him singly and put his poo in the litter box for him? This has worked for adult cats here that didn't know what a litter box was. We daily scoop and put their fresh poo in daily until they get it. I usually start with it just on top of litter, sometimes a little cover is required for odor control.