Do young kittens learn to clean themselves by instinct?

[Diamond]

Hi. I have the 4 feral kittens that I caught and took away from their mother at 5 weeks old. (That is because the mother is also feral and I didnt want the kittens to grow up wild). I have had them for a week, so they are about 6 weeks old now. I have noticed that they do not really clean themselves very much. They will lick themselves when they finish eating, but they have very nasty potty habbits. Since they are so small, I have been keeping them in my laundry room on a linoleum floor, it is about 10ft by 10ft. They have their litterbox, food, water, and toys in there with them. They literaly get their fecal matter all over the floor. They use the litter box, but they do not cover their stinky up when they are finished and they do not clean their booties, so they wind up with dried fecal matter all over their behinds and litter stuck to their feet. They also step in the fecal matter in the litter box and when they get out of the box and walk across the floor, they track the fecal matter on the floor. I change their litterbox every other day. Will they grow out of this and begin to keep themselves clean? If so, at what age can I expect them to be cleaner? I cannot let them have run of the house right now because they smell so bad.

['too crazy]

Hi Diamond, I'm sitting here laughing at your post because I remember those days well. We have rescued quite a few very young kittens (the youngest was 2 days old) and there is nothing more frustrating than watching them poop, step in it, hop out of the litter box and drag it through the house. Thankfully, this doesn't last forever. About 8 weeks or so they start cleaning themselves and there behinds (and nasty paws) Don't forget, they were used to mama doing it and right now there is no one to show them. I used to put the kittens paws under water to wash the poop and litter off before it hardened on. Give it some more time. Good Luck! Sherry

[Diamond]

Sherry,
You dont even know how wonderful that is to hear! I cannot wait until they are 8 weeks old... I just wanted to make sure that they would eventually begin doing it on their own. I just got finished scrubbing the linoleum floor to get the yuck off! Thank you so much!

[Squawksx3]

LOL... you two crack me up.... its kinda like your toddler taking its diaper off and making pretty brown designs on the wall LOL. They should grow out of this stage soon. Good luck Diamond and bless you for taking these babies in and giving them a chance ;)