Kitten does not clean herself after using the litterbox / only after a few minutes

Question

So, I'm having a hard time with my new kitten. She uses the litterbox just fine. After using it, she gets out and only cleans her butt after a few or so minutes. By the time she does, she was on a lot of furniture already. I keep finding little poop stains everywhere. I also let her come into the bedroom, as I generally don't mind it, if it wasn't for the poop stains.

I'm actually not sure if she always cleans herself after using the litterbox, or if she sometimes doesn't clean at all. But when I did catch her cleaning herself, a few minutes have passed from her litterbox visit.

This is my first cat, so I'm not sure. Is this a problem many cat owners have? Do you just have to live with it? Or is there a way to teach her to clean herself as soon as she gets out?

PS: Could this have something to do with the type of litter used? Or perhaps with the litterbox itself? I have a closed litterbox, and fine clumping litter.

In response to the comments:

As this is my first cat, I wasn't sure if cats groom right after having used the litterbox. I can change the food. I have bought a sample set of two different brands for the wet food. The first week or so after I got her, she was only eating dry food, as she didn't seem to like the brand of wet food. And now that I think about it, I don't think I had seen any poop stains in the first week. So it seems to be an issue with the wet food. I wonder if it's just the transition to wet food. I leave out dry food during the day, and then feed her wet food in the evening.

The kitten covers her waste immediately, that makes it a bit harder to check. Whenever I cleaned the litter box, the waste seemed to be normal color. It did look a bit too "bright" once or twice. The consistency/shape usually looked pretty normal to me. There were a few occasions where the shape seemed to be a mixture between normal and "clumped together", if that makes any sense. As mentioned above, I think the problem with the poop stains started only after she started eating wet food too.

Is there any way I can help with that? Obviously, if it keeps happening, I'll try a different brand of wet food. How long do cats usually need to get used to a new food or new diet? I'm currently feeding her dry food during the day, and then wet food in the evening.

Edit 2: Answer to comments, as i still don't have enough reputation to comment.

I forgot to mention, she has short hair. I don't know tootsie rolls, as they don't seem to exist where i'm from. However, from looking at the pictures of it, i would agree that it's pretty much what i'd personally describe as "normal". In fact, the first week her poop looked pretty much like that, and i think i didn't have problems with stains. I'm pretty sure that this has to do with her wet food. She didn't touch it in the first week. But now she started gobbling it down. I took a closer look at her waste yesterday. The shape looked normal to me, and so did the color for the MOST part. One end was brighter, and she did in fact have a dirty butt again.

I wonder if this is a problem with the wet food itself, or if she just need to get used to it. If the latter, how long does it usually take for a kitten/cat to get used to new food/wet food? I was told she was eating barf before i got her, but i have no way to confirm if it's true. Considering i was lied to in regards to her age already, i wouldn't count on it. I'm feeding her wet food with high contents of meat. To be specific, GranataPet and CatzFinefood. Also, the occasional snack (sometimes crunchy, sometimes wet snacks).

Answer 1

Since you said it didn’t happen in the first week when she was on dry food only, I’d guess that it’s the wet food. If it were an infection, it would have been a problem from day one and likely wouldn’t be solid at all.

Cats have extremely sensitive digestive systems. Their gut bacteria are highly adapted to their regular diet, so if any unusual food shows up, they experience “digestive distress”, which is a polite term for diarrhea. For future reference, any change in diet should be done gradually over a week or two, whether adding foods or changing from one to another, so their gut bacteria have time to adapt.

One thing I’d suggest is free-feeding dry food and, if possible, giving half the wet food twice a day. Kittens get hungry every 4-6 hours, and meals should be consistent. You don’t want her starving all day and then wolfing down a bunch of wet food on a completely empty stomach right now.