Litter training your cat

No more dirty deeds!

An indoor cat must learn to use the litter box. The alternative means a filthy and highly unhygienic house: definitely unacceptable. Fortunately, most cats and kittens actually prefer to use a litter box and take to it readily, so litter training should be fairly easy for you and your kitty.

Start small

If you start teaching them to use it when they are kittens, they will want to keep using it as adults. When you bring your new kitten home, keep him/her in a small room with a clean litter box. This reduces the chances of your kitten passing urine or faeces in the wrong place. If you cat does this, they may get into the habit of passing waste in inappropriate places (especially if the scent or urine or faeces becomes strong). The litter box shouldn’t be too big, or your kitten will have to scramble and clamber into it every time they need to use it: quite difficult for such a small animal!

Kittens that have been kept indoors with their mother may have already learnt how to use the litter box. Mother cats often teach their kittens, or the kittens learn by copying their mother. Even if your kitten hasn’t learnt from their mother, cats naturally prefer to bury their waste. Your kitten will probably attempt to use the litter box to do this.

If your kitten leaves waste outside of the litter box, move the waste into the box. Your kitten will soon learn that it should use the box. Cats are creatures of habit, and your kitten will soon get into the habit of using the litter box. Do not punish your cat for eliminating outside of the litter box. This can lead to your cat associating the litter box with punishment. It’s better to try and prevent accident, and praise your cat when he or she gets it right. It may sound silly, but praise your cat for using the litter box! You can even praise your cat for entering the litter box and not using it.

Keep it clean

Be sure to clean the litter box frequently. A cat will not want to use a filthy litter box, in the same way you wouldn’t want to use a filthy toilet.

Ideally, clean the litter box daily. One cleaning routine you can use is to remove the worst of the faeces and urine every day, and once a week replace all the litter with clean, fresh litter. How often you clean will depend on your cat’s needs, and how frequently they use the box. Frequent cleaning is better for both you and your cat: you’ll be providing a clean space for your cat, and you’ll remove the odour of the litter box.

Location, location, location

The location of the litter box is important. Cats prefer not to eliminate near their eating, drinking, or sleeping areas. A quiet room, away from the feeding and sleeping areas, is ideal. At the same time, make sure that the litter box is accessible and not hidden away in a room that’s hard to get into. You may wish to have two litter boxes, placed in different areas.

Trouble-shooting

Most cats learn to use the litter tray quickly, and will keep using it throughout their lives. But there are some common stumbling blocks when it comes to litter training your cat. If your cat is not using the litter tray, you may have one or more of the following problems:

• Infrequent cleaning: you need to clean the litter box more frequently
• Not enough litter boxes: if you have more than one cat, or live in a large house, you’ll need multiple boxes. Ideally there should be a litter box for each cat, plus an extra box.
• Wrong type of litter: There are many different types of cat litter on the market. You may need to experiment with types of litter to find one that your cat likes to use. Avoid scented litter, as cats have a good sense of smell and may dislike it.
• Wrong type of litter box: there are a lot of different types of litter box to choose from. The two basic styles are open (which resembles a tray) and closed, which has a lid. Some cats enjoy the privacy of a closed box, while others don’t mind an open box. Make sure the litter box is the right size for your cat: a large cat and a small litter box is a bad combination!
• Health and behavioural problems: Sometimes even if you’ve done everything right, your cat may eliminate inappropriately. It’s important to take your cat to the vet and see if there are any underlying problems. Your vet will be able to advise you and recommend treatment or retraining for your cat.