Litter Box
One huge advantage that cat owners have over dog owners is that cats basically train themselves as babies! Most of the time, the momma cat trains her kittens before you even pick your kitten! However, here are some tips on how to promote litterbox usage.
1. Location, Location, Location
It is a good idea to provide more than one location in the household for litter boxes, to increase ease of access. Consider having one on each floor if space allows. Avoid moving boxes around. Keep litter boxes away from noisy and distracting rooms. Avoid creating negative associations through administering medications or doing anything unpleasant to your cat in the litter box area.
2. Keep the bathroom and kitchen separate!
Keep food and water dishes in a separate room or more than 5 feet away from the litter boxes.
3. Keep the litterbox clean
Cats are fastidious by nature and don’t favor a dirty box, and they’ll definitely let you know but picking a pile of your clothes as their new bathroom! In the wild, they have endless location options in which to do their business. How can we expect them to walk in a pile of old feces and urine clumps?
Scoop litter once to twice daily (the cleaner the better!). Empty out the litter tray once every one to two weeks and clean the litter box with a mild detergent, rinse well, and dry well before adding new litter.
4. Number of Boxes
A rule of thumb is to Provide one litter box per household cat PLUS one additional box. For example, if you have two cats, you should have three litter boxes.
5. Scented or Unscented
Cats generally prefer the unscented clumping litter. Scented litters can be unpleasant since their sense of smell is significantly more sensitive than a human’s.
6. Keep it Open
Remove covers from most or all of the litter boxes, so that the litterbox is not a crammed, stinky, covered box.
Litter box avoiding can be a sign of illness. If your normally well trained kitten or cat is eliminating outside the box reach out to us so we can discuss your concerns.
