SolveYourProblem.com Article Series: Cat Care
Cat Care Tips
How
To Litter Box Train Your Cat
Whether you have a kitten or a cat that you're training to
not be feral, litter box training can be a real
chore. Kittens that are with a litter-trained mother will usually
be trained by the mother cat, but once they're away from
Mom, you get to take over.
But you can't do what you do with children and use the litter
box to show them! (You could, but ick!) Here are a few things
you can do to encourage things along.
Start
young. The younger a cat learns to use the litter box,
the more reliable they will be about it. Keep the kitten's
bed near the litter box, or move the litter box closer to the
cat's normal haunts. One very good place for the litter box
during the training phase is your bathroom, if you can leave
the door ajar when you go. The cat knows what you do in there,
and if she sees you using the bathroom, she'll come in and
try things out herself. Most bathrooms are tile, and cats don't
like going on tile; they instinctively want to bury their waste,
and the litter box is the only place to do that. You may find
a problem with the cat going on the carpet or on clothes left
on the floor; you'll have to remove these things until the
cat starts using the litter box reliably.
Be
patient with accidents. Like small children, cats will
have accidents, and they'll be a lot more arrogant about them.
Don't rub a cat's nose in its waste but do show it the waste
and scold it while you clean up the mess. The absolute critical
thing you must do here is make the area smell different, unpleasant
to the cat. I use a few different things: cut fresh lemon,
mint teabags, Lysol, and – carefully and only as a last resort
– bleach. Lemon and mint smell to a cat about the same way
skunk smells to us, and they'll generally avoid it. Lysol is
good for cleaning up, and if it's a citrus-based spray the
cat won't like that any better than the lemons.
Bleach will react with urine to produce highly toxic chlorine
gas, which can make you very sick indeed; it was used in WWI
gas warfare to kill people. If you can't keep the cat out of
the corner any other way, put on rubber gloves, ventilate the
area, keep pets and kids away, and spray or pour bleach in
the corner after wiping up what you can. This can, of course,
damage fabrics, so think ahead. If the fumes make you cough,
get away from them! They'll dissipate shortly if you have things
ventilated well. When you're finished bleaching, wipe up and
rinse with clean water.
I've also been told that putting aluminum
foil down will keep the cat away, but I haven't tried that. And when you dispose
of the waste, by the way, take it to the litter box and let
the cat see you do so, so she knows where that's supposed to
go.
Consult
the veterinarian. If your cat just can't seem to make
it to the litter box, you should definitely take him to the
vet. There may be an underlying medical issue causing your
problem.
Change
the litter box often, but not often enough to completely
eliminate the odor. Cats are drawn to the odor of waste when
they need to go to the bathroom; that's why you should clean
up messes so thoroughly. But cats are fastidious and won't
go to a litter box that is, in their estimation, too dirty.
So don't change the litter box every day; instead, change it
every other day -- and do not try to sanitize it. It won't
work anyway, and it may trigger the cat to start going elsewhere.
When Kitty starts using the corner or closet you can try these
tricks to train your kitty. As noted above, lemon, mint, and
cleaning solvents will chase the cat away. She may be drawn
by the smell of your footwear, so try putting these up high
where she can't get to them, and lay aluminum foil down on
the floor as well. Block Kitty off from these places; if she's
chosen your closet, close the closet door and evict her from
your room; if she cries at the door, evict her to another part
of the house, preferably close to the litter box.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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