How To Train Kitten To Litter Box: 5 Easy Steps

Jennifer Wilson
7 min readSep 15, 2020

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After a kitten or an adult cat has appeared in the house, the owner’s main task is to teach the animal to go to the toilet. We will learn how to do it quickly and what essential recommendations to follow if you want to learn how to train a kitten to the litter box.

Table Of Contents

· Where do I start?
· Tray and filler selection
· A place for cat’s litter box
· Teaching a kitten
· Useful tips
· Is it possible to train an adult cat?

Where do I start?

When you get a cat in the house, you need to buy a particular set of accessories. One of the crucial things is the tray. Let’s look at what kind of tray they are and how to get it right for your cat.

Tray and filler selection

When choosing this subject, you should pay attention to such conditions:

  • the container must be made of non-Electric plastic
  • the tray should be easy to clean and wash
  • it should fit the size of an animal

Do you know? More than 500 million domestic cats live in the world. There are about 40 different breeds.

Trays can be of these kinds:

  1. Mesh Tray is the easiest option, which requires constant monitoring of purity. Such pots are washed 2–3 times a day. Sometimes, some pets do not like them. It is recommended to choose trays with high sides; they allow your pet to feel protected and are more hygienic.
  2. A tall tray with mesh and silica gel filler under the mesh is suitable for rarely home owners. Such pots are more hygienic. The recommended volume of silica gel is 5 cm. With this thickness of silica gel, unpleasant odors are well retained, and the cat can go to the toilet several times.
  3. Tray with filler — deep enough, has high edges and can be solid or prefabricated. They are not expensive and teach you how to easily train a kitten to litter box.
  4. Toilet House — suitable for cats. It is large and may not be ideal for a small apartment. It will take a long time to clean and wash such a toilet. These cabins are suitable for cats, which often leave tags, spray urine in the standing position. If there is room for such a bathroom, it will quickly become part of the interior. There are original designer models on sale.

When choosing a filler, there are no specific recommendations. The cat should like the filler. Details that create convenience for owners, for cats do not matter.

When changing the type of filler, it is recommended to add a new kind of filling to the old one, replacing with each time more and more of it, and do so until the full replacement of the filler.

A place for cat’s litter box

The place to send the need to choose so that there were no drafts. Your pet’s tray should be in an area that is sheltered from prying eyes, noise, cozy and safe (so cats prefer unique houses and empty boxes).

As recommended by pet owners, to quickly accustom a cat to the tray, you need to put it in a prominent place, provide free access to the pet, and show the cat or cat that it is — the toilet.

To do this, lead the animal to the tray and porous in the filler with your hand or (if you can) his paw. Usually, cats understand everything correctly.

To do this, lead the animal to the tray and porous in the filler with your hand or (if you can) his paw. Usually, cats understand everything correctly.

But if the animal is not yet ready to use the pot, put it in there and wait until he attempts.

If everything is done correctly, the kitten will soon get used to the new tray. But if you find that the animal is avoiding the place of its contents, then you need to take action. Perhaps you need to choose another place for the pot, or move it to a more secluded place. If the animal is afraid of the sound of flowing water, you can purchase a silent filler.

Teaching a kitten

There are several reliable ways to accustom a kitten to the apartment’s tray for 1 day, including several rules, which should be followed if necessary. Besides the recommendations mentioned above for choosing a pot and filler, you should follow such simple tips:

  • do not scold your pet in front of the tray
  • so that where the cat’s litter box will stand, there will be no irritating cat smells

For a kitten to settle in a new room and always be able to find his way to the toilet, it is necessary during the first days of his stay in the house to limit his movement around the rooms. Ideally, the kitten will be closed in the kitchen or the toilet for this time.

The kitten’s body is arranged so that she immediately wants to go to the litter tray after meals. So after the kitten has eaten, it should be carefully taken to the box.

Such a procedure should be carried out the first three days, not forgetting about positive emotions, and in time the kitten himself will start to walk to the tray.

Another way: before you teach your kitten to walk in the litter tray, you can observe where the kitten will put the first puddle or go big and put a pot there.

Over time, you can move it 10–15 cm in the direction you want. You should make sure that the kitten only goes to the toilet. Another method of getting your kitten used to the litter tray in a short time, if your pet about 1-month-old, may not be the most elegant, but it’s a good idea to take the waste and move it to the litter tray and then show it to your kitten.

Useful tips

To quickly accustom your pet to the tray, follow these guidelines:

  • It is recommended to get accustomed to the pot from an early age.
  • Protect the pet from irritants near the toilet.
  • Do not scold the cat and do not punish for misses.
  • Do not distract the animal when preparing for the toilet, sitting on it, or has just finished the procedure.
  • Clean the toilet in time, change the fillers (if you use them).
  • Do not put the pot in a noisy place.
  • Do not change the pot sharply from one pot to another.
  • Do not wash the cat’s litter box with detergent or another cat repellent.
  • If the animal does not have time to run to the pot, he most likely has health problems — diarrhea, constipation, and bladder inflammation. Ask the veterinarian for an examination and consultation.
  • If the cat still goes to the toilet not in the pot, but in another place — you can put plates with food and water on this place. Animals do not go to the toilet where they eat.

Curious fact: the first specialized cat tray was invented in 1947 by the American inventor Ed Law. Clay was used as a filler 🙀

Is it possible to train an adult cat?

Suppose you have picked up an adult street cat. In that case, he does not know about the existence of particular places to send natural needs, and you do not know how to train a cat to the tray — you need to buy a larger and more comfortable container, which will be easier to get accustomed to.

If he did not recognize the pot as the place of departure and still goes everywhere to the toilet, watch how he behaves when he wants to go to the toilet, and then follow the above tips on how to teach the cat to the tray.

There are two ways to train the cat to go to a certain place:

  • Put the cat in the toilet, pat the cat on the back and stand back, then he will instinctively dig a hole in the filler.
  • Once you have determined where the cat is sleeping and resting, put the pot in there and put the cat in it. If you do it on time, you can almost certainly train the cat to the tray successfully.

After that, do not immediately change the pot’s filler because the cat will look for the pot next time by smell.

It is also unnecessary to proceed from the opposite and poke the cat’s nose into a puddle — it will cause the opposite effect. It’s better to soak a tissue, rag, and put it into the pot. Next time the smell will attract the cat to the right place.

With these recommendations, you can quickly and easily learn how to train a kitten to litter box get. Don’t forget about positive emotions, and don’t swear at your pet as your cat will eventually learn and delight you.

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