How to Litter Box Train a Kitten – 5 Simple Tips You Must Know!

Litter training a kitten is one of the most important things while raising one. In fact, it must be the first thing you teach to your newly adopted or rescued kitten.

It is really easy to litter train kittens as they naturally like to eliminate and cover their feces. Also, most kittens follow the mother cat and therefore without even trying a bit, the kittens may start using the litter box on their own.

However, it is not the same with every kitten and people often find it difficult to litter train their little kitties. But that is what we’re here for!

Let us learn how to train your kitten to use the litter box in 5 simple steps!

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How to Litter Box Train a Kitten

How to Litter Box Train a Kitten

Litter training can be tough. But with a little persistence and right knowledge, you will be able to crack it in no time! And to make sure you have the right guidance, we are sharing these 5 tips with you, so fasten your seatbelts.

1. Introducing the Litter Box to Your New Member

When you take your new kitty to your home, the first thing you need to do is to make her familiar with the litter box. The cat should be knowing that this is the place where she needs to eliminate.

First get a litter box which has lower sidewalls. It must be comfortable for the cat to get in. A cat may not have trouble with a litter box with raised sides. However, it is not the same with kittens.

Also, you can start litter training your kitten once she is 3 weeks old. Until then, the mama cat stimulates the kitten to eliminate by licking her. If you have adopted a kitten, you will have to stimulate your kitty to eliminate on your own.

Once the kitten is 3 weeks old, familiarize her with the litter box. Start doing this by putting her in the litter box and let her be free. Cats have the natural instinct to dig. So usually, the kitten will start digging on her own. Also, cats like to cover their feces. So this may encourage them to eliminate in the litter box.

Once your kitten gets out of the box, praise her with a treat. This will encourage the kitty to do the same every time she needs to eliminate.

2. Stop Her from Eliminating Outside the Litter Box

Stop kitten from Eliminating Outside the Litter Box

Now that you have familiarized the kitten with the litter box, she needs to know that this is the place where she needs to go when she wants to eliminate.

In order to do that, keep an eye on her activities. Whenever, you find her eliminating somewhere else than the litter box, immediately pick her up and bring to the litter box and let her be alone with it.

Doing this will remind the kitty about with the litter box is for. Also, do not forget to give her a treat for her good behavior!

3. Let Some Odor be there in the Litter Box

This may sound bizarre. However, you need to understand that animals associate things with their odor. Of course, you need to clean the litter box every day without fail. However, leaving some of the litter with the cat urinal odor can be helpful.

The next time the cat will pass by the litter box, she will surely know that this is her old dumping place just by getting the odor of her own urine in there.

Though this does not mean that you should keep it filthy. Because cats like to have a clean place to dump, which is far from where she eats and sleeps. Keeping it filthy will encourage the cat to search for a new place, which of course will not be helpful in the litter training.

4. Placing the Litter Box

The placement of the litter box is pretty important. As if the cat will not find it, there’s no point that she is going to use it, right?

Firstly, a litter box should be placed in a corner. The cats love to dump in a corner, not in the middle of the room where she gets zero privacy! So place the litter box in the corner of the room your cat usually stay in. The point is that the litter box should be there when the cat needs to eliminate.

Another trick you can do is placing the litter box at the places your cat usually dumps or has previously dumped. Cats like to associate places with her previously done actions. So there are chances that the cat is going to return to that place where she usually takes a dump and when she will find the litter box there, the litter box will be treated like the way it should be!

5. Buying Multiple Litter Boxes

A simple litter box is not much big of an investment. Point being, you can easily purchase a few litter boxes until your kitty learns how to use them.

Especially if you have a large house with multiple stories, having multiple litter boxes will be quite helpful. Place the litter boxes in the rooms where you cat like to hang out. One in the corner of each room. And if you have performed the previous steps correctly to make the kitten familiar with a litter box and what it is for, you should have no problem further!

Things to Take Care of If You Have Multiple Kitties

Things to Take Care of If You Have Multiple Kitties

If you have multiple cats at your house, you need to take care of a few things.

First of all, most cats do not like to dump where the other cat or cats may have dumped. They are just like humans in that way. They may just refuse to eliminate in the litter box and start discharging anywhere in the house.

But do not worry, there are possible ways to prevent this.

If you really want the cats to share a litter box, first, keep the litter box super clean by frequently checking out for solid wastes. Take a note on the cycle of your kitties, i.e at what time of the day they usually take a dump. You do not need to be super frequent about this. If there are one or two feces in the litter box, it is just fine for the cat as long as there is not much odor. But make sure that the number does not increase further.

Also, you can consider buying an automatic self-cleaning litter box. A self-cleaning litter box can be a great idea to deal with multiple cats. However, they come at a considerably high price but they are really worth as they relieve you from the job of cleaning the cat litter often.

Another thing you can consider is having multiple litter boxes. One for each cat. Follow the tips that we mentioned earlier and make each cat familiar with their own litter boxes. Put some tags or a cloth that has the particular kittie’s fragrance in it near the litter box. Do this for all the litter boxes to associate personal connection of each kitty. Also, keep all the litter boxes far from each other to maintain the separation.

What Kind of Litter Suits a Kitten?

What Kind of Litter Suits a Kitten?

First of all, a clumped litter is the worst choice for a kitten. As the kittens are just curious little animals. And as you may have heard curiosity gets a kitten killed. They like to lick and taste everything and this may cause some serious trouble to their tender health.

Buy a litter with more natural substance in it. Natural cat litter with pine, wheat, corn or walnut should work great as they do not possess any problem with the kitten’s health.

  • Clean the litter box of your kitten every single day.
  • Change the litter as needed.
  • The litter box should be placed in a quite familiar corner. However, it should be away from chaos and the place where the cat usually eats.
  • Avoid cleaning the litter box if you are pregnant.

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The EndNote

So there you go! Now you know exactly what you need to do in order to litter box train your furry little kitten. Follow the tips we have mentioned in this article. It will surely help you to get the best results. Though keep the notes that we have mentioned above in mind to stay safe and keep your kitten harmless.

We hope, in fact, we are pretty sure that following this guide, you will be able to turn that mess-making little kitten of yours into a disciplined cat.

That’s all for now. If you have any query regarding anything mentioned here or something else related to cat litter box, first, check out our other posts to see if we have already addressed the issue or not. And if not, feel free to comment below. We will be happy to help you up!

Till then lots of love to you and your kitten.

Cheers!

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