Teaching kittens to use the litter box
Can we train our kittens to use a litter box?
No.
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That’s because kittens are born knowing how to use the litter box.
In fact, it’s one of my “pet” peeves; cat advice that starts out telling people what they should teach their cats. It’s a sure way of confusing a kitten or cat who was doing fine before they got mixed signals. It also avoids the truth of the matter; it’s the human who needs the training.
So much of successful cat enjoyment comes from simply getting out of their way. If we do not put barriers in the way of our kitten using their litterbox, they will happily use it for the rest of their lives.
Here’s what worked for orphaned Tristan, who started using it around five weeks old, pretty much on schedule.
Introduction. After each meal, we placed him in his litterbox, and he was curious about it right away. Since his mother wasn’t there to model the correct behavior, we used his little paw to dig holes.
It was full of a wheat based litter, because he usually tipped over onto his nose and might ingest some crumbs. Clay based litter would clump in his little tummy; we don’t want that.
Nearness. We made sure it was only a few steps away, because tiny kittens only notice the signal when business is imminent. If we can’t supervise our kitten to hustle them over to the box when they start to circle, sniff, or squat, they should be in a restricted area so they don’t need help to get there in time.
Once he started running over to the litter, we used his paw to encourage him to cover; another thing his mother would have showed him if she was around.
Access. We used an old cake pan with short sides that he could easily climb over. Little kittens often have very little clearance between their fat bellies and the ground. A ramp is another solution if we have other cats and a full-sized litterbox.
As he got older, he took to our Litter Robot just like the big cats. Modeling can’t be underestimated in how much, and how easily, it teaches kittens the rules of the house.
Fuss. We would absolutely drip with baby talk when Tristan was anywhere near his litter; we wanted him to know this is a safe place for him! At any age, cats feel vulnerable in their litterbox, and need it to be a quiet sanctuary.
No Fuss. We would leave the room when a cat was using the Litter Robot; privacy is important, and we never want our cats to feel nervous around their box.
So while we did help “train” baby Tristan, it was only because his mother hadn’t been around to do it. It’s part of raising orphaned kittens. We take these little extra steps because a kitten who grows up to have good litter box manners will be welcome wherever they may go.
It’s also such a strong instinct that kittens who don’t get this benefit also wind up fine most of the time. What usually messes up our litter box situations is when we use a box that’s too small, put it in a place the cat can’t feel comfortable in, and then neglect to clean it properly.
No amount of training is going to overcome this kind of bad situation.
We invented a litter box deodorizer that also signals cats “the litter box is clean!” Read more about Littermint.
For more about “training the human” watch my video on Litter Box Basics.
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