You should not be surprised that the greatest complaint people have with cats is the problem of lack of cat toilet training and the unpleasant fact that they do not always use their litter box every time they need to "go." This has been identified as the major cause of cats being kicked out onto the streets every day, where they will certainly die, and all because they make a mess in the house instead of using the litter box provided. Unless a cat has been properly trained, you can guarantee it will make deposits randomly all over the place, sometimes in out of the way corners you have not thought of, such as under beds or in seldom used rooms. One thing is certain, you will certainly know all too soon if your cat has urinated on carpets, furniture, curtains and beds from the rancid smell, and no matter how hard you try to wash it away, cat's urine is an acrid and stubborn odor and stain to remove.
Young Kittens and Litter Training
Once your cat has established a behavioral pattern of avoiding the litter box, then you are in trouble, because it is hard to re-train an animal into using a proper receptacle.Far better to ensure that you properly train the cat at the ouset, right from the kitten stage, when learning behavior is so much easier and once established will last throughout life. Young kittens learn fastest between 6-12 weeks of age and will very rarely have a problem using a tray or litter box. All that you need to do is place the kitten in the box and the litter itself will usually encourage her to use it. Perhaps it is part of a kitten's nature to scratch about in loose material and a kitten will very quickly learn to accept a given box as the natural place for her waste. Make sure that you introduce her to it early on and see that she can easily access it. As a first litter box, you may need something small to begin with, but you can always get a larger one as the kitten matures.
If the mother is in the same household or is there throughout the weaning stage, she will most likely have regularly carried the new born away from the litter nest to to avoid soiling the litter sleeping area. You will also find that kittens usually learn from their mother's routine when she uses the box herself and will try to emulate that behavior by associating the sight and smell when the mother relieves herself. In addition, you can reinforce good potty behavior yourself, by gently putting the kitten into the litter box immediately after she wakes up, or after playing or eating. In no time at all the kitten will make the association between the box and relieving itself.
Remember that the more visible a box is the better, and make sure that it is placed in one specific spot so that the kitten automatically goes there at the appropriate time. While the kitten is fairly young, make sure that the box retains a slight odor. Don't completely clean out the box, as the young animal may need to associate a bit of a smell with her need to "go." You could leave a tiny bit of soiled litter behind when cleaning up for example, just enough so that it is not offensive in the house. On the other hand, however, make sure that the litter box is cleaned out at least twice a day to avoid the litter becoming excessively soiled. That could interfere with the associative "bonding" between the kitten and the box.
Final Thought
So there you have it. As with most animal problems a little prevention is worth a thousand attempted cures. Your time will be well spent in learning how to go about cat toilet training, and then applying this in a practical manner, and will save you much future heartache and disappointment.
