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Kittens and the Litterbox

Each newborn kitten comes with the instinctual knowledge that bowel and bladder elimination must be deposited in a hole dug in the earth and then covered up. All that one needs to do to train a kitten is to provide the earth and show the kitten where it is. The kitten will take care of the rest!

When a kitten is about 4 weeks of age, s/he will begin to play in, explore, and dig in loose, soft materials, such as dirt or litter. Soon, this investigative digging results in the kitten eliminating in these materials. Many species of cats begin to show this behavior as soon as they can eliminate on their own.

Kittens do not have to be taught by either their mothers or their human owners to relieve themselves in soft, loose materials or to dig and bury their waste. These behaviors are called "innate" behaviors because kittens do not have to learn how to perform them. However, where a cat eliminates can be affected by its experiences.

Litterboxes which for a variety of possible reasons do not provide an acceptable place to eliminate FROM THE CAT'S POINT OF VIEW, may cause a cat to go to the bathroom somewhere else. Thus, it is important for you to provide a litterbox which meets your new kitten's or cat's needs so that s/he will like the box and use it consistently.

Start out with a litterbox large enough to accommodate your cat as an adult. This eliminates the need to change boxes which can sometimes be a factor in its future disuse. Pour in an absorbent cat-box filler about three to four inches deep. I like a scented filler that does not have a lot of fine powder in it. The new powdered clay fillers are very good. The advantage to using powdered clay is that you remove only the balls of matter each day and replace the lost litter occasionally. If you use regular filler, clean it everyday, and completely change it every three or four days.

It is important to place the litterbox in a semi-private location such as under a table or inside a closet with the door partially open. Cats like their privacy.

As soon as you bring your kitten home, show her the location of the litterbox by placing her in it. She will probably jump out immediately. That's okay. Several times those first few days, place her in the litter box. She will soon find out that that is the only place where she will be able to dig a hole for elimination purposes. For the first several days, every time she does get into the litterbox, praise her with "Good Kitty!"

If your kitten does not use the litterbox after this procedure, have her thoroughly checked over by a veterinarian. If she is healthy, but still insists on going in places other than the litterbox, clean these areas with soap and water and then overspray them with a solution of 25 percent white vinegar mixed with 75 percent water. This will remove the ammonia smell which might encourage her to go back to these same spots. If she is returning to the same spot, place the litterbox there. If this does not work, confine her to one room, such as bathroom, for a week. Place her food, water, and bed in one end of the room and her litterbox in the other. Once she has started using it again, you can let her roam freely.