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LITTER BOX TRAINING FOR YOUR NEW KITTEN
By nature, cats are fastidious and instinctively cover wastes with sand or dirt, and indoor cats find a litter box suits this purpose well.
Your new kitten wants to please you. Most kittens are litter box-trained by their mothers. If your kitten isn't accustomed to a litter-box, its your job to teach it what you expect and reward it for good behavior. There are three factors to consider: its ability to control its bowels and bladder, its sense of home and toilet areas, and how to communicate what is acceptable behavior to your new pet.
After you take your kitten home -- after meals, drinks, exercise, or excitement, gently place it in an easily accessible box filled with litter, several times if necessary until it gets the idea. After one or two tries in the litter box, the kitten will usually become housebroken. Remember to praise the kitten lavishly for correct actions. Patience and continued loving care should handle any problems.
If your new kitten is sick with diarrhea or some other disease, it is almost impossible to housebreak it at that time. Nurse it back to health and then resume its training.
Order is important to cats. Changes in the environment including: color or location of the litter box, color or type of litter, senility, lack of sanitation, odor of other animals on clothing, a new animal, baby, or visitor in the home, territorial anxiety in a multiple-cat home, a nearby female cat in heat, moving or getting new furniture, intact cats in the home, stray cats outside the home, change in the household schedule, insufficient attention, loneliness, or emotional crisis in the family, can all lead to litter box use problems.
If your cat stops using the litter box in favor of other surfaces in the home, a veterinary examination should be your first step. Inappropriate urination is a common problem due to urinary tract disease or behavioral expression of feline displeasure. Occasionally the stress or discomfort of some non-urinary tract disease will lead to this problem. One (rare) cause, is retained or remnant ovarian tissue in a spayed cat. A sudden fright or too long confinement may cause occasional accidents.
Common problems may arise if the cat doesn't like the type of litter, its odor, or its consistency. Experiment with several brands until you find one the cat likes. The box may not be private enough or some object frightening to the cat may be near the box's location. Another problem may be that the litter pan is too small.
Try different cat box fillers, placing feed dishes where the cat has been urinating, or moving the litter box to a quieter, more private area. If commercial litter doesn't seem to work, try sawdust, sand, or newspapers. With multi-cat homes, several litter boxes may be needed. Frequent cleaning is a must, regardless of the number of cats. Make sure the litter box is accessible. Keep the location consistent, keep the sides reasonably low for easy access, keep it 'baited', but clean. Avoid scented litter or deodorants, scoop often and change several times/week.
"Spraying" is when a cat marks a vertical surface with urine. This is a form of territorial marking, although cats with urinary tract disease will occasionally mark a vertical surface, too. The cat generally stands on all four feet, lifts its tail straight up, and squirts urine backward. The erect tail often quivers just prior to and during the expulsion.
Soiled areas must be cleaned thoroughly to destroy the presence of ammonia. Common solutions are those of equal parts white vinegar and water; baking soda, mouthwash, detergents, and Clorox. Other products sold specifically for this purpose are available through local pet stores. In any event, the area must be saturated, then blotted over and over again until all urine has been removed.
If the cat still refuses to use the litter box, the confinement method is one alternative to retrain the animal. Once the cat is using the litter box regularly, it is given more freedom. It is important to select an area which is just big enough to hold the litter box at one end and the cat's bedding at the other. Give the cat no other area than a litter box for elimination, apart from its own bedding.
The cat has to remain in the cage for 24-hours a day for a minimum of two weeks. After 2 weeks of successful confinement, allow gradually increasing periods of freedom. Close supervision is needed initially to ensure the cat doesn't revert to soiling outside the litter box. When the cat is left alone, continue to confine it. Praise the cat whenever it uses the litter box. Once the cat seeks the litter box on its own, you can begin to feel confident that retraining is complete.
It is also possible to obtain drug therapy for inappropriate urination. This should only be done through consultation with your veterinarian.
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