Cat House Training Tips

Cats are clean animals. They prefer to “do their business” in sand or dirt, or just about any substance they can paw at and cover their wastes up with.


Until your cat is house trained, she should not have free run of your home. If your cat continues to makes mistakes, this behavior can quickly become a habit.


So how exactly do you teach a cat to use a litter box? If you’re a mother, you’ll probably remember how difficult it was to potty-train your own child – and now you’ve got to do the same with a dumb animal!


You’ve probably been out and bought a nice box, and filled the box with litter . But there’s a little more to housetraining a cat than simply sticking a litter box in a random room.


Cats like to use the litter box in private, so find a place in your home where the box is easily accessible to your cat, but far enough away from the heavy traffic. Place the litter box away in a corner of a room or in a small alcove that’s not used much.


Take your cat to the box, and place her in it to start. She knows instinctively what to do, but make a point of praising her when she uses the box. As a good cat “mother”, you should make sure that the litter box is always kept clean. If you use clumping litter or scoopable litter in the box, this job will be very straightforward. And your cat will surely appreciate your efforts.


With this type of litter, all you need to do is to scoop the faeces and urine out daily (it’ll be clustered in and among the clumps of litter). Also be sure to regularly change the entire contents of the box, and wash the box out regularly with soap and water.


The box should be a good fit for your cat. If you are dealing with a kitten, be sure the sides of the litter box are low enough that she can enter and exit it with ease. If you have a large cat, get one large enough so that he can comfortably move around in there. Most cat experts recommend that you have one more box than you have cats. So if you have two cats, you need three litter boxes.


If you discover that despite your best cat house training efforts your cat doesn’t like to use his box, then you should consult your veterinarian. Because cats are notoriously clean animals, they don’t usually need much house training. So if your cat is refusing to use her box, she may have some medical problems.


If there has been a sudden change in her home environment, your cat could be suffering some form of stress, and this could cause her to stop using the litter box. If you have brought a new cat or kitten into the house, or suddenly there are a lot of new people around, or you’ve been away on vacation and left her alone – even if you’ve had someone looking after her – she could be stressed.


Cats love their daily routine, rising at about the same time each day , sleeping about the same time every day, and get wound up to do their best playing the same time. Any activity that breaks this routine could very well cause them stress and cause litter box accidents.

So look for a cause in such cases – try to work out why she is not using it. First thing you should check is that the box and litter are clean.


One approach to retraining a misbehaving cat is to put the cat in a nearly empty room for a day or two, with only a scratching post, water, a bed and a litter box, and don't allow her access to the rest of the house until she is completely retrained in litter box etiquette.


If your cat isn’t fully trained or has been having problems using the litter box, always ensure your pet is confined to a certain area when you leave the house. See she has enough food and water and a warm place to sleep at one end of the room . . . and a clean litter box at the other end.

With a little time and effort – and patience - you’ll soon have a clean and happy cat. Whoever thought that toilet training cats was all that difficult?


For more detailed cat house training tips, and tons more, check out my book Cat Care and Training.