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Getting A Cat To Use A Litter Box
The problem of how to stop a cat from urinating in the house is one that almost all cat owners have to deal with sooner or later. Fourteen cats share our small rural home with us. We, as you might have guessed, have had to deal with more than a few cat urination problems from time to time.
Hopefully you will have had your cat spayed or neutered. Not only will spaying reduce the desire to spray or mark, but it will make for a much healthier, happier and long-lived cat.
The first thing to do when a cat starts urinating outside of the litter tray is to take it to the vet. Urinary blockages are invariably fatal if not treated rapidly and male cats are particularly vulnerable to them. We have had this ourselves with Lerone, a two year old black tom cat – he was lucky and was saved. I can’t express how imporant it is got get your cat to the vet immediately.
You next need to think. Cats do not like change and even something as innocuous as a change of furniture or carpet can make them feel insecure. Cats typically start spraying after the introduction of a new living being into the house – it need not be a cat – even a baby can really upset your cat and make it feel insecure. You need to introduce new cats slowly and diplomatically, giving them the time to get to know each other’s scent from a distance if space allows.
Litter tray problems are another big cause of inappropriate cat urination. Cats do not like trays that are too big or too small or positioned in areas where they either can’t escape or are likely to be disturbed. Noisy locations like hallways or under the stairs are best avoided. Covered cat trays are best avoided as they have limited escape routes. Scented litter should be avoided. It is very important that you keep your cat’s litter tray clean. You should scoop the tray every day and clean it thoroughly every three days, using enzyme based odour remover to remove any trace of smell. There should be as many trays as there are cats, plus one extra. Rotating their cleaning is a good idea.
Nervousness – particularly caused by changes in furniture or new additions to your family can be countered effectively with preparations such as Bach’s Flower Remedy and Feliway, both of which we have used with great success. Ther are a variety of ways to prevent a cat from peeing in a particular place including laying down aluminium foil or double sided sticky tape or putting a food or biscuit bowl on the spot. Wash the area where the cat pees thoroughly with soap and water or white vinegar and water and use enzyme based odour remover to eliminate any trace of the previous peeing. The enzymes utterly destroy the urine’s molecules rather than dispersing them. It works on the same principle as biological washing powder, but is tailored to the specific molecules in cat urine. This is a two part strategy designed to make the litter tray as appealing as possible whilst putting the cat off its new inappropriate peeing site.
Now might be the right time to get the cat using your own toilet. A very instructive video on training a cat to use the toilet can be found here.