So you’ve brought home a bundle of joy from the shelter, a breeder or foster friend and the kitten is not using the litter box.
What caused this? Don’t cats instinctively know to use a litter box? The answer is yes, so why isn’t this kitten taking to a litter box like a fish to water?
It appears this kitten lacks litter box training or something has impacted its will to use a litter box.
The issues that exist are:
- Is it only urinating outside the litter box? If so, it points to a medical or behavioral issue with a 70% chance of success.
- Is it only defecating outside the litter box? If so, this is a litter box problem, 100% solvable.
- Is it doing both? This can be multiple issues, or combined. It’s 50/50.
- Is it consistently ignoring the litter box? This plays into #3, we’ll get to that.
- Is it occasionally missing? If so, this is a training and maturity issue which again is 100% fixable.
Before we get to answering those questions, it’s also important to factor in if the kitten was exhibiting this behavior prior, before you brought it home. The truth to that answer may be hard to confirm, but if you can’t confirm it, assume the worst.
Now that we assembled all of our keys, let’s discuss the general cause and root cause.
We can safely ascertain that the kitten was not trained properly if it is consistently not using the litter box.
If it is missing occasionally, that is another matter.
If it is only urinating and not doing both outside the litter box, that too points to a specific reason to which we can also begin to resolve.
RETRAINING AN UNTRAINED KITTEN TO USE THE LITTERBOX
This applies to kittens that either urinate, defecate (or both) outside the litterbox on a consistent basis, or don’t use it at all.
For a kitten that is untrained, do the following.
- Isolate the kitten to a small room.
- No loose fabrics or movable objects on the floor. Why? Don’t give the kitten any opportunity to use anything other than the litter box to cover its urine or feces.
- The room must have a hard surface. Wood, tile, linoleum, etc… Why? Because a cat’s instincts guide it to cover or hide its urine or feces.
- The litter box should be extremely easy to enter and exit.
- Don’t leave the kitten unattended for even the shortest timeframe. The kitten will most likely begin to squat to urinate or defecate in your presence. Ex. while playing with you on the bed, couch, or carpet, especially if this has been its choice in the past.
- If the kitten begins to squat, quickly pick it up and take it to its litter box. It’s not entirely wrong to keep a small one nearby in anticipation of this act and place the kitten in the litter box. If it steps out, take it back to the small room and leave it to use the litter box in due time.
- Try different types of litter to establish if the kitten has a particular preference or aversion. Start with wood or sawdust and move on to others.
- Change or scoop the litter immediately after every bathroom session. Of course praise the kitten.
IMPROVING LITTERBOX HABITS
If your kitten is occasionally missing the litter box, (especially if it is just outside) then you have a very manageable task.
- Isolation is optional, but not necessary.
- Access to the litterbox is key. Are the walls too high?
- The type of litter may be a concern. Is it too deep, or not something they prefer?
- Sharing a litterbox may be a problem. Here again, test out separation with their own litter box and re-integrate them into the community of cats to see if the bad habit returns.
Iconic Bengal Breeders Kittens
We don’t let kittens leave that have not proven themselves with consistent litter box use in the same way we simply don’t let a kitten leave that has a health concern.
No matter the age or size of a kitten, our policy and position is that we will keep a kitten here as long as it takes for it to leave both healthy, social, and litterbox trained. In some rare instances, a buyer will insist they take on the burden of further training, knowing the concern in advance and accepting responsibility. Reasons may be they are a vet, a previous owner with training experience, etc…
