Basic Litter Training for Kittens

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Luckily, a kitten’s instinct to bury or hide its waste is strong. As long as you provide a nice litter box setup, your kitten is likely to catch on quick.

Related: Tips for Choosing the Right Litter Box and Litter Box Location

“Of the hundreds of kittens I have encountered, I can only think of two or three that needed help litter training,” says Jessica Watson, team lead — Cat World, certified animal training and enrichment professional with Best Friends Animal Society. “Solo kittens are the hardest as they don’t have brothers and sisters to help.”

Set your kitten up for success by following the golden rules of litter boxes: Have at least one box per cat plus one, make sure the boxes are large yet easy to enter (kittens may need a lower box or a ramp), place the boxes in quiet places away from food and sleeping areas, and use a soft, unscented litter.

If your kitten has an accident, remain calm, try not to show your displeasure and clean the mess up promptly.

“The kitten isn’t doing this on purpose — that is why we call them ‘accidents,’” Jessica says. “If the mess can be relocated to the litter box, I recommend doing that, which will let your kitty know where he should be going by marking the box with his scent.”

Featured photo: perets | Getty Images

Read Next: 6 Common Litter Box Issues — and How to Fix Them

The post Basic Litter Training for Kittens by Jackie Brown appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.