February 18 (Lunar calendar: January 28), 2023 Saturday | Dawnxisoul393art
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Most domestic kittens have learned to use the litter from their mothers by the time they are 4 weeks old. If a cat is orphaned or adopted too early, it will not have the opportunity to learn. Even kittens that are past nursing and have learned to use litter will not be able to adapt to the requirements of using the litter box as a toilet when they arrive in a new environment without our guidance. First, we need to choose a suitable place to place a fixed litter box in this place.
The litter box should be placed in a ventilated and quiet corner to create a relatively "private" toileting environment for the cat. The litter box can be made by yourself or purchased in the market. The quality of the litter box should be good because our cat may use it for a long time and frequent replacement of the litter box will make it more difficult for the cat to adapt. When we adopt a kitten into our home, the first thing we need to do is to let the cat get familiar with its current toilet place, regardless of whether it would have used the litter box before.
We need to put a small amount of the kitten's excrement into the litter box, then put the kitten in the litter box as well, let it smell its own excrement, and then tell the cat that this is where it will urinate and defecate in the future. This way when the cat wants to urinate or defecate, it will think of the litter box first. We also need to understand the time and pattern of urination and defecation of the cat, and when we find that the cat will show signs of urination and defecation, we should promptly guide the cat to the litter box.
If the cat is stubborn and does not obey our request but continues to run to another place to defecate, it is possible that our cat has not understood us yet or that the cat is not used to that environment of the toilet and we need to give them some time to adapt. If we have time, every time our cat finishes eating cat food, we will guide it to the litter box for a while.
Every time we put our cat into the litter box, we should quietly walk away and leave it alone. Because it is the cat's nature to defecate in a private environment, it will not want to hear any sound or movement while it is defecating. Repeatedly several times, the cat will know that this is the only place for it to defecate. For the cat's excrement outside the litter box, we must treat it, thoroughly remove the smell of its excrement and spray it with a special disinfectant to prevent it from continuing to urinate and defecate anywhere.
When the cat litter is dirty and needs to be replaced, if we put in the brand new litter, the cat may not be able to find the smell of its own urine and feces, and next time it may not know where to urinate or defecate. We can mix the new litter with a small amount of the old litter and let the kitten gradually become familiar with the smell of the new litter. Also for cats, praise is much more effective than reprimands and scoldings. We must be calm when dealing with problems and not lose our temper with our cats because of one or two failures. This will easily make the kitten rebellious and fearful of us and affect the relationship between us and our cats.
How to train our cats to defecate in the litter box? | Life Tips
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