Training a kitten to use a litter box

You should always train your kitten to use a litter box. Because even if you are planning to allow your kitten to be an outside cat and come and go whenever it pleases, you will need to be sure that if ever there was a time when your kitten is not able to go outside for whatever reason, then your cat is already litter boxed trained and will be able to use the litter box whenever necessary.  Your kitten may not seem too happy about having to use the litter tray but they will get used to it.

There might come a time when you have to be out of town for a few days and you do not want your kitten to come in and out as she pleases, nor do you want to leave the cat door unlocked for security reasons, and so your kitten will have to be content with staying inside. Or perhaps it is the middle of winter and the temperature is freezing outside – too cold for your kitten to be outside at all. You will then need to keep your kitten inside to avoid the cold and she will have to then use the litter box. Or, your kitten might have to undergo a medical treatment that will require him to be kept indoors for a while. If you have trained your kitten to use a little box, then the cat that she grows into won’t have a problem if she finds herself locked inside with no means of getting outside to go potty.

When you first bring your kitten home, have a litter box ready for her to use.  You won’t be letting her outside for those first days when she is so small anyway, so use this time to train her to use the litter box.  Start by using a shallow tray that she can easily jump into and put a layer of kitty litter on top.  As your kitten grows, always have a clean litter tray available, even if she doesn’t always use it, she will learn where it is and when the day comes that she finds herself locked inside, she will know where the litter box as well as how to use it.