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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Enticing Your Cat to Use the Litter Box

Inappropriate urinating is a common problem in cats and can be very frustrating.  Here are some tips to entice your cat to the litter box:
  • Provide 1 + 1 litter box per cat in the household.  If you have 2 cats, for example, you should provide 3 litter boxes.
  • Placement of the letterboxes are also important.   Put them in different locations that are non-threatening to the cat.  
  • Use fine grained litters.  Cats prefer fine grained litters.  Also, you may want to consider Cat Attract which we have heard a lot of good things about.  http://preciouscat.com/
  • Litter-boxes should be 2.5 times the length of the cat.  That is quite large, and in fact litter boxes aren't made that large, so the best solution is to find a sweater box or Rubbermaid bin at Target or similar store and cut a door in the front of the box.  The door should be no more than 2 inches from the ground so that cats, even arthritic cats, can enter and exit the box easily.  The litter box above is a good example except it is not quite large enough and the door is a little on the small side.
  • Do not cover the box with a hood.  Cats prefer non-covered boxes.
  • Litter boxes should be cleaned daily.