Top five reasons causing a cat to avoid the litter box – And how to retrain successfully.
Cats make wonderful pets. But they can be rather annoying sometimes, with their bad cat behavior (Especially if they start avoiding the litter box). The whole house would get stinky and you will be getting enough with cleaning and washing the floor. So, retraining a cat to use the litter box is a very important thing for any cat owner.
These are the top five reasons for a cat to avoid his litter box.
1. Stress (stress is the root course of most of bad cat behaviors)
2. The litter box is too small for him
3. Dirty litter box
4. Cat doesn’t like the litter type
5. Paws are injured. So, it is hard to dig litter (Newly de-clawed cats experience this often, it hurts when they dig litter, Association of pain with the litter box causes them to avoid the litter box).
First stance is to find the root course and avoid it. (We should understand that any of the above is not a bad cat behavior).
Isolate the cat in an empty room with a water dish and a litter box (the water dish must be minimum five feet away from the litter box), Provide a hiding place like a cardboard box. Give something he could sleep on. These are the only items to be within room (ideally). Keep the cat for a minimum three days in this room. Enter the room everyday and clean the litter box. Provide your pet something to eat. Play with him if you like. But don’t take him out yet
Let him visit another room with a new litter box, after three days. Wandering here and there within the house is to be prevented. If it eliminates outside, put him in the old room for another two or three days. If it eliminates outside, clean the area and prevent him from visiting there. Praises are to be used as positive feedbacks. Never punish him as it could further stress him.
Patience, praises and flexibility will do the job. With those you will retrain your cat fast
May 19, 2009 at 11:31 am |
I’ve been here since oct 08 he didn’t start doing this till he picked up a scent of another cat that I clean theses peoples house .
we’ve moved 3 times since I’ve had the cat and he knows where his box is. I’m thinking that maybe he’s still getting a scent that humans cant detect? I’m going to be ripping up the rug and maybe put tile. I hope he won’t be able to still get the scent.