Accustoming to the toilet
Everything written below relates not only to kittens but also to adult cats.
Kittens want to be clean. If they have such an opportunity most of the kittens would use the toilet with pleasure each time they need. Your task is to give them such an opportunity.
Before the discussing of other details let me begin from the praise. Kittens answer for positive words and touches as we do. If you praise your kitten for each successful visit to the toilet you will encourage it by doing this and strengthen such habit. Don’t praise it before the kitten finishes its cases because you can divert it. It’ll let you know about this itself. If you praise it too loudly and energetically it will run away from you. But if you praise it too calm it won’t be interested in it. When you choose the best type of praise for your kitten it will come to you and begin to hang about its head and purr.
Set the toilet box in the place which can be easy to get but the place should be silent. The intensive movements may frighten or divert the kitten and if the box is too far it may think that it is too hard to get there. If you live in the house with some floors you must set the toilet boxes on each floor during the first months. Then it won’t be so that the need gets your pet on the ground floor while the toilet is only on the first one.
Setting the toilet for your new kitten be sure that it is not very high and the kitten can easily get inside. Kittens grow quickly and soon your pet will be ready for the box to adult cat. But if your kitten still small you must begin from the cardboard box of a little size. Make it so that it would be easy for kitten not only to get inside the box but also to get to this box. The door to the room where the toilet is situated should be always open while the kitten is out or not far.
Don’t pour to the box too much filling. The small kittens need not the filling of box by kilograms of filling. They will sink into it like a kid in the soft sand. There is more than enough two centimeters of filling. Then the kitten will be happy and the happier it is the cleaner it will be.
Keep the box clean! There is nothing more unpleasant than to enter the public toilet and to find there dirty closet. Your kitten feels the same. Try to clean your cat’s litter box each time you passed near it. It will reduce the smell and make the usage of the box easier. It is better to keep near the toilet box a small basket for the rubbish with the lid and the plastic bag in it. It will make the cleaning easier. As for me I keep the toilet box in the bathroom and use such filling that may be drowned in the wc pan (See: Cat’s litter box). It is the simplest way.
After the troubles about clearness and approach of toilet box make all another places not interesting for the cat as the places of toilet. Either take away all the ashes from the fire or set a hard grate for the kitten can’t come in.
All the plants must be hung so high that the kitten couldn’t get them, if possible. The big plants in the pots can be made not interesting for the kitten with one of the following ways: close the ground in the pot with the wire net, pour it with the thick layer of gravel or glue upon the pot across two-siding sticking plaster or use the remedy against the insects. One of these ways will help you to get your aim.
With the help of cases or boxes bar block for the kitten the ways behind sofa, behind bookcase and to other quiet places where it like to get. Looking around they, may be, say to themselves “As nobody besides me uses this place for another aim I will make here the puddle!”
The best way I know for preventing bad habits and to praise good ones is to lock your kitten in the isolated room while you can’t look after it. Later the cats with good habits get more freedom than the others with the bad behavior.
Even in spite of the best plans mistakes will happen from time to time. But remember that the kitten is a kid and that’s why treat it in such a way. Don’t beat it, don’t poke it with its nose, don’t abuse it. Such punishments make it only be afraid of you and it may learn that you become angry while it urinates. Often it leads to that the kitten feels shy to use the toilet box while you are near it. After that it may logically think that its owner mustn’t see how it urinates or evacuates. It’ll make your kitten try to hide in such moments in the wardrobe, for example.
If you catch it on such actions don’t say anything. Instead of that clap you hands or strike on wall. The loud noise will frighten it and make to stop. After this take it quietly and get to the nearest toilet box. Then carefully put it inside. If it finishes its “problems” there then praise it. If it doesn’t wait for the next time.
If the mistakes come often then shame on you! When you are at home look after your kitten more attentively but when you have no opportunities to look after it close your pet in the special room. Always remember that it is a kid. The mistake which is connected with a toilet is just a mistake but not a crime which is cost for execution. Soon the kitten will get accustomed and be doing everything correctly. The keys to success are patience and precautionary measure.
If the problems continue better to ask for veterinary. Such mistakes may be caused by some infection of urinary tract or stomachaches. Obligatory check the analysis of excrements for finding worms. The animal which has worms practically can’t be taught to the correct usage of toilet.
For good cleaning of the place where your kitten made the mistake obligatory use the smell destroyer. You may buy it at the shop for pets or at the veterinary’s. Cats have a strong sense of smell. If you don’t clean the place up to destroying of smell the kitten will try to repeat the procedure. During the washing of the floor never use ammonia. It is one of the components of urine and will attract your cat to this place again!
Always clean the place very well even if you don’t see any remains and don’t feel any smells. Our noses are more primitive than the cat’s ones that is why don’t trust to your nose in such cases. If there is a carpet in this place it may get wet that is why it is necessary to clean the floor under the carpet. If it is wall-to-wall carpeting then it’s a hard problem because the urine may get in the stuffing and there are no ways to take it out. If your kitten often “makes mistakes” in the same place you may order the professional cleaning of the carpet. Tell them beforehand that the case is concerned to cat’s urine. Demand that they obligatory add to the cleaning solution the smell destroyer.
During the cleaning of toilet you must be careful if there are pregnant women in the house (See: Toxoplasmosis).
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