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Cat litterbox question

16 years ago

There is a little cat (adult) living in an old shed near my house. I have been giving her food and water and she is quite friendly and sweet. I would like to bring her to my house but don't know if she would use the litterbox after going so long without using one and just going where ever. What do y'all think? I don't know a lot about cats, I'm mostly a dog person.

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Comments (6)

kg44
16 years ago
Most cats automatically take to a litter box. Put the box where you are going to leave it. Place her in it (with the litter in it) and take her paw and scratch it around. Every cat I've ever seen has just automatically used the box once I did that.
Elly_NJ
16 years ago
Especially if you limit her to one room for a few days : )

Also: Take her to the vet to be checked out.

This is so nice of you!
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Very cool ideas! I think about this a lot, as we have 3 cats. We do a lot of cat sitting too, so it's always interesting seeing people's solutions. We have a large laundry room, but the thought of kitty litter near clean clothes grosses me out too much (I line dry everything so don't want the dust on clean laundry). We're in the process of finishing our basement now, and have created a "kitty closet" specifically for the litter box, but unfortunately it is only wide enough to house one litter box. We used to have 2 litter boxes on our stairwell landing to the basement, but since the basement's been under construction we had to move the litter area to our master bath. I HATE the mess and dust of kitty litter in our bathroom, so it's definitely not a long-term solution. If we could put it in the tub for now I would, but all our cats are "seniors" and 2 of them can't jump up and down like they used to. We really only need boxes for 2 of our cats, as our 20-year-old kitty stopped using the litter box about 7 years ago for reasons we never did figure out. After some trial and error, we started placing rags (mostly old t-shirts) on trays (the kind they use in cafeterias) and he pees on them and then I wash them like cloth diapers. I like to mention this in case anyone else ever has this problem and is looking for a solution. He is the sweetest cat ever, and it was so hard when he started peeing on rugs and other places in the house. It was such a relief to find a solution that works. We keep 2 trays out for him (one on each floor), and it's honestly easier than dealing with the messy litter box in my opinion.
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biwako_of_abi
16 years ago
Cats are MUCH easier to housebreak than dogs. I have raised both. A pretty sure way to get the cat to use the box would be to bring in a bit of dirt or whatever from a place where you see her doing her business and put it in with the kitty litter and let her get a whiff of it. We have raised a great number of kittens (We used to breed Abyssinians in Japan.) and this never failed. Whenever we sent a kitten to its new home, we would send along a bit of tissue with the kitten's or its mother's urine on it, and even the youngest kitten never made a "mistake".
User
16 years ago
How nice of you. Confine her to one room at first with her litter box and don't put her food and water near it. Show her by putting her in it and it will take just that. When I brought Nellie, the pregnant cat I rescued with her three kittens, in my house I confined them to a bath room. Nellie never had a litter box but used it and never did a mistake in 5 years. But more interesting, Annie, her daughter, waddled over to the litter box before she was 4 weeks old and used it. It just is natural for them...
trekaren
16 years ago
The pooping and covering is a natural instinct. I have never had a kitten or cat have trouble. Most have been rescues, I have only done one shelter adoption.
enatashadunn
16 years ago
My DH & I "adopted" a stray and we eventually were able to keep her in the house. We have had no problems getting her to use a little box. We do confine her @ night in our mudroom & place the litter-box in a corner opposite her food & water. We saw her using the first night she was in there! :)

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