How can we get our nervous cat to use her automatic litter box?

Question

It has been 2 1/2 weeks since we bought and set-up the automatic litter box. For the first week, we kept both her old and new box, but ended up removing the original litter box once it was clear that she would not even approach the new box. For the second week, the new litter box was functional (for her) but turned off as we continued to manuallly clean out the box so that she could adjust. On week 3 (this week) I have occassionally turned the automatic litter box on, but awoke this morning to discover cat waste on my small rug (next to litter box) and 2 separate pee spots on the couch (also in the same room as litter box). Please tell me how I can encourage my cat to use her new automatic litter box and discourage her from using my living room. Also if anyone knows how to clean pee from a couch, that would be great too. Thank you for all responses.

Answer 1

what everyone does a little thing i like to call ok i don't know what to call it but here's what you do.You reward her when she is good and punish when she is bad.let her eat and wait and 30min-an hour.take her to the box.DO NOT WALK AWAY!!!!encourage her talk quietly and softly, Use a baby voice if you have to when she uses it give her a treat,a piece of meat from a dinner that u had,a LITTLE milk,an egg,ect.when she doesn't say NO and a light punishment i give my cat a flick on the nose not to hard like you were flicking some1 just a light flick on the nose(because she is a nervous cat) hope i helped!!

         Kassi

Answer 2

I'm writing to do something I don't like to do but in this case I must do it. I'm writing to contradict another answer from Singergirl which solution (in part) would probably result in catastrophic results. I do not want to look like I'm better than her but I see a lot of problem with her solution. Sorry again Singergirl.

While her solution of giving her treat as a reward for using the litter box is good for a lot of thing with cat,  it doesn't work with litter for many reasons which I will detail below. But the main reason why I'm writing is that punishing your cat for not going into the litter is AN ABSOLUTE NO NO. Here's why

The reward method works good with a cat but for litter training it doesn't work because

1) Most of the time, you will not be present when she will decide to go. Most cats (there are always exceptions) need a calm environment to go in the litter box and they won't go if you're present

2) The elimination process consists of several steps for your cat. Preparing the elimination spot, installation, elimination, covering, smelling and exiting the litter. If you reward your cat as he exit the litter you're only rewarding the last step. Remember that cats live in the present, at the very second. If you give a reward to a cat, you're rewarding him for what he was doing at the moment you gave the treat, in this case : exiting the litter box. So you'll only encourage him on getting out the box which is precisly the opposite of the desired result. Do not try to give the treat during the elimination process, you will only interupt the process.

Punishing don't works for many reasons as well

1) You will rarely be able to catch your cat during the elimination process. Punishing him after the fact DON'T WORK because he will not understand why you're punishing him. Remember that he lives in the present. If you punish him even 15 seconds after the fact while he is cleaning himself, he will only understand that he's punished for cleaning himself. Do not take your cat and put his nose in his poo...IT DOESN'T WORK. Even if you were to punish him at the exact moment when he pee or poo, he will only understand that he's punished for doing just that...and that may results in many problems (I've done many consultation on that)

I'm proud to tell you that you've done things the right way. You did it gradually and that's what you had to do. Unfortunetly for you, your cat doesn't like it and there is NOTHING you can do about it. Litter is a sensible subject for cat. Many cat will even need two litter. One for peeing and one for #2.  Some cat will not like the spot their owner have choosen for the litter and the only way to solve the matter is to move the litter to a spot the cat choose. I know it's not fun but it's part of having a cat.

Your cat is scared of the litter and, although it could be possible to reverse that process through different desensitive technic, there is little chance he will ever see that litter as something secure. Since the litter is one of the MAIN thing that needs to be secure for your cat I would recommend going back to the old ways.

By the way, cleaning the litter yourself serve a purpose for your cat. The person cleaning the litter occupies a special place in the dominance ladder of the house. If you cat buries his poo and pee, you're the dominant figure in the house and you will have more control over your cat's behavior. If he doesn't, then you're consider under him and this is also a good thing because while he might not be as easy to educate, he will probably be stay closer to you everywhere and be the one person to whom he will go when he wants to be held.

Good luck

Answer 3

What I did, was placed the old litter box next to the new one, for a day.  Then I removed the old one, and I was lucky that he started to use the new one right away. Also, I did use a brand of cat litter that is made for cats that are a bit finicky.  It is called Cat Attract, and it contains herbs in the litter that make him want to go in!  In fact, I've caught him going into the box just to dig around, or to just tinkle a tiny bit so that he had a reason to scratch about!  It's truly a great product!

Answer 4

unless that automatic thing was introduced to her when she was a new born there is no way you are going to get a cat to use a clearly human convenience...

a nervous cat is skittish when using a covered litter box, one with gears and strange sounds is a no go...

it is a dumb idea and a waste of $...

get her the old litter box that she is comfortable using...

her little pee gifts are indications that she is not pleased...

it is the same if some one gave you a bed pan on a roller skate to use in the middle of the drive way...it would not be acceptable...

vinegar and dawn dish soap....

Answer 5

Introduce her to the new one, Show here its not gonna hurt her. We had the same problem, we have 3 cats, and got a new litterbox called the cat genie, It scared them all to death, so they all agreed not to use it. So we locked them in the basement with the litter box as if saying " If you want out, use the litter box"

  After 2 hours, i went down to check out if they pooped, and Voila ! There sat one cat p**p. Hope this helps ! Do NOT Give her any treats to encourage her to use it, especially not milk, AFTER she uses the litter box, then give her a cat treat, If you give her one before, she will take advantage of you, after she uses it, your rewarding her. As for the couch pee, heres a big trick:

Household chemicals generally won't get rid of urine stains and smells. Buy yourself an enzyme cleaner made specifically for this task, such as Nature's Miracle. These are widely available at pet stores.

If you can't tell exactly where the stains are (you can smell them but not see them) either act like a dog and get down and smell everything yourself, or get a portable black light, under which urine stains will appear if the room is dark. (These are available at pet stores.) You can also bring a cat into the room - he or she will go straight toward the stains to sniff them.

Thoroughly soak the stains with the enzyme cleaner, allowing it to sit for the recommended amount of time. You can rinse and even soap and rinse when it's done. Repeat the applications if necessary - sometimes several times. Be patient. It takes awhile for the enzyme soak to work.

Tips

Remember that animals like to revisit places where they've peed. I recommend spraying Listerine over the place to discourage the animal from returning and peeing again (they don't like the smell). White Vinegar also works for this task.

Warnings

Try the enzyme treatment on a small, not-visible surface first to make sure it won't harm the finish on the surface you want to treat.