How To Train A Kitten To Use The Litter Box

It's waaay easier than you think.

kitten using litter box

If you’ve ever been a puppy parent, you’ll know that potty training a puppy is a whole thing. So you might be worried that you’ll have a similar struggle training your new kitten to use a litter box.

But it’s actually much easier than you’d expect.

The Dodo spoke with Dr. Andrea Y. Tu, medical director at Behavior Vets in New York City, to find out what you really need to do in order to train a kitten to use a litter box.

Do you actually need to potty train a kitten?

In most cases, you really don’t.

“They learn this on their own, so it’s not something you have to train a kitten to use,” Dr. Tu told The Dodo.

In fact, your kitten will learn this so early on that you probably won’t have to teach her anything.

“Kittens usually … start to learn what is and is not litter substance from their moms during [their] socialization period,” Dr. Tu explained. “They start to learn how to cover their own eliminations, as well.”

So, if you’re adopting a kitten after she’s been weaned, all you’d really have to do is show her where the box is, and she can take it from there.

When do kittens learn to use a litter box?

If you do find yourself with a super young kitten — like if you’re fostering an orphaned litter — it’s important to know when she’ll typically learn each step in the potty process.

“In normal kitten development, at around 3 to 4 weeks, they’ll do voluntary elimination, which means the mom doesn’t have to stimulate them to defecate or urinate,” Dr. Tu said. “They’ll know how to go on their own.”

“Around 3 to 5 weeks is when they’ll start to explore substrates and develop preferences on what they like to use,” Dr. Tu explained.

Basically, this means your kitten will be figuring out which surfaces she likes to do her business on the most.

And finally, at around 7 weeks old she’ll learn to cover up what she leaves behind.

Things you’ll need when training your kitten to use a litter box

You won’t have to worry about picking up training treats for your kitten, since she’ll already know what she’s doing.

(But they’re still good to have anyway, so check out these Temptations treats from Amazon for $8.24.)

However, you will need the essentials, like:

  • A litter box
  • Kitten litter
  • A litter scoop

Try this litter box from Chewy for $15.99

And this scoop from Chewy for $12.99

For litter, a good starting point is to stick with whatever she was already using at the rescue or shelter where you got her. (If you’re not sure, you can just ask them.)

Typically, when you’re buying litter for an adult cat, you want to go with a product that clumps. But with kittens, you might actually want to avoid clumping litter.

“Some kittens will eat the litter, and then on those really strongly clumping litters, that could be a problem,” Dr. Tu explained.

For kittens especially, Dr. Tu recommends Yesterday’s News.

Try it from Amazon for $21.99

It’s literally made out of newspaper that’s been rolled and cut up, so the texture is different than most litters — so you might want to mix this in with another nonclumping litter brand until you’re ready to transition your kitten to a clumping litter so the different sensations aren’t too jarring.

You could try mixing it with this nonclumping litter from Amazon for $9.96.

Once you have everything you need, it should be smooth sailing from there!

If it seems like your kitten still isn’t getting it, reach out to a vet! It could be a medical issue.

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