Potty Training Cats: Techniques and Tips for Effective Training

teacher-cat “Potty training” or “housebreaking” cats is something of a misnomer. In most cases, you don’t really need to toilet train a house cat because the cat’s instincts along with training from their mothers lead them to choose only one place for their elimination needs.

If an indoor kitten is shown that the litter box is the appropriate bathroom area in the house, she’ll use that area and only that area. Of course, certain problems can interfere with the natural order of things and there may be times you need to help your kitty learn to keep her “business” in the box.

Training Kittens

Mother cats typically teach their kittens to use the litter box, so there’s no need for human interference. Sometimes, though, when the kittening box is far from the litter box or the house is full of activity, the mother may not feel safe taking her kittens to the litter box. Instead, she lets them do their business right there in the kittening box where they sleep.

The kittens then learn to pee on the bedding in the kittening box and may continue to wet on your bedding or furniture when they’re older. And naturally, orphaned kittens need a little help from humans to understand what the litter box is all about. In these cases, the process for potty training kittens is similar to the process for adult cats.

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