How can I train a 3-weeks-old kitten to use the litter box?
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at
11:51 am
Four days ago my sister brought home a kitten, and we suspect the kitten is about 3 weeks old.
He has no idea how to use the litter box.
Because the kitten is so small and we have 2 other cats, we put the kitten inside a big box. I also placed a litter box inside his box, but he just poops outside the litter box.
How can I train him to use the litter box?
Filed under: Cat Litter
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Use something like a pie tin….something very shallow. Confine the kitten to a small area..like a bathroom when you are NOT with it. Generally, they figure it out very fast. I have never had to "train" kittens. Even after fostering a litter without a mom, the kittens figure it out by themselves. They just need a smaller box, and a confined place. You should get it to the vet for vaccines and worming also. The parasites are contagious to people and other pets.
poor thing isn’t gonna learn overnite. Just everytime you catch it in the action, put him/her in the box you want him to use. He’ll get it figured out, just be patient.
Oh my god… 3 weeks? where did she get the kitten from!.. that is WAY to young to be away from it’s mother… its mother would have taught the kitten these skills if it was with her for the proper amount of time…. This kitten is still in need of it’s mothers milk as well!… don’t worry about litter training.. you need to get this kitten to a cet, or it can die.
What you should do is take turns with who ever lives in your house and make sure that your cat is in the litter box all day so it can get use to it also. Tran it by just giving it a Little treat to reward it for being in the litter box.
Three weeks old is waaay too young to be litter training. You’re gonna have to take a damp cloth every couple hours and wipe his bottom for him. It’ll feel like mama’s tongue and trigger him to go potty (it’s gross, but that’s what mother cats do to help their babies learn when to go).
It’ll be a few weeks yet before he’s ready to full-on use a litter box. Like a poster said up a ways, keep a shallow pan with litter nearby for when he is ready.
He is way to young to use the box. He will start in two weeks but he has to be able to get in it and a three weeks it is hard for him to understand what it even is. Use a plain clay litter because I guarantee he will eat some . Feed him cat milk formula if he won’t use a bottle use a big eye dropper. At his age he really needs to suckle. Don’t put him in a big box he will get lost. I use one of those small shopping baskets that you hold with your hands at the store. I put in a small fuzzy animal and a dish towel and a small litter box. Set the basket half on a heating pad .So when he gets cold he can get warm and when he gets to hot he can get cool.
Change the towel as needed if you keep his sleeping area clean he will come to understand what the litter box is for. To get some sleep I put a large lid on the basket so he doesn’t get out and get hurt. I put the basket on my bedroom end table and attend to him at night, he still needs a night feed. He is still so very small. He needs a mom. Keep him away from the big cats they could have well cat germs and make him very ill .Let them meet at about six weeks or so. Then he might be able to better tolerate well cat germs.