barn kittens

[mom2raven]

Okay, so I have a question. I have been considering adding a 3rd cat to our family and I really want an orange cat. Here there is an abundance of barn cats. There are almost always kittens for give away in the paper or free classifieds.
I found a litter of orange kittens, oh so adorable. I asked the owner about them and they are not using a litterbox because they are in a barn.

If I brought one home, how would I teach it to use the litterbox?

 

[thecatcoach]

The little one should be confined to a small room with at least 3-4 shallow litter boxes... with litter that does NOT clump.
Make sure there's plenty of things for the cat in the room, along with a comfortable place to sleep and a feeding station.
If the kitten doesn't use the box, put the excrement into the box. If you catch the kitten not using the box, pick him up and place him in the box.
Marilyn Krieger, CCBC
www.thecatcoach.com

 

[jen]

Can other people answer too? I just wanted to give some encouragement because I have taken barn cats from my uncle's barn. These are feral, probably inbred wild kittens. Surprisingly I have never had one that didn't use the box. Now I didn't take a lot of kittens, just the occasional few, or ones with bad URIs. But I was always amazed at how quickly the litterbox instinct kicked in and they always used it.

Good luck!