Getting A Stray To Use A Litter Box.

[alexp08]

So my girlfriend has this stray that has been coming to her house the last few years. Normally he comes in the winter, gets warm and cozy outside as she feeds him and makes him a nice bed, and then leaves when the weather gets warm.

Well this year he arrived way before the cold hit and is still staying when we're pushing 75 degree days, he has also started running into ger house when she opens tge door and is trying to make friends with ger current cat. so i think its safe to say he plans to stay.

She took him the other day and got him neutered, microchiped and vaccinated and has scheduled a wellness exam.

So anyways after getting him fixed she allowed his to stay inside over night with 2 litter boxes. Well needless to say he didn't use any, he used the floor.

She's wanting to give him a good safe hone inside her house but naturally doesn't want him in permanently until he is litter trained.

So what are some good steps to litter train a possible feral cat.

 

[cheeser]

Well, this is what we did.

We got a couple of extra litter boxes and filled them with dirt from our backyard from some areas where we had seen Buddy pee before when he was a stray. Then when he started to cry to go outside, we put a harness on him and walked him around the backyard until he finally peed (Buddy was extremely sick at the time, and we were afraid he'd get away from us and go hide, never to be seen again). Then we scooped up the dirt where he had just peed, and put it in the litter boxes where we had put the other dirt from our backyard. [ETA: We put the boxes as close as we could to the door, so they'd be right there when he whined to go outside.]

The next time he wanted to go pee, he cried and cried to get out. But when he finally realized we weren't going to let him out (well, not if we could help it, anyway), he started sniffing the litter boxes that had his smell in them, and finally peed in one of them. Once we got a 'starter set' going, we'd change out the dirt every couple of days or so, mixing some old dirt that he had peed in with some new dirt. Then once he got the hang of going in a litter box, we also set out a couple of boxes with our regular litter. Every day we'd move the boxes with the real litter a little closer to the ones filled with dirt. Then one day I guess curiosity got the better of him, and he peed in the real honest-to-goodness litter. We left that clump of urine in the box to reinforce his smell until he went again. After he peed in the real litter a time or two, he didn't want to use the dirt anymore, although we left those boxes there for a few more days just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

IIRC, the whole process took about a week, but no more than two. [ETA: Actually, I think it was just one week.]

That's probably not the way you're supposed to do it, but it worked for us.

 

[tabbytom]

Thank you for bringing this kitty indoors and got him neutered, microchipped, vaccinated and a thorough medical check

For the litter box, since he came from the outside, if you know where he usually hangs out to do his business, go gather some dry leaves and sand or soil from there and place them in the litter box. If not, leaves and soil outside your home will do too. He is used to the natural litter box outside.
Once you've placed them in the litter box, he should be using it as it smells like the original that he is used to and gradually he'll get use to the other litter you have in the box and you can stop gathering leaves and soil.

 

[golondrina]

Hello Cheeser. This is how I dealt with this problem. Over 5 years ago I adopted my cat, Cucumella, who was then 9 years old and had always lived in a garden. I was worried about her lack of experience using a litter box since I live in an apartment. She didn't at first figured out what the litter box was for but on the third day my son-in-law (previous owner) brought a piece of her old poop from their garden and placed it in the litter box. I, then, placed Cucumella in the litter box. She sniffed and recognised what it was and the result was immediate. She has been using the litter box ever since without any problem. Good luck.