Moving litter location

banana queen

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My kitten, Teddy is 12 weeks, we have had him since he was 8 weeks. He started out in a safe room in our living room, with a litter box that is in a mesh sided pet playpen with a waterproof floor (to protect the carpet and keep litter contained), as I have four other cats.

He is now at the point where he is outside of his safe room for most of the day, except overnight and when I am out. The other cats are fine with him and I even caught him cuddling with my four year old tuxedo cat. He used to refuse to use the other cats litter boxes as it was the wrong kind of litter to the one he was potty trained on, but now he has started using the other boxes when he is in a different part of the house as I started mixing the two kinds together and also put some of his soiled litter into another of our boxes so he would recognise it as a bathroom.

I dont think he needs a safe room anymore, however I also do not want to have a litter box in my living room and a playpen up permanently. Should I just fold up the playpen and move that box to a new location in the rest of the house, or would that confuse him and make him pee where the playpen once stood?
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. I think your best bet is to leave the litter box there after removing the playpen, then gradually move it a foot or two, then another foot or two, etc. until you get it much closer to where you want it. A lot of members do this for kittens, as well as adult cats, to make it easier to transition the new location - and for the most part this approach seems to work. Since he is using other litter boxes, it might not be necessary, but better safe than sorry!!
 
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banana queen

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Unfortunately my safe room opens onto a narrow hallway, so that would be difficult to do.
 

Mamanyt1953

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Once you get the box to the edge of the room, you will almost certainly be fine. Cat WANT to use their boxes. It takes illness or some emotional trauma for them not to do so, and he's already using the other boxes just fine, I think that will work.
 

tabbytom

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Unfortunately my safe room opens onto a narrow hallway, so that would be difficult to do.
Use two litter boxes with the same type of litter he's using now and place them at each end of the hallway and let him use them and slowly move the other which you want it to be at the actual place and then remove the other one at the other end. Having a spare empty box is good after this exercise because you can use it when you wash out the other litter boxes. Have it as a standby.
 
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