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 Taking care of your cat

 
  As cats are naturally clean animals, you’ll find that when you bring a new cat home,
  it will generally be litter trained.
Your cat needs not just a litter tray, but a clean litter tray and clean litter. Your cat won’t want to use its tray if it smells of urine or is full of stools.

A cat can react to major changes in its environment such as a new cat in the house or neighbourhood or a house move, which can cause it to suddenly urinate or defecate outside its litter box.

However, if your cat does make a mistake and doesn’t use the tray, clean the area thoroughly to eliminate the odour and hopefully prevent your cat from returning to that spot.

Don’t punish your cat for not using the tray. Never hit it and rub its nose in the mess.

Firmly say NO, and then put it in the litter box and praise it while it is in it.

 
Remember, most importantly is that your cat should have a clean litter tray and clean litter.

If your cat is an indoors cat, the litter tray should be changed every day and any stools should be removed as soon as possible. It’s a good idea to have two or three litter trays and when washed leave the empty ones in the sunshine to dry. A little lemon juice, vinegar or baking soda added to the rinse water will help neutralise any urine odour if necessary.

If your cat is outdoors during the day and in at night, you may only need to change the tray every second or third day depending on usage, but make sure that you remove any stools.

When you bring a new cat home, best idea is to confine it for a day or two, to the room you plan to keep the litter tray in. A bathroom or a laundry is a good choice. As well as the litter tray you should provide warm bedding and of course food and water. It will only be a day or so before your cat knows where its litter tray is and at that time you should start feeding it somewhere else as most cats do not like to eat or sleep too close to their litter trays.

If there is more than one cat in the household, make sure you have more than one litter tray.

If you’ve just adopted a new kitten, you’ll find that it too, like older cats, should know how to use its litter tray. However, if your kitten doesn’t know about its tray, just put him into his tray regularly, especially after eating or when he wakes up and he’ll soon learn what it’s all about.