House training problems in cats and what to do about them.
In tandem with this month’s Lesson Learned and the unusual case of Fergus on page 28, it seemed an appropriate time to explore the whole messy business of treating house training problems in cats. But perhaps we should pause a moment and think how a cat comes to be house trained and why they should ever become so in the first place.
KEEP THE BED CLEAN
The fundamental aim of house training is for a cat to perceive the entire house as an extension of its natural sleeping area or den which, like many mammals, it is programmed very early not to use as a toilet. The maternal nest is initially an area that for the first couple of weeks of life, kittens are actually physically unable to eliminate in without direct stimulation of the ano-genital region by their mother. This results in them wanting to leave the nest when they do become able and eliminate outside it, and avoid soiling their bed/den which stays clean and less likely to harbour disease.
For most, this ‘keep the bed clean’ concept extends to full house training at around 3 — 4 weeks of age, as they become physically able to move about and explore further away from the nest. They readily investigate and dig in cat litter provided by the owner/breeder and eliminate there spontaneously, and quickly become conditioned to using those specific litters and trays. Most actually instinctively scrape and dig in any loose material they find near their nest as well as playing with it, of course, because it moves and maybe rattles when it’s swatted! They don’t need to observe or be taught by their mother to eliminate in a tray.
If and when they are allowed to explore outdoors, they just as quickly switch to using soil in the garden as their latrines and many never look back or need a litter tray indoors again. But if they are kept indoors at night, or prefer to stay indoors in nasty weather for example, they retain the firm association with the litter tray as their bathroom.
There may be accidents along the way resulting from illness, a response to being anxious or fearful, or being mistakenly shut in a room for too long without a tray, but usually cats seem very uncomfortable about soiling their own den inadvertently or if effectively forced to do so. Cats often seem somewhat less ‘embarrassed’ if, as seniors, they suffer from dementia or other physical impacts of old age and become incontinent, or lose their housetraining because they ‘forget’ where to go or just can’t get there in time, but otherwise the learning is
