The average kitten starts to use the litter box at about 5 weeks of age.  Cats learn by example from other cats – so in the case of litter training, kittens learn how to use the cat box from their mother. As long as mom cat has good litter box habits, so too will her kittens. Hopefully your new kitten will be properly socialized and of sufficient age to leave its mother by the time it came to live with you. But oh-so-often, kittens are taken from their mothers much too early, as young as 6 weeks of age, only a week or two after first learning to use the litter box!

So rather than have your very young kitten develop bad litter box habits, here are a few things you can do to help:

1. Make sure the litter box is in a private low traffic area of your home.
2. There should be at least one litter box per 2 cats in a household.
3. Keep the litter clean, scoop every single day
4. Use the litter recommended by the owner of the mother cat or where you bought the kitten. If that’s not possible, be prepared to try different litters until you find one the kitten likes.
5. Do not use perfumed or clay litter. Clay litter is very dusty and can coat the young kitten’s lungs and/or cause health issues.
6. Do not put food or water near the litter box – cats will not “do their business” near where they also eat.

If your kitten uses the box faithfully, then you are lucky! Especially in younger kittens, its not unusual to have “oops” situations. Patience is essential here. If your kitten isn’t doing so well in the litter box, then you may consider confining him/her to a smaller area so the box is handy when potty training cats . And don’t worry! It may take a week or two before your kitten settles in to its new environment, the same may be true for proper litter box habits.