Litter Box Blues
When Your Cat Won’t Use the Box

The first and most important step to solving your cat’s litter box problem is to rule out any physical reason for the situation. Your kitten or cat may be giving you signals that something serious is physically wrong, i.e., a bladder or kidney infection, a blockage, or diabetes, all very dangerous and need immediate medical attention. Or it may simply be internal parasites such as worms, typically easily resolved with appropriate treament. Our advice is to have your kitten or cat seen by your vetrinarian to rule out any medical / health issues that may be the cause.  We have included the resources below to provide additional information and to assist with if the issue is unrelated to health:

Litter Box Blues   provided by SmartHeart Educational Series

Litter Box Issues   provided by American Humane Organization

Litter Box Training  provided by Petfinder.com

Behavior Modification for Urinating Outside of the Litter Box  provided by DrBarchas.com, a free resource for people with pets. Searchable articles are available on diseases, behavior, symptoms, and medical treatments for cats and dogs

Also we've been contacted by people who recently adopted young kittens (6 - 10 weeks old), who used their litter boxes without fail and then within a few days started having "accidents".  Turns out a result of the families permitting the kittens free roam of their new homes without taking precautions to avoid such accidents!  Allowing free roam is not a bad thing BUT needs to be gradual and supervised in the beginning.  Young kittens are like toddlers, they may know where their litter box but if the new owners are playing with them in a different area the kittens may "squat" at the first opportune place!!  Again like toddlers kittens can get carried away with whatever they're doing at the moment and then suddenly they need to "go potty" and not enough time to figure out how to get back to their litter box which may be several rooms away!!  This is not a big deal for an older kitten or adult cat, but remember to view this kitten as you would a toddler!!