Introducing Your Cat to a New Litter Tray

Picking up a new cat litter tray for your cat seemed like a good idea, the old one was getting a bit smelly and didn't come completely clean any more. There were loads in the pet shop to choose from so you picked one that went with the room. Now there are unpleasant piles around the house and the litter tray sits pristine and untouched. What went wrong?

Picking a tray 

While picking a cat litter tray isn't hard with the vast quantity available online or in the pet shops, picking the right litter tray can be trickier. Some cats don't care and will deposit their mess into any old box but the majority of cats are a lot fussier. So a bit of forethought about types of litter trays can save a lot of mess and trouble at a later stage.

There are two main types of litter trays on the market currently - closed and open. Instinctively, humans think the closed in one is ideal because it prevents cat litter and other undesirables from being spread around the house. But not all cats will adapt to this type of tray. This is because the ancestors of the domestic cat was hunter and hunted in the wild - they hunted the small animals and larger animals hunted them. This manifests itself in some cats in a fear of entering enclosed spaces that may contain a hidden predator.

For this type of cat, an open tray is better because they simply will not enter an enclosed one. Sometimes your cat can give you signs they are this type of cat - fear of boxes or a dislike of dark spaces. But mostly, you won't know until you put the tray down and they refuse to use it so look for litter trays that offer a money back guarantee if your cat won't accept the tray.

Features 

Open trays can be messier but some can prevent mess better than others. Higher sided trays obviously stop more litter escaping and look for extra features such as grids to help loosen it from their paws or a lip around that can stop some litter.

The top end, deluxe cat litter trays are the self-cleaning ones that come in both open and closed styles. While they do self-clean, they will still need the tray that the waste is collected into cleaning every few days so they are not an entire escape from cat litter cleaning duties.

It can also be a benefit to buy two cat litter trays so that one can be in use and the other can undergo a serious cleaning. Cats' sense of smell is far advanced to our own and what we think of as smelling clean isn't the same for them. By having two trays a deep clean can be conducted to achieve the cat standard of cleanliness.

How to introduce the tray 

Regardless of which tray you decide to try your cat with, the basics of introducing the new tray remains the same. Put the old and new tray side by side in the place that the litter tray normally stands. Put litter into them both and wait for signs that the cat is using the new tray before removing the old one. Once this happens, the old one can be removed and disposed of.

If, however, the cat doesn't take to the new tray and refuses to use it, then tactics are needed. Start by keeping the new tray pristine and clean but allowing waste to remain in the old one. This may be a bit smelly for a few days but if you want the change to happen, it will be worth it. It won't take long for the new tray to appeal more than the old one and once the cat is using it, remove the old one. Hopefully, all should then be well.