Has anyone successfully house trained an adult cat?

[PinkTulips]

My stray cat has just moved in with her kittens and although she's a lovely cat i'm starting to wonder if this is going to be repeat of all the other strays i've been daft enough to take in.

the kittens litter trained in the first day, except for the odd plant pot incident, but mommmy cat has peed 3 times in the house that i know of

i have the window open at all times when we're not in the room and the litter that her kittens use is in plain sight but she just gets confused and lost looking and wanders around miowing and looking in corners.

she seems to be afraid to go out at night even if i turn on the outside lights for her and she's going out less and less during the day.

the other stray cats i took in never really trained properly and i really can't be dealing with anymore cat pee in my house.... i'm 18 weeks preg, have 2 toddlers running around and a dp who's not delighted at his house being infested with cats.

so far i've dumped her out when i catch her at it but i can't lock her out as the kittens are in here and i'm not sure how she'd react.

Sorry Pink, but we've taken in two adult cats previously and I'm afraid we found it just wasn't possible to house train them. Nightmare.

Hopefully someone else will be along soon with an inspiring story for you!!!

All cats I've had - adults, kittens, strays, rescues etc - I've just shown them the litter trays (with a good-quality, fine litter) and no accidents, ever.

Get a litter tray and put it near where she's weed. I, personally, wouldn't let her out at night, as most cats are killed on roads after dark.

honoria, that's what i'm afraid of, my other strays never 'got it' completely even after years in the house.

bobnob.....no worries on that front, i often wondered why i never saw her after dark.... turns out she's petrified of the dark

problem is she's peed on the kitchen counter twice and once in the living room where she's only allowed when supervised so can't put litter trays there. i've shown her the kittens tray but no luck.

all three times were at night, twice when we weren't watching her properly and once while we were upstairs asleep and the window was open for her and the litter tray was available.

i've heard suggestions of putting compost in the litter tray but i have tonnes of houseplants and imagine this would just make her think they were all toilets too.

bump in case anyone's around today with some miracle technique

surely cod, being a guru on potty training and cats, must have some tips for combining the two?

Just an idea - have you tried her in a puppy crate small enough so that she only has room for a bed and a litter tray, and given the choice she might prefer to do it in the litter tray?
Another tip is to get a bit of tissue soaked in her wee and put it in the litter tray as a helpful hint. Some cats also prefer earth to litter so you could try putting some of that in the tray.
HTH

she's got kittens so locking them all up would be a bit extreme.

it was only 3 accidents in 2 weeks after all

will try the tissue dipped in pee when she does it again.

am going to pick up a bigger litter tray tomorrow as well and see if she likes having her own big one better.... not sure why she'd be adverse to using the kittens one when she licks their bums but then cats are weird creatures.

My parents have a cat who although has lived with them for her 16 years, she is ferral. About 3 years ago she decided she was going to become a house cat. Never seen a litter try in her life but now happily uses on all the time and refuses to go outside! All we did for her was put soil in the tray and filled it deeply and when she got used to using that we gradually introducded litter by mixing it with the soil.

She does however have the funniest technique in using the tray, she perches on the edge and shoots! its really funny to see.

I would try the soil and then litter mix.

Good luck

Missed the bit about it being her kittens

And I did only mean overnight or for a few hours - how old are the kittens?

The soil/litter combo sounds like a plan. My bengal is very fussy about the kind of litter he likes.

You could put big pebbles all round the open soil of your plant pots to discourage her using them as her toilet.

bella, as she's only lived here a few weeks i'm a bit over cautious of doing anything to frighten her, a tamer cat it would probably be a good idea but although she's friendly it's still early days. the kittens are 8 weeks. 2 of them are going off to their new home this weekend but dp has fallen in love with one and i have with another so those 2 will be staying with us

vulgar, that's good idea about the stones in plant pots. the 2 pots in their main area are already covered (with ingenious homemade cardboard covers duct taped to the pots, tres elegant ). but obviously eventually i'd like to be able to stop screaming 'close that door in case the cats get out' every 10 seconds to the kids!

will try and cat proof the pots and put soil in the tray, she obviously would use it then as she did go in one plant pot and has sniffed all the others

thanks all, and if anyone else has any ideas......

the adult strays i have taken, didn't need to be trained, just did it in cat litter

we have success

she's now using the litter tray.

she did a poo in the kitchen again so i buried a little bit of it in the new bigger litter tray and used that cheap very heavy and clay like litter from lidl in it and that night she used the tray. she got tonnes of praise and has used it a few times since then as well and had no accidents as of yet.

i have also taken to booting her out every few hours for half an hour during the day and she seems fairly happy to wander off and do her business then.

thanks to all for the advice