Settling in new cat - wwyd?

[Extrapepperoni]

Hi All!!

Super excited to be prepping our house for our first cat. We've been advised that the best thing to do is to give over a spare room to the cat for the first while so he can get settled in and providing food, litter etc in this room. We can do that and I think it would work really well for settling in... but that is the guest bedroom and while I'm happy to have a litter tray in this room most of the time we will occasionally have guests staying and I don't think they would appreciate a litter tray in the room! Can I move the litter tray out of the room on occasions that we do have guests or will that mightily piss off the cat and result in him soiling in the room litter tray or no?

Other option is to settle the cat in downstairs, which is noisier and less separation. But the room we could use has a view of the garden and I've read that this might stress the cat if the neighbours' cats walk past (which they occasionally do!)?

What would you do? How did you migrate your litter box once the cat was settled in?

Thanks!

Is your new cat very nervous?

You can move trays around, you’ll need two long term anyway soone upstairs and one upstairs.

You might get a kitten who is happy to explore their new home right away & then it all becomes a moot point anyway.

Is it a feral cat or something?

I would ensure that you have a variety of places you can place the tray and food. Cats rarely go where you tell them to so don’t worry too much. Just make sure you don’t place your cat’s food too close to the litter tray as they don’t like that .

I foster cats and generally I have them in a quiet room for only a short time. I set them up with food and litter tray but leave the door ajar so they can come out. Quite often they just want to explore, sometimes they do hide out in their room for a few days. Once they are roaming around the food and litter tray go into the kitchen and they just inhabit the house. Unless this is a very timid cat they will not need a quiet room for more than a few days. I find Even timid cats often prefer to lurk in a busier room to watch us.

Make sure, as a PP said, that the tray is as far from the food as possible, and the water bowl is better away from the food bowl too; for some unfathomable cat-logic reason they prefer it that way.

I put the litter tray where it would be staying and let them out of their box next to it so they knew where it was. I left the box in the living room (didn't have any kids yet) so they could go in but they didn't. Just explored the whole house and found a quite spot for a nap. One did hide under the bed for a bit but just left her to it and she came down when she was ready, just make sure they can't get stuck anywhere good luck! Ooo I will say mine were adult rescues one very nervous and one very confident.

Thanks all! Cat is a rescue and I'm told he's very friendly, expecting a call from them this weekend but haven't met him yet given the current situation. This is just planning at this stage, as some of you have pointed out, may be a moot point if he takes to us super quick!!

I think the upstairs litter tray is probably best living in the box room study than bedroom as won't need to move it for houseguests then.

Also remember you can no longer shut any doors!!!! I've got door stops everywhere!!

Ha, old house and none of the doors properly click shut. Plus, toddler...

Be led by the cat, some will want to explore, others will hide. If they hide, just leave them too it and they'll come out when ready. One of mine hid for a week. The others were happy to explore.

We got a rescue cat about 9 years ago. She hid behind the fridge for at least a week. gradually she came out in her own time. she was very nervous ..but came to be a very happy and contented cat. I am sure that yours will too!

We recently adopted. They settled very quickly so tray was in the room with them the first night. No accidents so we then moved it to where we want it to live. Also you might not need two trays, I don't know anyone with multiple.

We have two trays for one cat.

No idea why but with only one she would very occasionally wee elsewhere in the house. As soon as I got her a second litter tray down she stopped.

She very rarely uses the second tray so it seems silly to have it, but I’d much rather have to have two trays if it means she feels less stressed and doesn’t wee on my curtains!

The advice is one per cat and a spare.

My current foster will not pee in a litter tray with poo in it, so if we are not quick enough in scooping poo he pees somewhere else; a basket of clean washing is his favourite alternative.

On the upside your probably the fastest at tray cleaning you’ve ever been @chmenger 😀

You poor thing.

It has helped that we’re all here all day every day! And that he does unbelievably smelly oops, so you know pretty quickly. Looks like he will be going to his new home this week, I have warned his new dad about this foible. Here here is sleeping in his carrier, all ready to go.

Poos, not oops!

They just sent us this pic from the foster home. Hoping to get to meet him tomorrow!!!

Yes, to be fair I clean the tray pretty instantly so it's always clean for them.
Gorgeous cat op, one of ours is all black - apparently they're often left until last due to their colour.

This was our latest rescue 90 minutes after he hopped out of his cat box. He was very confident!

I echo the advice given by PP, give him.a place to hide, don't fuss him too much and let him find his feet. He'll have you under his paw in no time.

We have two cats, our first was angry and feral but after a lot of hard work and discipline he's now very placid, confident and affectionate :) also daft as a brush! He's always been an outside cat but when we moved to our new house a few years ago we put a litter tray in the kitchen and kept him indoors for a few weeks then allowed him to use the cat flap as and when he pleased. We've had no indoor accidents.
We introduced our new rescue cat about 6 months ago. She's the exact opposite, she's 2 years old and very timid and shy so we just let her roam the house til she found a safe place (under the bookcase) and stored her litter tray in the bathroom. She'd had a home right from being a kitten so litter training wasn't a problem at all. She now goes outside with the other one and just comes in and out of the cat flap

He looks lovely @Extrapepperoni

Extrapepperoni what a lovely looking cat. We’ve fostered a few all black cats who have gone to new homes quickly, they seem popular here. Black cats are very beautiful, their eyes almost glow. In the US they are seen as bad luck so are hard to rehome. People here worry about them being run over at night - just keep them in after dark.

Thanks for all the help everyone! We went to see him today and he just is the friendliest chap. Think we will bring him home on Tuesday :)