Litter training advice please

[MrsCat1]

Hello cat slaves. A couple of moths ago we became slaves to these two lovely girls who are now six months old. They are doing really well. Kitten a uses the litter trays with no problem. Kitten b has been more difficult to train but uses the trays about 95 percent of the time.

They have been going outside for about a month now and love it. So there has been less litter tray action since they have had access to the great outdoors. We would like to start moving towards a situation where we remove the litter trays altogether (we have 3 trays).

Does anyone have any ideas or tips on how we might achieve this? We plan to wait for a dry period and then to put one tray outside to start with and then go from there. All advice welcomed!

I would keep at least one tray for days when the weather is terrible or you need to keep the cats indoors for whatever reason. We still have a tray and our cats are now 5. Hardly gets used now but it's there if they need it

Please don't do this - all cats should have access to a safe, clean, indoor space to go to the toilet, even if they only use it once a year.

There are lots of reasons why a cat might not want to go outside - bad weather, an interloper cat, illness, a fright from eg. a firework or a loud noise, amongst others.

Cats are clean animals and you don't want to put your girls into a situation where they feel they have no choice but to mess on the carpet or on your soft furnishings. It's also a habit that can be really, really difficult to break once it's started - always, always provide your cats with a litter tray.

Thanks for your replies. Good idea to leave one tray inside but we currently have 3 trays and are looking to reduce these. Should we start by moving one of the trays outside and then go from there?

If they're already going outside a fair bit, I would just reduce the number of trays to two and see if that causes any accidents - if it's fine, then reduce it down to one :)

But always be prepared to re-instate a tray if necessary!

You'll need to keep one tray available even when they're reliably going outside, but I wouldn't remove the other trays unless they're not being used.

I wouldn’t. Cats are bastards for weeing somewhere they shouldn’t if you don’t provide facilities.

Honestly I’d keep one upstairs and one down.

We have two trays, neither of which has been used for well over a year. We keep our cat in overnight and I would hate for her to need the toilet and end up stressed.

In that massive snow last year she refused to go out, and also refused to use the tray, even when clearly, visibly desperate. DP ended up digging a patch clear, carrying her out like a big furry baby, waiting for her, and carrying her back in. For four consecutive days.

Funnily enough, if she is caught short (a few months ago she had an upset tummy, and was also sick) she is most likely to go in the bath.