[Gpdd] MISC Re: Litter Box Training

[Angela Allen]

Isis has been litter-trained since a few weeks after we brought her home. 
At first, she wouldn't have anything to do with the litter box (I have a 
hi-corner pan, and I use Swheat Scoop litter), and she only played in it and 
ate some litter.  :p

After a few days of being with us, she decided that her favorite place to 
poop was while sitting in her food dish with her butt hanging over the side. 
LOL  She usually peed in the corners of her cage or around her litter box. 
I tried moving some of her poop into the litter box, as well as some of the 
soiled bedding, but she just looked at me like I was insane, and the 
pooping-over-the-side-of-the-food-dish continued.

I figured out how to help her make the connection: I placed her food dish IN 
the litter box for about a week!  I felt like she finally "got it," so I 
moved the food dish and sure enough, she continued to use the litter box as 
intended.  She still gets lazy sometimes and poops where she sleeps, but not 
very often.  I do notice that when she gives me the "Mama, I gotta -go-" 
noise when I'm holding her, then I put her in her cage, she heads for a 
corner and "assumes the position."  I just poke her gently when I catch her 
doing that, and she snaps out of it and jumps straight into the litter box.

I have been using the smaller hi-corner pan until recently; I had to get the 
larger version because she was just filling up the small one too fast!  I 
was having to scoop twice a day just to keep her from getting dirty feet, 
and I needed to completely change her litter at least twice a week.  What 
can I say?  She's a productive girl!  ;)

~ Angela
(and Isis the Bean Machine, Conqueress of Clumping Litter)