Kitty Litter

Litter is one of the few things in life that the least you pay for it, the better it is! Leaving litter in the box, letting it clump and scooping is a giant step backwards in cat health. Many parasites may be passed in the litter and smells cannot be scooped away, and no litter clumps 100%. What this means is when we scoop litter we leave small amounts of fecal and urine contaminated litter in the box and trust me, when your kitty climbs in the box they know it.

If your system works for your cat, fine, keep it up. If you have periods where you are experiencing an abnormal amount of urinary tract infections or you cat is going outside the box, try this: for one week get the cheap clay litter, put only 2-3 cups of litter into the box, leave it piled up like a volcano and change daily. You can scoop the feces as it is deposited daily.

Good Luck!

Housebreaking

This is my number one question, and I have a strong opinion that dogs in all possible cases should go to the bathroom outside. With that in mind I like to start training them as soon as you can and not use paper or potty pads at any time. This is how to do it:

1) Pick an area outside that is the "bathroom area".

2) Pick a word or short phrase (i.e. "go potty", " do your business". "hurry up") to mean go to the bathroom.

3) Pick very regular times to take them out and stick to them. Always include first thing in the morning, last thing at night and following meals. When they are puppies every 2-3 hours when you are able speeds up the process.

4) Use "human food" as a training reward (cheese, bacon, ham).

The Method

Take your pet to the potty area, say only the potty word you have chosen and repeat it occasionally. Do not play with or talk to (other than your potty word) your pet. Bring your ipod because the first few times will be a waiting game, you stay until your pet squats. As soon as your pet finishes, pick them up praise and here is the trick, feed the reward food.

The flip side is when your pet goes inside, there should be a mild punishment (squirt from a water gun, a tap on the rear with a single sheet or loosely rolled news paper). Soon your pet will think "This person is crazy! If I go inside they hit me and if I go outside they feed me!". It will not be long before they go outside and pretend to go just to get the cheese.

Persistence and Repetition

Brushing Teeth

The commercially available toothpastes for dogs and cats are designed to taste good so you purchase more. They are not very good at cleaning teeth!

Try this. Use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Put a small amount (1/2 tsp) of baking soda into your palm or small cup, mix in just enough hydrogen peroxide to make a paste that will stick to a tooth brush when pressed into the mixture.

Rub this mixture onto your pets teeth with a regular toothbrush once or twice weekly. Tastes bad, works good!