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Cat Litter Box Retraining
One of the most difficult parts of moving to a new location with your cat is getting it to re-learn its toilet manners.
When you bring a kitty home for the first time, you already have to spend considerable time and effort getting it to use the litter box. This has several biological reasons.
The biology of cat litters
Cats are by nature hunters, and are genetically programmed to live and thrive outdoors. They are territorial animals, and use their urine and other fluids to mark the boundaries of their range. Tomcats spray their urine against walls, posts, rocks and other territorial markings, mainly using it as a message system to communicate with other cats, to let them know how long ago they passed that way, or how large their territory is.
They also decide whether to display or bury their solid waste depending on their social standing and relationship with their surrounding creatures. Dominant cats will often display their solid waste prominently, in order to send a message to their surroundings that they rule the area. Submissive cats will often try to bury their waste so as not to offend or send an unintentional challenge to nearby dominant cats.
Civilized toilet habits
So as you can see, the disposal of liquid and solid waste plays a significant role in the social life of cats. They are programmed by millions of years of evolution and social experience to act like this. When you're trying to give them litter box training, this is what you're dealing with. You're fighting against the creatures' genetic programming. And that's why it is often so difficult to get them used to getting rid of their waste in small, stationary boxes. Cats must feel they are ignoring one of their basic drives or instincts – that of territorial communication.
However, through days, weeks or even months of careful and patient training, you can finally get it across to them that they must use those boxes if they want to continue to enjoy your food and protection. Several important scientific studies suggest that domestic cats really see human beings as belonging to the same race as themselves, only much stronger and very tall! They also quickly get wise to the fact that we control their sources of food. So in most cases they willingly submit to our wishes and commands. When they submit to your litter box training, it is only because they perceive that unless they do so, they stand to lose access to the easy life that they have grown used to.
What can you do?
So when you move with your cat to a new location, you may find that you have a much more difficult task than you had at first, when it was a kitty. Training is best received while young, and this time you may find it more difficult to get your pet not to leave nasty little surprises for you all over the carpet or on the doorstep.
The best way to do it is to go through the same motions as you did when it was young. One good thing working in your favor is that domestic cats never really grow up. With easy food and your protection, throughout their lives they psychologically remain very close to the kitty that you brought in years before. So the tips and tricks that you once used to get them to do your bidding are likely to work once again – only it might take a little longer. Particularly, use the grip on the scruff of the neck to pick them up and deposit them near the new litter box. This grip and lift reminds them strongly of their childhood, and is likely to encourage the obedience instinct in them.