Jennifer Frayne's Masters Defence

House soiling in domestic cats has resulted in many cats being surrendered to an animal shelter or euthanized. The objective of this thesis was to determine how effectively cats transitioned from one litter product to another, as well as to determine the efficacy of using an attractant compound built directly into a litter product to attract cats to the litter box. In the first study, cats were transitioned over a six-day period from a clay-based litter product to a plant-based litter product with relatively few aversive behaviours to the litter box or soiling excessively outside of the litter box. In the second study, cats were exposed to a novel plant-based litter product with an attractant built in which they used more than the regular plant-based litter. The studies suggests that in general, most cats should be transitioned over the six-day period when introducing a novel litter product. In addition, the plant-based litter product with attractant could be used to reduce the likelihood of cats becoming aversive to their litter box along with other current recommendations.