Sammy D, toilet trained after years of litter box use. CitiKitty
Some experts believe the practice goes against feline nature, but those who have successfully toilet trained their kitties say everyone's happier that way. Dr. Mark Gibson, Medical Director and owner of Animal Kind Veterinary Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., chuckled as he told Paw Nation, "I don't see what could be bad about [toilet training cats]. I know they like to scratch in the litter, but I don't know if they have to."
So how can you go about potty training your pussycat? We turned to an expert. Rebecca Rescate is the owner of CitiKitty, a popular cat toilet training kit. Rescate told Paw Nation, "I have been in the cat toilet training business for over 5 years, and the excitement of toilet training cats is the same as it was when I toilet trained my own cat, Samantha. It's a great idea to start toilet training a cat when life at home is normal, with no big trips planned or bathroom renovations coming up. You can toilet train a cat of any age. We recommend CitiKitty for any healthy cat 3 months of age or older. I toilet trained my cat Samantha after she had used a litter box for 11 years. Age truly doesn't matter." Rescate added that good candidates for toilet training are healthy, indoor cats that regularly use a litter box.
Essentially, you begin by moving the litter box into the bathroom, elevating it gradually until it is at the same level as the toilet. Then you transition the litter into the toilet by using a product like CitiKitty or a roasting pan. The final step involves getting the cat used to the water. It's a delicate process, though. Dr. Gibson told Paw Nation that he had friend who had a toilet trained cat for years, "until someone was over and closed the toilet seat. The cat got out of the habit and he could never be retrained."
Is it worth all the effort? Ann Marie Chaker, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has succesfully potty trained one cat and is in the process of trying to train another. She told Paw Nation, "The process is going at a snail's pace, with no shortage of setbacks (read: little presents on the bathroom floor every so often), but I think Mr. Tibbs is well on his way to graduating from the CitiKitty program. It's only taken about a year. My advice to readers: This is not for the faint of heart. If you decide to go for it, have lots of patience and free time on your hands. And most of all, don't get angry with the cat if he makes a mistake. He won't understand anyway. On the other hand, cats do respond to praise and treats, so provide plenty when warranted. They can be trained, I swear! I've already done it with one cat."
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For years there have been instructions about toilet training a cat. Here is how we do it. We simply have had an inside/outside russian blue cat for more than 12 years. He comes in at night, he goes out in the morning. If it is too hot or too cold, he comes back in. We treat him just like we do our dog. Both are fixed and neither have any inclination to run off. But we have never had a problem with a mess in the house, other than the occasional rare accident that happens with kids or pets or people. So, these instructions have always been confusing to us. Why not put the cat outside for a few hours and give him a super comfortable bed outside for his naps? He won't go anywhere.
It is against the law to let cats roam where I live, and everyone knows they can at anytime decide to roam. Besides, there are diseases they can pick up, people who might steal them, fleas to pickup...just not a healthy thing for a cat to be outside actually. I'd never let my cats outside to do their thing, and I think I might try the potty training. Again.
Please keep your cats inside. It is a big, dangerous world out there. I once had a colony of 40 ferals. The last one left a monh ago. They had good food, comfortable protected shelter and called this their home. We all know what happened to these poor little guys. Coyote, fox, dogs, or worse, crazy people.
If you love them, protect them. I have had inside cats for 20 years. They are very happy inside.
OMG!!!!! this is soooo hilarious!!!! i wish my cat would do that!!!! he'd probably fall in though. :)
Gosh, that would be great!
I toilet trained my cat a few years ago when she was about a year old. It is so nice not to have to contend with a smelly litter box. She still leaves little "presents" by the potty every once in a while...especially if she's unhappy with me. But picking up a little bit of poop and cleaning the tile with Clorax wipes beats a litter box any day. And, honestly, hearing my kitty tinkle in the potty still makes me smile after all of these years.
I'm using the CitiKitty training seat.
Everything was going fine (or so it seemed) for the first 4 weeks. But when I got to the last ring in the seat, my cat rebelled and started going in other places around my apartment. For a week I went back to the litter box.
(I did this while I waited for a new seat to arrive -- yes, I know there's the seat attachment, but I had some of it cut out also, and I wanted to start again from the begining and go very slowly.)
I then re-started from scratch with the training seat, with no holes cut into it.
For 2 or 3 weeks now I've had three rings left (filled with the sand) around the hole in the seat.
What I'm realizing is that although my cat has no problems jumping up and getting on the toilet, it regards the hole in the midle of the training seat as an obstacle -- something work *around* -- she goes on the outside rings, where her (flushable) sand is.
And that's really all she was doing the first month as well.
Occasionally, just by accident, she *will* go (both urinating and defecating) through the hole, into the water.
But she seems commited to going in her sand (as she's done all her life), and we're now at a bit of a standstill.
She's just not getting it that I want her to go in the hole. She's totally hardwired to go in the litter sand and then dig around to bury it. I fear that if I cut the seat down to the last ring, she'll start going elsewhere again.
What can I do to get her to go into the hole? I've been using the training seat for two-and-a-half months now. Everything is kept spotless and I clean the seat after every time. Any ideas out there?