toilet training

Unfortunately, the cat toilet training experiment has come to an end.  Furball, who is almost 9 years old, made it known loud and clear that he had no plans on progressing to the next ring.  Thankfully he used the tray when he needed to urinate, but he just did not get used to it for pooping.

Furball had another accident today.  In the morning, I peered in the bathroom and didn’t see a present on the floor.  I suspected that he was perhaps holding it in.  He hadn’t gone yesterday, so I figured I would wait to see what would happen.  My nose did pick up the slight scent of fecal matter, but I dismissed it as general cat tray odour.

On his way to work, my husband called out from the stairs leading to the garage.  He found where Furball had decided to do his business.  This was Furball’s third accident and I had not made any changes to the toilet training set up, nor had I tried to move him along too quickly.  I’d say 4 weeks to go from cat box to one hole punched out of the ring would be taking it slow.

My mother-in-law is going back to Canada in two weeks, which leaves me on my own to look after my baby son.  Factoring this in with Furball’s increased anxiety over the past week, I made the decision today to stop the toilet training.

It is unfortunate, but I guess some cats adapt and some don’t.  Furball was not going to be one of the ones to use the toilet, at least not on this attempt.

We were using the CitiKitty which was generously supplied to us by the owner of the CitiKitty company.  I wanted to be able to report success since she uses recycled plastic and post-consumer recycled paper to make her product in the USA.  Unfortunately, I just did not have the time to devote to making it work.

It seemed to me that Furball did not like perching himself on the tray.  He normally uses a very generously sized box, so perhaps the switch to a small tray was too much for him.  As well, he likes to be in an enclosed, “safe” place.  His box used to be in the corner, protected on three sides.  Perhaps he felt too exposed sitting on the toilet, even with the bathroom door mostly closed.  With more praise and coaxing, I think he would have migraine adapted, but I just don’t have the time to do this with the baby.

In all honesty, I do not believe that had we used the competitive product, Litter Kwitter, it would have made any difference.  The only difference would have been paying twice as much for a product made in China that uses a lot more plastic.  If anything, the Litter Kwitter with its much bigger ring sizes would have been more likely to have freaked out Furball.  I believe what it comes down to is whether your cat has the disposition to be toilet trained and you have the time to invest in training them.

There’s no way to predict whether or not your cat will take to the training.  I guess the only way you’ll know is to give it a try.  And, if you are going to try, in my opinion, you should use the product that uses less plastic, less packaging, less resources for transportation, is made locally and is made from recycled materials, which is the CitiKitty.

Here’s my two cents worth of advice (although I always advise people to only take advice from those who are successful at what you are asking advice for):

• Have lots of time and energy to coddle your cat through the experience.  Doing this with a new baby is not a good idea.
• Be careful of any scented products you use to clean the toilet.  They may spook your cat.
• Go really slowly.
• Make sure your toilet seat is attached firmly and level.  No seats that slope inwards.
• Expect the toilet to be occupied with the tray for weeks and possibly months.
• Clean the tray every day.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has successfully trained their cat.  While it didn’t work for Furball, it may be just the thing for your cat.

On the plus side, I discovered that Furball would still use the tray even if there was very little litter in it.  Based on this experience, I’m going to significantly reduce the amount of litter used in his box.  I scoop it almost daily anyways so might as well reduce our environmental impact a little bit more.

I had an epiphany for redesigning a litter scoop a few weeks ago and was thinking of submitting the idea to be an As Seen On TV product.  Now that we’re back to the cat box and I’m going to be using less litter, I think it’s time to proceed with this idea.

I was going to punch out the next ring in the cat toilet training kit.  After all, it had been 10 days since Furball’s last accident.

But, much to my dismay, Furball left another parcel beside the kitty litter bag today.  The only thing I could think of for the cause was that he finds the tray awkward for #2.  Also, I had cleaned the toilet yesterday, but anticipating a problem with any lingering cleanser smells (yes, even eco-friendly ones allergy stink), I simply used some baking soda.  The other thing I did was start moving the foot stool gradually to the side of the toilet.

I moved the foot stool back to the front.  I cleaned up the mess (not in that order).  I’m hoping tomorrow will be a better day.  I can certainly see why people get discouraged and give up.  It seemed like things were going well.  Just goes to show that you need to go slow.

I waited 5 days from when the stool (the foot stool, not the cat stool!) was removed to punching out the first hole in the CitiKitty cat toilet training tray.  I figured that conceptually it was a big leap to go from using a step stool to leaping onto the toilet.  While the hole in the tray is tiny, I think it’s another big conceptual leap for Furball to see a hole in the tray.  He can now see the toilet through the hole, which must be somewhat freaky for a cat.

I needed to use a box cutter to punch out the hole.  There are little perforations to guide you to punch out the hole, but without a knife, I’d say it’s almost impossible.  That tray is pretty tough.  Make sure you use a knife that only touches things that you wouldn’t mind if they came into contact with cat litter.  My attempt to use a tissue and not touch the tray with my bare fingers was a resounding failure.  You’ve got to get hands-on to punch out the tray.  Next time, I think I should fish out some rubber gloves, but I’ve got to balance that against needing dexterity to cut the tray while handling a sharp knife.

I can see now why  some people complained on Amazon that it was very difficult to cut the rings smaller if your cat needed to progress more slowly.  On the other hand, you know the tray is sturdy and your cat isn’t going to fall through.

As I’ve been saying throughout this process, go slower than slow.  Fortunately we are blessed with a spare washroom.  It would be a pain if that was our only toilet and I had to keep taking the tray out and washing down the toilet seat each time I needed to go.  On the other hand, it’s a much bigger pain to clean cat urine and feces from the floor, carpet, wall, your bed, etc.

It’s 11:36 am and I’m now waiting to see what will happen when Furball goes to use his “box”.

3 Hours Later in the Day

Furball stood on his hind legs with his front paws on the toilet seat, peering in at the tray.  As predicted, the hole really freaked him out.  Several minutes later, he peed in the tray!

30 Minutes Later

First accident.  Furball dug open the litter bag in the bathroom and pooped inside.  I admired his creativity.  He really tried to do the right thing.  I cleaned up the mess and left the tray as is.  The CitiKitty instructions advise to either leave the tray at the same step or go back a step.  Since I just started, I don’t really have any steps to go back to.

This was the second day in a row I awoke to find a big cat turd sitting the the toilet training tray.  As you can see by its position, Furball stands in the tray with his butt facing the rim of the toilet seat.  In order for him to use the toilet successfully, he’ll have to get used to facing the other way.

Cat toilet training is not for the lazy.  You’ll need to clean the tray at least once a day, probably closer to twice a day.  It’s not that hard to pull out the tray and scoop the poo/pee into the toilet.  A few caveats:

• Use flushable litter only
• Flush only if it is safe to do so in your municipality
• If toxoplasmosis is an issue, like it is here in California, only flush if you are 110{456796300b989ac2391159a2df073ed1ad38074dfcdb28494d5d1df8ab5972d8} sure you’re cat does not have this parasite.  If your cat goes outdoors or has eaten raw food, the risk of him/her having taxoplasmosis is much greater.

For your sanity, give up on trying to keep the toilet pristine, or the bathroom for that matter.

If you are lazy, you can console yourself with the promise that after your cat is toilet trained, you’ll never have to clean a box again.

This morning I awoke to find a stool sitting on top of the CitiKitty toilet training tray.  Who knew the day would come when I’d be happy to see a cat turd?

The day before, I had some concerns because Furball seemed like he was holding onto #2 instead of using the litter pan on the toilet.  I was happy that he did #1 twice in the tray yesterday, but #2 was a day overdue.   Although I was concerned that Mr. Poo had not made his appearance, I was glad about the pee.  Poo can be picked up and thrown out.  The floor can be wiped and cleaned.  Everyone knows cat pee is a different story.

I was expecting a much greater mess when I decided to undertake the process of toilet training my cat.  Based on some of the feedback on Amazon for CitiKitty and Litter Kwitter, I was expecting to find litter, urine and feces strewn all over the bathroom.  As you can see from the graphic photo, it’s not so bad.  The little bits on the floor that you can barely see are bits of litter.  Maybe not any messier than usual.

Sorry about posting a pic of my cat’s stools, but I figure one of the greatest hesitations people have in deciding whether to toilet train their cat is fear of the unknown.  You just don’t know what to expect.  Granted, every cat is different, but if you follow this story, you’ll at least see one cat’s journey photo by photo with wonderful commentary from the peanut gallery.