Category: Misc

If you want to try this whole toilet training this at your house, I would suggest taking the roll of toilet paper off of the dispenser to prevent this sort of thing.

Also: some of you have expressed concern about dirty cat paws on our toilet seats, but here’s the deal: if they’re not scratching around in a stinky, nasty litter box, their paws won’t be dirty, right?

And rest assured that MUCH hand washing goes on between the toilet training and the cooking!

OK, this blog is in danger of veering off into a completely different direction, but there does appear to be at least a little interest in the cat toilet training process, so here’s what we’re doing (a day or two for each step, but pay attention to your cat to see if you should go slower or if you can proceed faster):

Step 1: Move the litter box as close to the toilet as possible. Place the toilet with the seat down, but the lid up.

Step 2: Raise the litter box up a bit (on something sturdy, so the cat won’t be nervous if it gets wobbly. We used plastic storage boxes from Target). Keep the toilet in the seat down, lid up position.

Step 3: Raise the litter box up a little more. Keep the toilet in the seat down, lid up position. At this point, your cat may be jumping onto the toilet seat first and then jumping DOWN into the litter box. This is a good thing. We had problems with our cats attacking the toilet paper at this point, so you might consider removing it.

Step 4. Place the litter box ON TOP of the toilet (your cat will figure out that he needs to jump up into it). You can leave a “stepstool” (like a plastic storage container) if you’re worried that your kitty won’t be able to make the jump in one step.

Step 5: Find a metal bowl that will fit inside the toilet and rest it inside.

Close the seat over it (leave the lid up) and place a couple of inches of cat litter inside the bowl.

Step 6: As your cat/s uses the litter box/toilet/bowl device, scoop out the, umm, product and dispose of it. Don’t refill with fresh litter, but, instead, just allow the litter level in the bowl to gradually go down. The original instructions that I read said that you should try to gently catch your kitty “in the act” and move any paws that are not on the seat (but are, instead, in the bowl) as they are going (to encourage them to eventually “squat” with all four paws on the seat), but we’ve not been able to do that – our cats freak out when we approach them as they’re “going” and will jump down. I’m hoping that they will figure it out on their own when we reach the next step (gradually adding water to the bowl).

(This is the stage where we are with our cats right now, so I’ll leave off for now. Keep an eye out for Part 2 soon). We originally got this technique here (more info, less photos).

OK, everybody:
I’ll give you fair warning here. DO NOT scroll down if you are easily offended or don’t want to see photos of cats using the toilet.

Really, this is your last chance to turn back…..

I mean it – are you really sure you want to see these?

OK, here ya go:

Jack, looking VERY annoyed that his good ol’ litter box has been replaced by this odd thing that the FEEDER BEINGS use.

Ace, taking care of business.
(He had the gall to get into an elimination position that put his face out of the camera shot. How rude.)

We are now at the “metal bowl in the toilet” stage and are lowering the litter level daily. I anticipate that sometime early next week, we will begin adding water to the bowl, instead of litter. I am BEYOND excited about this project and really hope that it works. I would LOVE to be permanently free of a litter box for these guys.

I am in the process of toilet-training our 3 cats.

Yes, you read that correctly. Toilet-training. Cats. Three of them.

I’m using these instructions that I found online and, though I’m a bit afraid to jinx it, it’s actually going well so far.

I would be SO very happy to never have to clean a litter box again. I’ll keep you all posted, but in the meantime, please don’t ask me how it’s going. Oh, and maybe say a little prayer for me.