If you remember my introduction, you will recall that I have two cats. Both are kitty litter trained and although I know how to toilet train them, neither of them are. The main (and probably only) problem that I have with toilet training is the fact that I only have one bathroom.
When Lobo was a young kitten, about 8 months old, I began toilet training him. After I got about 2 weeks into the training, my husband started yelling at me about the fact that he had to move a container filled with kitty litter every time he wanted to use the washroom. Thus my attempts at toilet training ended and I only recommend this if you have two toilets so you can reserve one for the cat and one for all the people in the house. At least until the training is done.
This training is actually very simple and it doesn’t require much effort on your part, except of course, keeping up on cleaning the kitty litter. There are several stages to toilet training your cat and they should follow a timeline that both you and your cat are comfortable with. If you find at any time that your cat is resisting a new stage, simply take a step back and spend a bit more time on the last stage.
Step One: The Environment
The first step to training your cat to set the environment up for training. This means that you will have to start leaving your bathroom door open and your toilet seat down with the lid either up or completely off. You will also have to place the kitty litter box beside the toilet, close enough so the cat will get used to walking on the toilet as you go along through the stages. Make sure that you remind her where the kitty litter is so she won’t start having accidents on the floor or worse places.
Step Two: Raising the Kitty Litter
Once your cat has accepted the new location for the kitty litter, usually after 2 to 7 days, you can move to the next stage of training. This is the stage where you move the kitty litter box up off the floor in a gradual progression. Every two to four days, add a thin box underneath the box until it is at the same height as the toilet. Keep the progress slow and if you ever find your cat urinating or defecating in places other than his kitty litter, then you know that you are going to fast for him to adjust.
After the box is at the level of the toilet seat, move it onto the toilet itself and secure it to avoid any spills. At this point, give the cat plenty of time to adjust to using the kitty litter on the toilet itself.
Step Three: The Bowl
Once the litter box is elevated and the cat is accustomed to using it at such a high altitude, you can make the switch to a metal bowl that is placed in the toilet seat. You will need to measure the seat to get the right size and you can probably pick up a good metal bowl at a local dollar store.
Now that your cat is used to doing her business on the toilet, it is time to remove the kitty litter box and to place the bowl in the toilet with about 2 or 3 inches of litter. Don’t purchase clumping litter since you want litter that can be dumped into the toilet.
Once you have the kitty litter in, it is time to watch your cat whenever she is going to the bathroom. If she is sitting on the seat with her front feet and back feet nestled together in a squat, then you don’t have much more work, however, if she has her hind legs or even all four legs in the bowl, you will need to correct the squat by placing all her feet onto the toilet seat and then praising her.
This may take a bit of time and it is important to get her squatting properly before you move onto the next stage.
Oh, one last thing, make sure you take the box right out of the house so she won’t find it and begin using it in a new location.
Step Four: Decreasing the Litter
At this point, you cat should be using the bowl regularly and there shouldn’t be any accidents in the house. He should also be squatting with all four feet on the toilet seat when he does go to the bathroom.
Once he is at this stage, you can start decreasing the litter. This usually goes on over the course of two days and you want to make sure that you can be there to clean the kitty litter immediately after he is finished.
When there is no kitty litter in the bottom of the bowl, you can begin slowly adding water at about a tablespoon at a time. Each time your cat uses his new “litter” you can add another tablespoon of water. Make sure you clean it out each time though.
Step Five: Success
This is the last and final stage and hopefully you have gone through the other stages slowly so that your cat is confident with doing her business in a bowl of water.
At this point, usually when you have a bowl with several inches of water in it, you will want to remove the bowl from the toilet. Keep an eye on your cat for the first few days to make sure that she is fine with this final stage and that she is not using other areas as a litter box.
If everything went according to plan, you should be happy with the end result of a perfectly toilet trained cat. You will never have to clean a kitty litter box and you will never have days when you find kitty litter spread across the floor or worse, in your socks.
All the best and I hope you and your cat has many successes when it comes to toilet training.
ToiletTrainCats
Yes, training cats to use the toilets isn’t that difficult. All that is required is patience and preserverence on the part of the cat owner. Cats are actually smart and fast learner.