How I Conquered the World, aka Toilet-Trained My Cat

I have jumped out of airplanes and off bridges, lived in a remote African village, created 30+ft tall flaming metal sculptures, was valedictorian of my high school and summa cum laude in college, and sailed across the Pacific. I am proud of these and many more achievements, but perhaps my most significant accomplishment, one that I will boast of until my dying day, is the fact that I have trained my cat to use a human toilet. Yes, you read that right. My cat goes pee and poo in my toilet. (No she does not flush yet.)

I adopted a rescue cat about 4 months ago, named (by her foster mom) Tuxie. She is a tuxedo Manx (born without a tail), and is roughly a year and a half old. Tuxie is quite clever, social and affectionate, and very vocal. Even before I brought her home, I had decided I would attempt toilet training. I like cats, especially the “cool” ones that are actually cuddly, but I hate litter. Hate it. I hate the smell, I hate stepping on the little granules that eventually get all over the house, I hate scooping litter, asking my friends to scoop litter, and buying litter only to throw it out in a foul, revolting state.

I began researching the methods (religions?) of cat toilet training. There are a number of products on the market, including actual toilet “accessories” to aid in training, in addition to books, videos, and YouTube clips. Amazon reviewers have a fair amount to say on the subject, as they usually do, and those also led me to a long-standing Yahoo Group for “Cat T-Training”. In the end, I went with a multi-pronged solution: DIY (do it yourself) for the toilet accessories, a paid book/dvd combo, and the free yahoo group.

The general idea is pretty simple:

1.       get already litter-trained cat using a litter container positioned inside the toilet

2.       cut small hole in litter container

3.       slowly enlarge hole over time

4.       help cat learn “proper paw positioning” (more on this later – I know you have questions)

5.       eventually there is no container left to stand in or hold litter

6.       cat is weaned off litter altogether and stands on toilet seat while going IN THE TOILET

7.       lots and lots of ongoing praise, support, and positive reinforcement

As you might suspect, in practice the process had some ups, downs, and in-betweens.

The Not-So-Bad: Keeping the toilet open all the time (bungee cord), litter dropping in the toilet (flushable litter), having to share the toilet with my cat (my litter container was easy to move, quickly, and then the hole was so large I didn’t need to move it)

The Tough: Choosing and then finding a suitable litter container, cutting through thick plastic on a regular basis, making a new “litter dam” every few days, paw positioning, stressing my cat out, stressing myself out, 5.5 accidents to date (2 incidents on the bathroom floor, 2 on the living room carpet, 1 in the sink = .5 accident), the “stand-offs” (her not going when I know damn well she needs to)

The Awesome: The ever decreasing amount of litter in use, the kitty bonding experience, the sheer delight every single time my cat uses the toilet (this is likely to continue for a very long time)

Now, what’s this “Paw Positioning” business? The end goal, of course, is that the cat balances on the toilet seat while going pee and poo. Tuxie very naturally put her front two paws on the seat as litter container got smaller and she got “herded” toward the seat. Her back paws, however, were firmly rooted in the container. All of my advisory materials suggested I catch my cat in the act and physically move her paws onto the seat. Think about it – go up to your peeing cat and move their paws into a precarious position. Mmmhmm.

Actually, it worked out reasonably well. In the early days you and kitty learn to be together in the bathroom. And, it turns out that cats are pretty committed to finishing their business once they start, so as long as you don’t scare the s#$t out of kitty when they’re going, they actually let you move their paws mid-stream (hehe). The 4^th and final paw on the seat was challenging, but I tried to be patient and let her get there on her own.

Other challenges all boiled down to stress, especially toward the end of the process. I had already invested 2 months in training and we were almost there with very little litter and very little container left. It was exciting – we were winning! Then the “stand-offs” began. She stopped going to the bathroom. 24 hours would pass…36…I started sniffing around corners and plants in the apartment…48…I started staying home from work to put her on the toilet every chance I got while squeezing her bladder on the way (she looovvved that)…I started googling how long cats can/should hold it (don’t do that)……. Eventually, she would go, much to our mutual relief. Then another 24/36/48 hour period would pass. After 3 go-rounds of this, I started relaxing a bit – she was using the toilet when she needed to go, she just didn't need to go that often. 

About 6 weeks ago I installed an Automatic Flusher in preparation for a short business trip I was taking. It comes with a sensor that is supposed to trigger a flush when “the object leaves the area”. Well, again thanks to Amazon Reviews, I was advised NOT to use the sensor – kitties just move around too much when they go, and the sensor is apt to flush when they’re still up there. DISASTER-POSSIBILITY! My sensor is now safely stashed away, and the auto-flusher flushes once every 24 hours. The jury is still out on this one. Tuxie likes to go pee and poo pretty much one right after the other, and she seems less keen on going in a dirty bowl (she’s done so successfully multiple times, but we have had 1 accident of this manner). We’ll have to wait and see on this one. I may try playing with the sensor settings some more.

Where We Stand As of Writing

She is going consistently every 48 hours, #1 and #2 in quick succession. We have about 1.5 inches of litter container left. She’s always got 4 paws on the seat when peeing, and almost always 4 paws while pooing. Up until about a week or two ago, #1 always seemed to stress her out the most. Now she just waltzes into the bathroom and pees without any fuss whatsoever. For #2 she still feels the need to call me into the bathroom (meow a lot) and there’s some hopping back and forth between the floor and the toilet before she finally gets the gumption to go. Yet she goes, every time. So I’m assuming she’ll eventually settle down with #2 too.

I am cautiously optimistic about it all, but in general feeling pretty good. Truth be told I had this whole post written out a month ago, then 2 accidents happened in a row (I take responsibility for both though). We had to start over essentially, but with a new litter container. THIS TIME has gone much more smoothly – we’re both just more chill about it all….

With cautious optimism I can still say: 

OH MY GOSH THIS ABSOLUTELY ROCKS!! MY CAT USES THE TOILET!! THE SOUND OF HER TINKLES IS MUSIC TO MY EARS! 

Update as of July 2014

Tuxie and I moved onboard my boat in February of this year. She had fully mastered the toilet in my apartment for several months, including my being gone for holiday and having a friend cat-sit (who got quite the kick out of that!)

I was terrified about moving her to a different toilet, as I'd heard that can ruin everything. 

On my boat I had a newly installed composting head (the "Airhead"). It's waterless, and has a different shaped seat than what she was used to. 

We went through the expected first ~2 days of no going, with me regularly putting her up on the seat. When she finally went there was no drama whatsoever. She hopped up there, seemed happy that she could paw around the inside of the toilet, positioned herself and went. BAM.

YouTube Pee Video

YouTube Poo Video

Some Details that Cat People Will Care About but the rest of you won’t:

The paid products vs. DIY

It’s easy enough to do Amazon review research on the various paid products. The cheaper of the two is flimsy. The more expensive seems fine, but apparently you have to buy the additional rings to see success – ie, even more money. The DIY options are super cheap (plastic bowls, roasting pans…whatever fits your toilet). BUT, there’s no “going back” (ie once cut, it’s gone), and if you use plastic bowls, the cutting process can be challenging. I would still recommend DIY though…and see below on litter container selection.

The paid book/video vs. Yahoo Group

I liked both. The paid book/video seems to get some flak from the interwebs for stealing content, but I have to say he does a nice job of compiling the process into an easy-to-digest book and dvd. I liked being able to see the whole thing from start to finish.

The Yahoo Group is good for user-generated content and advice/moral support throughout the process. I found the raw instructions to be too abbreviated and/or spread out in different spots in the group.

 Litter container selection

HUGE point of contention here. Your choices are: aluminum roasting pan, sitzbath (google it), random other plastic container/bowl. I tried all three.

AL Roasting Pan: the critics say cats don’t like the sound it makes when they walk on it, and cutting them leaves sharp edges to cut kitty on. I say Tuxie didn’t seem to mind the sound at all, and when I cut the pan away, I made sure to fold over any sharp edges, or cover them with duct tape.

The Pros: super cheap, very easy to cut away + built in litter dam, shallow one available which made for an easier transition to paws on seat vs. in pan, when we had to back up, I just got a new $2 pan.

The Cons: none (but again, Tux didn’t mind the sound)

SitzBath: the critics say this is the best option because they’re so sturdy and fit the toilet so well (designed for toilets). I say…I didn’t even end up trying it – see below.

The Pros: fits toilet very well. GREAT option for going out of town and using in toilet full of litter rather than going back to a litter box on the floor.

The Cons: plastic is so thick I’d have to cut it with a soldering iron, making a litter dam would require cardboard and tape and construction, expensive comparatively ($15), pretty deep bottom which means a big transition for paw placement.

Random other container/bowl

The Pros: cheap, sturdy (depending on what you get)

The Cons: took time to run around to random stores and find, my bowl was too deep, plastic was hard to cut, litter dam required cardboard fabrication, we couldn’t go backwards when we needed to

Toilet paper roll loading

Make sure you load it so when kitty spins the roll, the paper doesn't unroll.

Picking up bathmats, blocking off sink and shower, no clothes on floor EVER, blocking off bedroom when unoccupied

You don’t want to give kitty ANY opportunity to go somewhere other than the toilet. For months I have gone without bathmats, and for the first few months I had to block off the sink. In general I don’t leave piles of clothes around or let her in the bedroom when I’m not in there. (no opportunity to pee in the bed.)

 xoxo, Jen and Tuxie

ps - in case you're wondering, I'll take her sailing with me when I go.