Potty Training a Cat

You read it correctly. We are potty training here at the Cape of Dreams. No, we did not adopt or kidnap a child. Nor am I talking about Douglas. He came fully trained. Crème is the lucky victim of my latest plot.

We hope that she will learn quickly, and we will be able to get rid of the kitty litter in the closet. Crème is good about using the litter, and it does not smell… much. However, it is just the idea that it is in the house that we do not like. Plus, it is greener to not buy kitty litter -save more money and put less in the landfill. Once Crème is using the toilet, we will not need litter at all. This is the plan.

We are using the CitiKitty Cat Toilet Training Kit. We have not been paid for this post, nor any of the follow-ups that are to come. We have no idea if this will work. I read about this over at Apartment Therapy and decided to give it a try. Wednesday night was our first attempt.

Here is the toilet. Many of you have probably never seen a picture of the bathroom from this angle. I had to climb in the tub and assume a weird position to get this shot. There is also the not so awesome floor we are hoping to replace “soon.”

This is the training tray. There are perforated circles on the inside that you slowly remove until the cat is just using the toilet.

We bought flushable litter for the training process.

Crème seemed amenable to the idea of using the toilet. She was immediately intrigued by what we were doing. You know how she likes to be in the midst of everything.

However, she did not use it that first time. She sat there as if she were using it. Then, she did nothing. I checked it in the morning, and she still had done nothing. I was nervous about leaving for work that day in case she went to the bathroom somewhere else. So I opened the closet door back up and gave her access to the litter box while we were not home.

Once I got home I shut the closet door again and reintroduced her to the toilet litter box. She was not interested in the least. She continued to ignore it for the next five hours. Then I remembered that the kit comes with catnip or kitty crack as we call it. I sprinkled a little in the litter and she immediately jumped up and used the pad. There is the proud mama shot of the first time the child uses the toilet.

When I came to work this morning, I left the closet door is now closed so that her litter box is no longer accessible. Keep your fingers crossed that this works.

Have any of you ever toilet trained a cat or known anyone who did? Other than from the movie Meet the Parents?

Happy Homemaking!