Please excuse our mess...we are toilet training our cats!
Stop laughing!!!
I have pictures to prove it works!
To put it bluntly, I hate cats. Okay, I hate cat litter! I hate the way it smells. I hate the way it gets all over the floor. I hate having to scoop it! I would like my cats a lot better if they didn't have to use cat litter!
So I heard about CitiKitty and thought I'd give it a try. Any cat over the age of three months can be trained (as long as they don't have any health issues). Our cats are just about a year old, so they're old enough to know better and still young enough to learn well.
CitiKitty is a system that requires a little bit of patience, but if you've ever trained a child how to use the toilet, this will seem EASY in comparison!
The first step is to move the cat litter into the bathroom, and that was easy for us because it's always been in the bathroom! I also read that you should move the cat litter up to the level of the toilet so that the cats get in the habit of jumping up to use the litter.
We got the CitiKitty delivered May 14, 2015 and basically just let the cats play with the box, then we moved the litter up on the dog cage, which was perfectly level with the toilet!
Next we got some flushable litter and gradually began transitioning to the new litter.
We put the CitiKitty tray in the toilet and filled it with litter, but we waited to take the regular litter box out of the bathroom for a few days. We just let them play and explore.
On the day that we removed the litter box, we put the CitiKitty tray on the floor right in the spot that the litter box has sat for months. That way they associate that location with using the litter. Except now their litter box was much smaller!
They were a little apprehensive about it, but within about 24 hours, they were using it without a problem. They were making a big mess, but I kept reminding myself that this would all be worth it!
On Sunday, May 24th I moved the CitiKitty tray up onto the toilet and crossed my fingers. Gus was the first one to use the potty and it almost didn't happen! I was standing at the sink getting my makeup on & getting ready for church when I saw Gus poking around in the corner where her litter box normally is. Suddenly she squatted down like she was going to pee. I scooped her up and plopped her onto the CitiKitty tray on the toilet and sure enough, she went! Whew! That was a close call. That was when I decided the cats should stay in the bathroom for the day until they were both successfully using the potty.
Finally later in the evening, Stormy used the potty with no problem and I was able to snap a photo of it!
So, this stage is considered Step Two (CitiKitty Training Seat on the toilet, litter box completely gone from the house) and we have to stay at this stage for one week, or in our case two weeks because we have two cats!
The next few stages involve removing the inserts from the Training Seat gradually until eventually they are using the toilet with no training seat at all. With two cats, this should take about twelve weeks. This is going to be fun!
Have you tried the CitiKitty Cat Toilet Training System? What's your opinion?
-Julie L. Spencer
After I'm all done training them, I'd like to eventually get the automatic flushing system!
Here's the flushable litter we used:
Cats respond to praise and treats!
