How to toilet-train your cat

This article will teach you how to easily and practically toilet train your cat so that you will never have to clean another litter box again.

The general idea here is that the transition from litter box to toilet be done in several stages, giving your cat the time to adjust to each new change before making another so as not to confuse and discourage the cat and loose what progress have been accomplished so far.

The most important point for you to remember from this point on will be:
Lid Up, Seat Down.
Tape a note on the underside and top of your toilet lid to remind yourself and possibly others of this fact so that this is not forgotten.
And if you are in the habit of closing the bathroom door when done you will be wise to post a note on it as well, reminding you and others to leave it open.

With these rules in mind lets begin:

1) Begin by moving the litter box from wherever it is at the moment to right beside the toilet, let it stay like that until you are sure your cat has gotten familiar with the change and started to use the litter box on a regular basis.

2) After waiting for your cat to adjust to the change and get used to it, place a stack of newspapers/a phone book etc under the litter box and raise it approximately one/two inches above the ground.
It is important to not use anything with a slippery surface because if the litter box moves around while the cat is using it it will most probably get scared and abandon the use of it.
Now before doing anything else you will as before give the cat time to adjust to the new change and become familiar with it before moving on.

3) Continue the process in step 2 with periods for the cat to adjust to the changes in between until the bottom of the litter box is level with the top of the toilet seat.
Taping the litter box to the books/magazines used might be a good idea to reduce the risk of it slipping.
You might use a cardboard box at the bottom as the stack gets bigger.

At the beginning of this process your cat could simply step into the box, and as the height grew it will have started to jump on the open toilet seat to get into the box which has trained it to get used to move around on the open toilet seat and become familiar with this as well.

4) Now comes the transition, you might want to start by having the litter box half way over the toilet seat, then all the way in two steps with a few days in between before completely removing it to make the adjustment smoother, remember to give the cat time to get used to the new change.

Now you lift the toilet seat and measure the inside diameter of the top of the toilet bowl and acquire a metal bowl that will fit snugly in the toilet bowl under the seat without falling into the bowl (A plastic bowl wont do as it will collapse under the weight of your cat and fall into the toilet spooking the cat away from the entire idea.

5) Fill the metal bowl with about two to two and a half inches of litter (all of this is much easier if you have the tiny granules of litter that can be scooped out and flushed down the toilet).
And fit the metal bowl into the toilet bowl lowering the toilet seat on top, of course removing the bowl when using the toilet yourself.

From this point on will be the hardest part and require the biggest amount of active interaction from your side, but if you feel it is tiresome and not worth it keep in mind that you will never have to clean another litter box again after you finish with this.

6) Watch your cat as it is using the metal bowl.
Count the number of feet he/she gets up on the toilet seat (as opposed to down into the bowl of litter).
The higher the number, the luckier you are and the easier your job will be.
Next you have to teach him proper squatting posture, catch him beginning to use the bowl as much of the time as possible and show him where his feet are supposed to go.
Just lift them right out of the bowl and place them on the seat (front legs in the middle, hind legs on the outside).
If he starts out with three or all four feet in the bowl, just get the front two feet out first.
Praise him all over the place every time he completes the activity in this position, treats every now and again can be helpful but don't overdo it.

7) When he/she is regularly using the toilet with his front feet out, begin lifting a hind foot out and placing it on the seat outside the front paws.
The cat will probably find this awkward at first and try to replace the foot in the litter.
Be persistent.
Move that foot out repeatedly, until it stays there.
Praise and optionally give the cat a treat for a job well done.

8) Repeat with the other hind foot, until your cat learns to balance in that squat.
Once he/she is getting all four feet regularly on the seat, it's all downhill from there.
Which is fortunate, because the last bit is also the most unpleasant.
It would be advisable to have the responsible party home for a week or so for this part as the bowl will need emptying so as not to stink up your entire house.

9) Begin reducing the litter in the bowl.
Go slow so the cat can have time to adjust and get used to the change, and beware that as the litter decreases, the odor increases.
You'll want to have the responsible party home at this point so that you/they can praise the cat and dump out the contents of the bowl immediately after he/she is finished, to minimize both the smell and the possibility that your cat, in a confused attempt to minimize the smell on his own, tries to cover it up with litter that no longer exists and ends up dragging unpleasantness into the rest of the house.

10) By the time you're down to a teaspoonful of litter in the bottom of the bowl, you will probably be aware of the precise instant your cat has used the toilet.

This is as bad as it gets.

The next time you rinse out the metal bowl, put a little bit of water in the bottom.
Increase the water level each time, just as you decreased the litter level.
Remember — if at any point the cat looks nervous enough about the change to give the whole thing up and take it's business somewhere else in the house, back up a step or two and try the thing again more slowly.

Once the water in the metal bowl is a couple of inches deep and your cat is comfortable with the whole thing, you're almost done.
Take the metal bowl away, leaving the bare toilet. (Lid Up, Seat Down.)


You now have a toilet trained cat and will never have to clean another litter box again, just remember to flush.

This concludes my How-to article on "How to toilet-train your cat, hope you found this helpful and do recommend it to your friends.