8 Easy Steps to Get Your Cat to Use the Toilet
If you're tired of the hassle of cleaning up kitty litter all the time, why not give this a go: click-train your cat to use the toilet! It's easy and fun! Some cats actually get it in two weeks! The whole point to using a clicker when training your cat is that she associates the sound (click) with a treat, even when there is no treat! To us, our voices may sound the same every time we say "good kitty", but to a cat, with way more sensitive ears, it's just gibberish.
A clicker is a very clear way to communicate with your kitty, as the click is always the same.
I can't tell you how much fun me and my big tabby Rooster had with this clicking system! It comes with a book of about 85 pages and explains stuff I never knew about cats and animals in general.
You can even use it to train bunny rabbits or parakeets! But back to potty training your kitty, here are 8 easy steps to train your cat to use the toilet!
A clicker is a very clear way to communicate with your kitty, as the click is always the same.
I can't tell you how much fun me and my big tabby Rooster had with this clicking system! It comes with a book of about 85 pages and explains stuff I never knew about cats and animals in general.
You can even use it to train bunny rabbits or parakeets! But back to potty training your kitty, here are 8 easy steps to train your cat to use the toilet!
- Begin by placing your kitty's litter box next to the toilet.
Ensure that she knows where the box is and wait til she uses it.
When she uses it: click and treat! Rest.
Next, by stages, lift the litter box higher, use stack of newspapers, to move the box up an inch or so at a time.
Rest.
Go on til the bottom of the litter box is level with the top of the toilet seat.
Every time she jumps in to the higher level: click and treat! In the beginning kitty could just step into the box; later she'll have to jump up into it, and then she'll start jumping up on the toilet seat first and stepping into the box from there.
Result! Click and treat! - Lift the seat on your toilet and measure the bowl at its widest point.
Go buy a metal mixing bowl that fits.
Don't use a plastic bowl, cause it won't support the cat's weight scaring the cat. - Put the litter box on the toilet seat.
When she uses it: click and treat! Rest.
Now here's the magic: remove the litter box entirely.
Put the mixing bowl inside the toilet bowl and put the seat down.
Put about two inches of litter in the bowl.
Now, for a week or so this'll all be boring, because you'll have to remove the bowl when you want to use the toilet yourself.
Ideally, if you have another bathroom, use that one.
But remember: it'll so be worth it if you don't have to scoop anymore kitty poop! - Watch puss doing her business in the mixing bowl.
Next you have to teach her the correct squatting posture.
Catch her begin to use the toilet as much of the time as possible and show him where his feet are supposed to go.
Just raise them out of the bowl and put them on the seat (front paws in the middle, hind paws on the outside): if she does it right: click and treat! - When she is comfortable using the toilet with her front paws out begin lifting a hind paw out and putting it on the seat outside the front paws.
Kitty will probably find this awkward first try to replace the foot in the litter.
Keep it up.
Move that paw twenty times in a row if you have to, til it stays there.
Click and treat.
Repeat with the other hind paw, until your kitty learns to balance in a squat.
Once she's getting all four paws on the seat regularly, it's all easy as pie from there. - Now start reducing the litter in the mixing bowl.
Go as fast as she'll feel OK with, because as the litter dwindles, the smell increases.
You' might want to keep close so that you can click and treat her, and dump out the contents of the bowl right after she's done. - By the time you're down to a teensie weensie teaspoonful of litter in the mixing bowl, next time you clean it, put a tiny bit of water in.
Add more water each time.
Remember - if at any point kitty gets anxious about the big changes and tries to do her business to the corner behind the door, back up a notch or two and try again more slowly.
And don't forget to click and treat! - Once the water in the mixing bowl is a couple of inches deep and puss is comfortable with the whole thing, you will get to perform that final thing of magic: simply take the mixing bowl away, leaving the just the bare toilet.
(Lid Up, Seat Down.
Obviously) You'll feel proud as a mom watching her firstborn take its first steps first time you see her on that toilet seat! (I called my own mom, I was so proud!) Click and treat and keep this up for a while.
Kitty will be so used to the toilet, she'll even use other toilets and never deign to look at another litter box again (smelly horrible things).
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