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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Toilet training my cat

18 replies

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 14/03/2014 11:45

After two years I've finally decided to take the plunge an attempt to toilet train my cat.

So far we have started by raising her tray up about 40cm off the floor gradually over the last week (using files from my postgraduate - I knew they'd come in handy for something!)

She seems fine with this so far. We have already prepared for the next step. We have a large aluminum turkey tray which fits inside the toilet bowl. Once she can use that we will gradually cut a hole in the centre until none is left.

I will update you on progress as we go, in the meantime please share your training succes (or disaster!) stories and your top tips. Can't wait to be litter free!

OP posts:

thecatneuterer · 14/03/2014 11:48

Oh wow. Do update us. I've watched that video with wonder that they sometimes play in Pets at Home to sell a cat toilet training toilet seat. I can't help feeling that it would take a certain type of cat and a lot of patience.

cozietoesie · 14/03/2014 11:55

Fascinating. Trying to think like a cat, I think I'd want something non-slippable on the seat itself, at least at first. (A material cover or something.) Keeping your balance in a tray is bad enough but on a skiddy plastic toilet seat?

Original poster

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 14/03/2014 12:09

Oh good idea cozie! I was planning on leaving a few files to act as a step for her to use to get onto the seat at first.

thecatneuterer you're probably right! I can only hope our cat is the right type.

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Original poster

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 18/03/2014 22:55

Today we've done the final raise- the litter tray is now a little higher than the toilet seat. The try has been used twice today so I'm thinking that it works for our cat so far. We'll leave it like this for a few days before removing the litter tray completely and putting the aluminium tray on top of the toilet bowl.

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akachan · 19/03/2014 14:16

My worry with this is that when she's elderly she won't be able to jump or balance well enough to use it. Will she need to then learn to use a tray again?

cozietoesie · 19/03/2014 15:52

From my own experience, most cats understand trays easily. I guess they learn it from their Mum as kittens -and certainly there are many cats in people's posts here who haven't used a tray for many years and re-adapt pretty well immediately when the need arises. It's not something I would worry about. (Although I would be wanting to keep a tray around even if the cat was starting to use the loo which, arguably, would be counter-productive to toilet training - but that's just me.)

Fluffycloudland77 · 19/03/2014 17:05

How did I miss this thread? I wanted to do this when the cat was 17weeks old but one of Dh's colleagues laughed and said you have to a right saddo to do that & dh put me off.

Now we have £20 a month going out on litter.

Please keep updating!

cozietoesie · 19/03/2014 17:21

But to be fair, Fluffy, you have to use ultra expensive scented stuff to keep His Lordship happy - and Gawd knows what he would require in the way of gold plated toilet paper if he used a loo!

NettoSuperstar · 19/03/2014 17:44

This sounds interesting, I have four cats and it costs a fortune in litter, £14 a week
Is it possible to train four at once do you think?

cozietoesie · 19/03/2014 17:48

Maybe they'd pick it up one from another if you concentrated the training on one or two. Have you got a Boss Cat?

Original poster

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 24/03/2014 20:52

Right... So today marks the retirement of the litter tray. She's been happily using it raised up to above toilet height.

We've used an aluminium disposable tray which fits in to the toilet bowl perfectly under the lid. (We kind of squished it into shape a bit). We've left the pile of files in place next to the toilet so she doesn't have to jump straight onto the seat initially.

I've taken her in to the bathroom to show it to her. We used her soiled litter so it would smell like her toilet. She had a good sniff, and I tried to show her she could stand on the toilet seat (pretty unsuccessfully...)

Now I guess we just wait until she needs a wee and hope for the best!

And in the meantime hope like hell that DH remembers to remove the tray when he needs to wee!

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cozietoesie · 24/03/2014 21:09

This is going to be interesting!

Original poster

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 25/03/2014 14:15

Brief update:
She wasn't sure what to do, so DH put the aluminium tray on the pile next to the toilet. She used that happily. Now that she knows that is her toilet we will put it back in place tomorrow...

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cozietoesie · 25/03/2014 15:32

You're breaking new ground here for me, Hiding. I look forward to the next update.

PS - what do you do yourself if it's two in the morning and you stumble to the loo all dopey with sleep? Are you going to remember?

Original poster

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 25/03/2014 18:02

That's my major concern, Cozie!
It's flushable litter, so I'm hoping if it did happen we could just tip the lot out and start again?!

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Original poster

HidingUnderMyDuvet · 27/03/2014 18:37

Success! Well, sort of. She used the tray in the toilet today. Unfortunately noone was there to see her in action as it were. There seemed to be some aiming issues, so I hope we can iron those out!

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Caterina99 · 01/04/2014 16:50

We tried this with our cat ( we are in US so much more common here). We got the citi kitty set on amazon.

Sadly our cat just couldn't get past the 2nd hole and was very unhappy with the whole situation. She's a 8 month old siberian who loves water (was 6 months when we started) so she seemed ideal, but although she would wee on the toilet tray, it got to a point where she wouldn't poo for 2 days, and then as soon as we left the house she would poo on the floor somewhere, so we had to stop.

However don't let that put you off trying, it would have been amazing if it had worked out, but apparently some cats get it and some just don't. I don't miss the mess of it though, the litter goes everywhere.

I'll be very jealous if your cat takes to it well. My friend's cat mastered the whole process in 4 weeks!

Dahlen · 01/04/2014 16:57

I honestly thought this was an april fool until I noticed the dates and then did some googling. Who knew!

I've had cats for years, including one I found squatting over a toilet once. I still didn't make the connection.

I am off to investigate further...

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