Can I flush cats mess down the toilet ?

[ThatFairy]

Just saw someone saying this on a thread. I always thought that as there's usually litter attached when scooping you can't do this ? I tie it in little bags and leave next to the litter tray till I put a bin bag out, I put out a bin bag once a day, so if I could do this it would be a lot more hygienic

It isn't normal to me as I don't do it. I saw it mentioned on a thread here that someone does it and wanted opinions

Wow, what a smart cat

We use dog poo bags, the straight in the outside bin. My friend uses nappy bags for her cat’s litter tray.

@ThatFairy it’s a standing joke in my house I managed to potty train the cat before one of my kids 🤣 he is very smart ….but a little bastard too - the cat not my child! He does protest wees in the kitchen sink if he thinks im ignoring him!

🤣
Nope, we get eff all in the Uk.

Lucky to get a bin collection at all in places like Birmingham due to year long strikes.

I feel inspired to teach my cat to use the toilet now

No country that doesnt have an arid climate, reuses waste water. You arent an idiot at all. But it is a strange thing to assume is special about Scotland, which isnt compared to most countries at all.

I thought that was why water tastes bad in england. I'm sure people have said it to me

It doesnt taste bad in England in general, England is up with the highest rated in the world for quality with only a few other countries there, and almost the exact same rating as Scotland.

But natural variance of geology and mineral deposits means hard water areas exist, and can be extreme. This will taste very strange if you dont grow up with it. This isnt all areas though, and technically it's healthier water.

Even within Scotland you get variance in the appearance of tap water and how it tastes/feels on the palate. It's just down to local geology. I'm from the NE and I prefer the tap water up there to that in the Central Belt. There is nothing wrong with the tap water in Edinburgh, but it does have a very slight film that sits on top of it when you boil it and infuse tea, you don't see this with water in Tayside. It's not significant enough for me to stop using it, but it was really visibly noticeable at first and I did definitely taste a difference to begin with. Used to it now, so it's neither here nor there, but it's not just in England that you get a variance in tap water. I remember being in Hertfordshire decades back and being astonished at the fact that everything was caked in limescale. We don't have that to anything like the same degree. A lot of washing tabs and caplets simply will not dissolve in Scottish water and you end up with a revolting goo/residue all over your clothes. They are designed with much "harder" water in mind.

This.

God no

My general waste bin only gets emptied every two weeks.

Well I've gathered from the comments that the wastewater is cleaned and released into the sea (poster said saltwater) and not reused and that impurities are so dilute as to be negligible. I'm sure the sea is full of animal waste and parasites anyway. To be honest I wasn't even thinking of this I was asking if it's ok to flush cat litter.

I don't know though if I like the idea of using my toilet for cat shit. I might just buy a good metal bin with a secure lid to keep by the litter tray. Also is it very common for cats to have toxoplasmosis ? Wouldn't I have contracted it by this point (they're 2 years old)

Also is it very common for cats to have toxoplasmosis ?

No

If your cats are healthy, wormed, fed predominantly on pet food, and/or indoor cats, it's highly, highly unlikely their faeces will ever contain the parasite.

Feral cats, cats which aren't routinely fed and hunt for themselves, and cats which are never wormed are more likely to be infected, but even then they only actively shed the parasite for a short period, and assuming you deal with their mess as soon as it appears the parasite isn't even infectious at that point in any case.

One of which probably belonged to a woolly mammoth. 😂

So that's what it is. I feel a bit cheeky now thinking England reused wastewater for drinking all this time

That isn't true as well, I don't know why they are insisting it is. Plenty of treatment plants for wastewater are inland in Scotland, not near any saltwater source of water, and have no ability to reach one for release.

Scotland releases plenty into rivers. England releases plenty into the sea.

Scotland releases plenty into rivers. England releases plenty into the sea

Indeed, and guess where fresh water rivers ultimately end up?

"Also is it very common for cats to have toxoplasmosis ? Wouldn't I have contracted it by this point (they're 2 years old)"

If you practice good hand hygiene you won't catch it.

Toxocara (round worm) is probably more common and, as I said above, also survives the water treatment process.

Water companies ask that cat and dog poo not be flushed. This is based on research that has tracked the potential for harm and actual harm. Why risk it?

So I'm drinking worms from people flushing cat shit down the toilet ?

As someone in the industry I’d advise against flushing animal waste - partly because treatment plants are designed for human waste and therefore the processes aren’t necessarily going to take out the impurities from animal waste in large volumes before they are discharged back into the environment (rivers and seas). It’s why places like zoos etc have private treatment plants and while that argument seems a bit far out, imagine if everyone with a dog or cat flushed their waste and how much more strain that would put on the system.

Secondly, cat litter is likely to settle in the pipes and eventually cause either a localised blockage on your own system, or slightly further down - see the link below on keeping the cycle running!

If you would like to understand more about water (where your water comes from and how it’s treated before it gets to you) and wastewater (the sewer network, wastewater treatment and discharges to the environment) have a look here since you mention you’re in Scotland!

https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/help-and-resources/education/all-about-water/water-treatment

https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/help-and-resources/education/all-about-water/waste-water-treatment

https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWater/Document-Hub/Your-Home/Cycle-campaigns/270718CycleCampaignBlockagesLeaflet.pdf

Not unless you are swigging straight from rivers or the sea, no.

So the person that said it goes into the rivers and then we take it from the rivers for drinking water was wrong ?

I did some environmental science and I was under the impression we used lakes etc for drinking water

Drinking water is taken from a number of places - mostly rivers, lochs, aquifers, boreholes. In Scotland no sea water is used (this needs specialised desalination treatment). If you’re in Scotland check here to see where your water comes from and where it’s treated before coming to you through your taps : https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/your-home/your-water/water-quality/water-quality

it is then treated to remove impurities and bacteria and piped to your house.

Waste water is piped to a treatment plant where impurities and bacteria are removed and it is discharged back into the environment. This can be a river or the sea, but waste water will generally be discharged far far downstream of drinking water intakes if they exist on the same river, and the water is then treated to become drinking water before getting to you. You really have nothing to worry about, have a read on the website links above if you’d like more detail.