Anyone ever potty train a cat?

[CrazyLurkerLady]

I've been trying to potty train my cat. We are now at week 6. Weeks 1 -4 were fine, we just moved her litter box to the bathroom and removed the lid (she did NOT like the lid being removed and kept trying to cover the box with the bath rug or shower curtain). Week 5 we sat the box on top of the toilet and she now VERY grudgingly will use it, but we had to move the toilet paper because she was covering the box with an entire roll of unrolled TP every time she went.

We have doubled the time for each step (2 weeks instead of 1) because she's very stubborn and spoiled, but I'm nervous about the next step, which is removing the box and replacing it with the litter tray sitting in the toilet. We tried this once before but she HATED it because it was flimsy and moved, which scared her. Now we have a very sturdy one, so I'm hoping it goes better.

Has anyone here ever successfully potty trained a cat? Are there any tips for a skittish cat? Is it going to be a problem that we only have a single bathroom?

Attached is a picture of my tortoiseshell Molly because she is adorable.

[PennySycamore]

I know you'll probably not like this but Jackson Galaxy, the Cat Daddy, is TOTALLY OPPOSED to potty training cats.  Jackson talk about it on page 132 of Total Cat Mojo.  He says that the cats he's seen using the toilet look distressed as it's not natural for them to use the toilet.  Cats need litter boxes and it's up to us human cat guardians to provide one or more for them.

Btw, your tortie is beautuiful and full of tortitude.  I love the name Molly, too!

[CrazyLurkerLady]

@PennySycamore, thank you very much. I had no idea it could be so stressful for cats! Clearly Molly is showing signs of NOT wanting to do this, but I thought she'd get over this. I have decided that instead of potty training her, I am going to just save up for one of those self-cleaning litter boxes.

I am attaching another picture just for funsies. No idea why she was doing this.

[nomoxian]

No advice, but I lived in a home with a cat where there wasn't much space, so the litter box was beside the human toilet. If you didn't make sure the door was fully closed, the cat would come in the washroom when people were using it and look at you while sniffing the air. He seemed to know what people were doing in the big white bowl. He would wipe his paws against the side of his toilet after finishing his business, and would meow for you to tidy it up immediately after. I didn't know about potty training cats at that time, but I do think he would have preferred to use the less messy human bowl.

If you get flushable kitty litter, it makes cleanup simple. 

[Alisamer]

We halfheartedly tried this with our cats, but they didn't ever get it. I think if they'd been younger and we'd been more consistent they might have gotten it.

Later, when I just had the one cat at my house, I ended up getting a Litter Locker, and that improved things so much it was no trouble at all to just quickly scoop a couple times a day. My mom has used self-cleaning litter boxes before - the original style with the rake that goes across after the cat is done and scoops everything into a small box at the end. That was nice, but the little box at the end doesn't hold much, and she went through several of them as they broke easily. Now she just has two regular boxes. I'm sure there are newer, better self-cleaning boxes out there now!

Molly is super adorable! We had a tortie named Pepper for many years, she was a sweetheart.

[melon]

Molly is so cute.I love torties! I have three torties.Lulu,Mimi and Mattie.

I have seven cats,total.

Just a suggestion,some cats don't like the noise on the self-cleaning boxes.Also,I'd never flush litter down to toilet,even if it says it's flushable.

[PennySycamore]

The original LitterMaids were supposedly much better than the ones are Stanley bought the company.  Mine scooped litter all right except that a good bit of litter ended up on the floor.  Mine also broke before a year was out. I bought a ScoopFree which can use a disposable tray although Chewy sells two versions of permanent trays: both one by ScoopFree and the Forever Tray which a ScoopFree owner invented.  They look like pretty much the same product.  One advantage of the permanent tray is they are waterproof which is important if you have a big cat who's a side-pee-er.  They're also more eco-friendly and probably end up being cheaper.  The ScoopFree uses crystal litter which you'd want to make sure that your cat likes before you spend the money on the box.  (The LitterMaids used clumping litter.)  I use Fresh Step Crystals.  Frankly,  I mostly brought out Snorpi and Bianca's old ScoopFree because I was going to be gone for the weekend, knew that my husband wouldn't scoop the box and didn't want for my daughter to have to come over and do it.  It also tends to deter dogs from "burgling".

The poops, btw, get dried out by the litter and so the poop compartment may not get overfilled in a month.

[PennySycamore]

@melon,  I watched a video by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau about sustainable kitty living and she mentioned flushable litter.  Apparently California is about to ban flushable litter because it spreads toxoplasmosis to marine mammals