Tips on Toilet Training an Outdoor Cat?

[tienbien]

Hey, I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas or help on how to train a cat to use the toilet who usually goes outdoors. We might be moving to a place where I'll have to keep her inside and would love it if I never had to get a litter box! She's a *really* smart cat so I think she'd catch on quickly, I'm just not quite sure how to go about doing it. Everything I've looked up online shows how to transition the cat by moving the litter box into the bathroom, onto the toilet, etc. But nothing about how to train a cat who usually just goes outside.

Does anyone have any thoughts, ideas, tips, or links to someone else who has done this? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!!

 

[yayi]

I don't think you can immediately toilet train an outdoor cat. First, you have to get her used to the indoors which may require some kind of litter box w/ the type of soil/litter she is used to using outside. From there follow the "litter box" to "toilet" transition. But I am only guessing here.
Hope others have better ideas and suggestions.

 

[ldg]

Well, the use of a litter box is based on a cat's natural instincts. The use of a toilet is not. So unfortunately, I doubt there's any way to transition her from going outside to using a toilet. If you want her to be inside, I don't think there's any way to skip the litter box, at least for some time.

Also, just thinking down the road... sick kitties and older kitties sometimes have trouble jumping, so relying completely on a toilet could lead to problems with her peeing and pooping around the house.

 

[ducman69]

I would suggest against toilet training, and stick to a traditional litterbox setup which doesn't fight a cat's natural instinct to go on a sandy substrate and bury their feces.

Most seats are also very difficult for the cats to squat over, some end up falling in on occasion, especially as they get older, and a bored cat may end up messing with your toilet paper roll, learning how fun it is to flush the toilet over and over and over, or even drinking the water.

There are some quasi-automatic litterboxes available if you're like me and absolutely hate scooping: