Toilet Training

[Meyharu Lee]

Hello!

Hope this is the right category to post under.
Me and my family are new cat owners and we recently adopted a Sphynx cat ( she was 4 months old when we got her and right now she turned 1 year old a few days ago ) and she was already trained in the litter box. However me and my parents, having a very small bathroom, decided to train her to do her business in the toilet and we purchased one of those special rings you place on the toilet. We live in a flat and we thought this might be more hygienic and beneficial for all of us.

It took a good few months to teach her to pee in there but we made it and now she does it on her own with no problems.

However it's been far too long and she refuses to poop in there. We only bring her litter box into the bathroom twice a day (morning and night) so she can poo in there and we think that she's got used to getting the litter box twice a day and completely refuses to poop in the toilet. Soon as we bring it back into the bathroom she immediately poops in there.

We don't really mind doing that every day but we'd love to have her do all of her business in the toilet instead of switching to the litter box solely to poop in it... She's a very smart cat and we're sure that she would get used to it with time but we're afraid to completely remove her litter box because we know she will get constipated. She never made a mess outside of the litter box and last time we tried to have her poo in the toilet ( or at least try to do it ) she held in her poo for half a day. We don't want her to get tummy issues because of this and we're really looking for some ideas on how we can make her poo in there without tormenting her.

I'd love to hear some suggestions, ideas or even advice if anyone can offer that to us.

This is her by the way, her name is Dolly !

 

[Friend's Friend]

Hi friend!

What a gorgeous girl you have!

I'm no expert, but if you stop to think about how unnatural it is for a cat to go to the bathroom in the toilet, it might make sense why she's refusing to poop in there. A cat's instinct is to bury their waste. It's great that you've trained her to pee in the toilet if that's what you've determined would be best, but . . . at this point I'm not sure that restricting her access to the litterbox is fair. Regardless of whether or not you're toilet-training her, she really should have access to a place to poop 24 / 7 (besides the toilet, obviously, if she refuses to go there).

The way I see it is that litterboxes aren't un-hygienic, as long as you keep them properly cleaned (scooped every day, sometimes twice a day, washed out every month, etc.). They don't even have to be in the bathroom, particularly if your bathroom is small (I keep mine in the walk-in closet, for example), although a bathroom makes sense.

Just my $0.02, though, so take it with a handful of salt. <3 And if I misunderstood something, I'm deeply sorry!!

Take care,
Friend's friend.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Just my own take on it, and you must do as you see fit, I find it just as hygenic to have a clean, well-maintained litter box as to have cat poo floating free in a toilet until I happen to spot it and flush...and you'll NEVER train her to flush!

LOL, as SOON as I typed that and hit "post" I remembered reading a complaint about a cat who repeatedly flushed the toilet to watch the water swirl, but he wasn't trained to do it, he figured that out for his own amusement!

 

[danteshuman]

Or worse she will learn to flush!!!! I had a cat that did that when I was a kid... he thought it was fun! He batted at it all day long!

Personally I think you should just give her 2 litter boxes and quit the toilet training. Cats own things by smell. The litter box smell is a major cat ownership thing. Since litter boxes are so institutional you are basically asking her to not pee/poo like a cat! It has to be stressing your poor baby out.

 

[Meyharu Lee]

Thank you everyone for your responses and opinions ^^ I will definitely do my best to make it easier for her


The cat flushing the toilet for fun...oh that sounds like something she would do lolol! Luckily for us it's too hard to press the button on its own so i'm glad she won't have to learn to do that haha!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

~mutters darkly~ Don't bet on that. Cats have a way of figuring things out, even difficult ones. Hekitty can open every door in my house, including the ones with round knobs (I have no clue how). I have to keep my deadbolts locked when I am not in the living room to watch her. She won't run off, she just sits in the door and watches everything, but it doesn't do the electric bill any good, and OH the bugs that come in!

 

[danteshuman]

Is hekitty short for hellkitty?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

LOL, no, but it should be. It is actually a play on words. She is named for the Greek goddess, Hekate, and she's a kitty, so...

 

[danteshuman]

Awwwww sweet name All this time in every post I thought it was hellkitty. I feel your pain I have a punk to ... luckily he can't open round door knobs yet and has no interest in the toilet. I love my punk to pieces I just wish sometimes he was less of a pain.

 

[basscat]

How to train a bobcat to use the toilet:
Step 1) Leave the lid open

 

[sargon]

LOL, no, but it should be. It is actually a play on words. She is named for the Greek goddess, Hekate, and she's a kitty, so...

Heh. Goddes named cats are always difficult aren't they?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Yep. We mold their fuzzy little psyches.