Give it a try!!
I was midway through potty training my cats and it was going very well but then I got pg so stopped being in charge of litter. (And DH didn't have the patience to continue). It actually was quite easy! We have two cats.
Our cats were only a year or two old. We only had one toilet and we had a TINY bathroom with NO space so I'm surprised, looking back that I was willing to give it a go. But I hate litter boxes THAT much! I plan to start over once I'm not BFing.
I'm not sure how it would work if you have one cat using litter and the other training because the training cat could just go use the other cat's litter, right? But it is worth a try!
First, supplies:
1. you need flushable litter
2. you need a litter box with specific qualities for training - it must fit in your toilet without falling in and it must be easy to cut through. I used those aluminium roasting pans that people use once to cook a turkey, for instance, and then toss. They fit perfectly in my toilet - the rim of the pan held it in place on the toilet rim. And the pan was easy to cut through. And they were cheap so if I made a mistake I could toss and start again.
3. you need something to put the litter box on to keep it steady and then to raise it up off the ground. You start on the ground and slowly raise the box, in incriments, until it is at toilet seat level. We had just gotten married and had recieved gifts packed in large styrofoam blocks. I used these blocks and cut a large round hole in the middle of one to hold the litter box (those roasting pans aren't very sturdy so it needed support on the sides) I used first one block, then more to raise the litter off the floor, and hold it steadily enough so that the cats felt safe perched up there.
How we did it:
Take every step SLOWLY. Make a small change and then let the cat adjust for at least a week no matter how small the change seems to you. If there are any accidents, that's a sign that you made a change too big or too soon. Go back a step, allow the cat to adjust for an even longer period and then try again. Also, stay on top of making sure the toilet is left the same way every time you use it (if you are sharing toilets) and make sure you check the litter OFTEN and clean it the minute the cat goes. You'll be reducing the amount of litter so there won't be much to hide anything under and the cat won't like that!
OK, so step-by-step, here's what we did:
- get your cats adjusted to flushable litter first. Then place your regular litter box next to the toilet. Allow time for the cats to get used to the litter (if new) and position of box (if new).
- change to training litter box. Keep this new litter box at the same level on floor as old litter box was.
- raise the litter box off the floor a little. I wouldn't go all the way up to toilet seat level in one jump. I'd aim for 1/3 of the way up (so maybe 5-6 inches?) at the very most. Make sure the litter box is steady!! They won't want to perch to pee if they feel it rocking!
- each week (or longer) raise the litter pan closer to toilet seat height. Give the cats at least a week to get used to the height change each time you go up a little before moving on.
- move the litter box to the toilet. I balanced our litter pan on the rim of the toilet UNDER the seat, so raise the seat so the toilet is in man-position and balance the litter box on that rim (what is that called?) Then lower the seat onto the litter because the weight of the seat holds the litter box firmly in place. Does that make sense?
- slowly reduce the amount of litter used. You can still have some litter in there, but not a ton. You want the cat slowly to get used to having less stuff to move around the pan because eventually in this process (once you start cutting a hole) the litter will start falling into the toilet so you won't be able to keep much in the pan anyway. Even though it is flushable, you don't want huge clumps of it falling in the toilet and clogging it!
- cut a hole in the bottom of the litter pan, right in the middle. Start small! Just a 1/2 inch hole or so at first. You want to go very slow in how large your hole gets because I think this is a big change for the cat! Still put litter in there, but obviously not a ton because it will just fall thru the hole. But a little litter satisfies the cat's very strong urge to scrape at something.
- each week make your hole just a little larger. Be on the lookout for signs your cat doesn't like how big the hole is getting and be ready to go back to a smaller hole for a while if need-be. The idea here is to give your cat plenty of time to get used to the idea that as s/he scratches around, the litter etc is falling in the hole. Go very slow!
- eventually as the hole gets bigger your cat will start to learn to avoid slipping a paw in the hole, and then avoid falling IN the hole, and then the cat will start to balance on the toilet seat itself rather than stepping IN the litter pan (you can see why this process should go slow, no cat would enjoy falling IN the toilet!)
- at some point your cat should be balancing entirely on the toilet seat and your hole in your pan gets so big there's no point in having the pan there anyway. (I really can't say how this part happens, we stopped right about when our pan hole was maybe three inches in diameter. So I'm not sure how the cats would have taken to the final steps.)
That's it!
Really, up until the point we stopped at, it was easy. Just go slow! Our cats were already balancing most of their paws on the toilet seat. Writing all this is making me want to start it again now!!
At one point I took a step too far or too soon and one of our cats pooped on the floor next to the toilet in protest. But we backed up just one step and gave them a long, long time with no changes and then continued with no further protests.
As I said, we did it with only one toilet in our apartment. But if you have more than one toilet, and if you can do it, I recommend designating one toilet as JUST the cat's toilet. At least during the training process!
