Expert: Brandy - 2/27/2007

Question
Hello Brandy and thank you for taking the time to answer my question!
An acquaintance mentioned that her cat had been trained to use the toilet (a regular home toilet!) for its bathroom needs.  Is that possible?  (I thought the cat had to fulfill the urge to "scrape and bury" and would be frustrated if it couldn't.)
If it IS possible, can you recommend a book or website where it is discussed?  (My mother, who is elderly, has a very dear cat that she's quite attached to but is finding it difficult to lift the litter box, empty it and refill it; and lives in an area where it is unsafe for the cat to be outside (coyotes!).
Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
William

Answer
I once was sitting in our spare room which has a half bath attached, and heard the sound of 'tinkling', only to look back to see my only stud boy sitting quite solemnly on the toilet seat, going #1. He even had the good sense to keep his lovely long tail out of the toilet. When he was done, he calmly jumped off the seat and walked away. He kept this up until we moved to our present home and he hasn't found any of the toilets to his liking.

He never was taught this by me or hubby, nor have any of the other cats caught on.

I have heard of articles about training your cat to use the toilet, and when I Googled 'training your cat to use the toilet, I got 1,170,000 hits. And if I'm not mistaken, there is actually a type of toilet seat cover that you can purchase a toilet cover and program: http://www.litterkwitter.com/en/index.php

As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to look into this program, too (I hate changing the litterboxes, too).

Good luck, and let me know if it works!