Potty Training Your Cat

We’ve all heard legends about toilet-trained cats. Most famously in the hit comedy Meet the Parents , potty trained cats are one of life’s little mysteries. After all, cats act so smart; we just know that they could use the toilet if they wanted to. Maybe that explains why toilet trained cats have become an underground national obsession, with countless websites and several books published on the subject. So how do you go about actually potty training your cat? The good news is that, at least according to the experts, any cat can be potty trained; it doesn’t have to be a kitten. It may be an easier process with younger cats, but theoretically a cat of any age can make the transition from litter box to toilet.

And that’s exactly what it is: a transition. While different successful owners give different advice, most seem to agree that you’ll end up using a series of small steps to potty train your cat. The most important thing to emphasize when potty training your cat is that you can’t spook Kitty. If your cat regresses and pees on the floor, that means that you are pushing Kitty’s comfort level too far too fast. Depending how amenable your cat is to change, you’ll probably want to wait a couple days to a week before moving on to the next phase of the process. That said, here’s a step-by-step basic guide to potty training your cat:

Step 1: Move Kitty’s litter box next to the toilet. Obviously, close the bathroom door for your own privacy, but at all other times keep the door open. Keep the seat of the toilet down but keep the lid up.

Step 2: Begin raising the litter box. This sounds weird, I know. Put books or blocks under the box, raising it about an inch or two at a time. Make sure that you’re not using anything too slippery that the box could slide off of. Repeat this step until the bottom of the box is at the same height as the toilet lid.

Step 3: Move the litter box over so that it sits on top of the toilet seat. Of course, move it when you use the bathroom. Take away the stack of phonebooks. Kitty should continue using the litter box on its new throne.

Step 4: This is the magic part! Go out and buy a metal mixing bowl that has the same diameter as the widest part (the top) of your toilet bowl. Then, fit the mixing bowl under the toilet seat (lower the seat after) and fill the bowl with 2”-3” of litter. Now (gasp!) take away the litter box!!

Step 5: This might be trickiest part. Try to catch your cat using the toilet. See what kind of stance Kitty is using. How many feet are on the seat vs. how many feet in the bowl? If your cat has feet in the bowl, physically lift them and place them on the toilet seat. If Kitty puts them back in, then you put them right back out. How long this takes and how quickly the behavior “sets” is, of course, subject to your cat’s nature. Ideally, your potty trained cat should have its back feet on the side of the rim and its front feet on the front of the rim.

Step 6: Begin decreasing the amount of litter in the mixing bowl. This might make Kitty unhappy since it will begin to smell more, so try to dump it as quickly as possible. The cat may instinctively try to cover up the mess with non-existent litter and end up making a bigger mess, so try to be diligent about this (and if you’ve gotten this far, you are diligent.)

Step 7: Substitute water: When there is no more litter left in the bowl, add about 1/2 inch of water. Depending on your cat’s comfort level, keep increasing the level until you hit approximately 2”. Ta-dah! Now you’re ready to go. Remove the bowl, and consider the mystery of potty training your cat solved!

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