Here at The Gadgeteer, some of the cat fanciers on the team have reviewed four different automated cat litter gadgets. First there was the ScoopFree, then the CatGenie, then the CatGenie 120 and just recently, the Litter Robot. Each one of these systems have their good points, but they all require you to purchase consumables for them. Either litter, cleaners or both. I have no problem dealing with that, but am wondering if any of you ever consider training your cat use your own toilet instead of a litter box? If you’re not completely grossed out by the prospect (like I am), you might want to consider the Litter Kwitter system. Warning, there’s a video as soon as you hit their site.
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I actually used a program/product like that. I have 2 cats and they both used it for a few weeks. But as the hole got larger the cats decided that it would be so much easier/better to just crap on my carpet. End of testing.
Jim T
We tried multiple systems like this for months. Our cats had trouble adjusting, and we’re back to a litter box.
On the plus side, due to urine and fecal issues we got an excuse to get new furn furniture, bedding, etc.
*rolls eyes*
Doesn’t work particularly well. All available anecdata (=Google) suggests that cats are intelligent enough to learn to use the toilet, but that because water-based waste management doesn’t map onto natural cat behaviour the same way as burying, the first time the cat hits a ‘roadblock’ of illness or discomfort or social discomfort (like a new person or pet added to the household) it’ll go right back to normal cat behaviour. Probably somewhere annoying-to-humans.
Kittens merely weeks old learn from their mums to bury their waste, and the ‘learning’ is probably mapping onto instinctive behaviour. You’ve got a long way to go if you’re trying to hot-wire the feline brain to fit human ‘convenience/s’.
This looks like a solid training kit, albeit unnecessary. You can “make” the same kit with an aluminum basting pan and cut your own holes. The key is to do the process SLOWLY. The steps should take months sometimes – EACH. If you forgot when you last changed from the previous step, then you can probably move to the next step. I’ve trained my cats for the last 21 years (currently have 4 cats that do it). It CAN take over 1 year to do it, but if you weigh this out with the average lifespan of a cat, you’ll come out ahead. Think of the savings in litter alone!
And to the author of this article, do you find it grosser to have your cat using the toilet than scooping cat feces & urine out of a stinky litter box? Hey, if it really grosses you out, give them their own bathroom!
@anthony The idea of my cat sitting on my toilet seat doing his biz grosses me out because I think about the possibility of him sprinkling when he’s tinkling or leaving a dingle berry on the seat or something like that. I would feel like I would need to clean the toilet seat everytime I would want use it. And actually my cat has his own bathroom… His CatGenie (which btw, I don’t have to scoop) is in our spare bathroom that rarely gets used by humans. 🙂