On Labor Day weekend, 2007, I brought home two cute 3-month old female Devon Rex kittens. Tanya (TAN-ya) and Chanel. This was my first time living with cats, so I prepared with books for dummies and how-to manuals. During my readings, I came across books and websites about toilet training. Yes, you teach your cat to use the toilet! I was intrigued and read multiple strategies to train my kitties to poop in the commode. The process can take anywhere from 4 weeks to a year!! It was still early, and all sources advised to wait until 6 months of age.
So I waited. In the mean time, I learned how annoying litter can be. I got the automatic LitterMaid Elite Mega Advanced Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box which scoops the poop every time the kitties go. I got it lightly used from a craigslist.org posting. It was worth the money and I didn't become too much of a slave to the litter box. Even though I didn't have the burden of all day scooping, I started noticing that litter traveled. I saw little litter granules beyond the laundry room (original location of the litter box). I 'd see it track out from the laundry room door and occasionally see a granule or two on the kitchen floor or on the couch. I know cats are clean animals, but litter granules on the couch can't be very sanitary.
So, as they started pushing their 6th month of life (Tanya was 6 months, Chanel was 5 1/2 months), I decided to start their training to use the toilet. I love my kitties, but I hate the litter. They are super smart, so I think they will pick it up quickly.
I'm writing this blog on Tanya, Chanel, and the Toilet so you can keep up with their (and my) daily progress (or lack thereof). I am by no means an expert. But you can see pictures and watch the brief videos that chronicle their status and the methods I've used.
You can start from Day 1 by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
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This is a video update on how things are going.
She almost gets it, but then changes her mind and requires an intervention.
Sometimes she will stay in the right position and go properly. But I don't know what happened this time. She must have known I was recording her and wanted to give you guys an interesting show :) Tanya was standing by the door and distracted her a little--that's when she looked up and moved to a different spot.
But this is closer than we were before! It's still better than a litter box, that's for sure!
5 comments:
You're getting there! Its still amazing that you'll get that far. I don't think I could ever live without my box walls to pretend scrape at.
Chase
You're wise to keep the girls on amber long enough for them to *really get it*. We have spent two weeks on each disc, including the inter-amber. Now we're almost two weeks into the inter-green, and I'm not going to change it until I see more wastes going into the hole than onto the disc.
Yes, they are progressing more consistently with the LK than with our home-brews. I think the ridges on the floor of the discs, even the red one, are just uncomfortable enough that they avoid standing on them. Mist certainly didn't get it about standing on the rim until we got the LK! My only reservation about starting TT with the LK is that it's not very deep. My two felt better with deep litter than shallow litter when we first got started.
Your cats look so great in their harnesses! They are progressing on several projects. I look forward to getting mine to accept the harness for longer than 5 minutes....
Way to go! It looks like she's almost there.
Tell us more! Are they still on amber, or have you made the big leap to intergreen?
Aww she is so sweet!
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