Can you toilet train a cat?

My cat will not step into the litter box when he uses it. He perches all 4 feet on the side of it! I was thinking how I wish I could get him to do that on the toilet instead. I know I've heard of cats being toilet trained but has anyone here actually done it?

I haven't done it myself, but I've seen videos of cats doing it online. I suppose it can be done, but I've never tried to train an older cat before. Our cats are approximately 3-4 years old now, so I don't know how much luck we would have getting them to do this. The other thing is I'm not sure if I would like them doing this either. On one hand it would be convenient, but on the other hand, what if you had guests over and the cat stopped in and left a "present" before one of your guests used the restroom.

Cats are funny aren't they with all their little mannerisms. I have never had a cat do that, but yes I did see it online. I used to mostly encourage my cats to go outside when they needed to go, we had a cat door for them to get in and out, however at night time I would put out litter and keep them inside. I never had one that would perch on the side of the litter box. That being said you can teach cats to do certain things, it just takes time and patience and it is a lot more difficult than training a dog.

For example my cat used to catch a lot of mice and insisted on playing with them, letting them go and catching them again, however sometime he really let the mouse go. I did not want that so I began to take the mouse away from my cat and killed the mouse myself and disposing it in the garbage, he did not take long to learn that if he was not going to kill or eat the mouse, he would lose it. It worked, he started eating them. We lived on a farm and there were mice everywhere, and the last place I wanted them was in the house so it was a little game between us for a few weeks. But he was excellent at catching them, if one was stupid enough to come out from behind the stove or fridge where they hid, my cat never missed.

We keep some plastic store bags near our litter box, to scoop the litter into when disposing it. Our one cat has this whole ritual where she will pull several of the bags out and cover the whole litter box, then knead the bags into the litter to completely cover it all. It's hilarious watching her do it, because she looks like she is doing something very habitually and with a specific purpose - like she knows what she's doing. If she see's you watching her do it, she will stop and look at you like, "what? don't mind me..."

I have heard of people doing it and having success with it but no one that I know personally, but I know Jinxie could do it ;-)

LOL this question reminded me of one of my FAVORITE movies: Meet The Parents. I know it's an older movie but if you have not seen it, you have got to watch it! It is sooo funny!

I won't go into too much detail about the movie and spoil it for the ones who haven't seen it, but there is a scene in the movie where the cat (Jinxie) uses the toilet and actually flushes it. In doing so, a plumbing issue floods the entire backyard just in time for the backyard wedding that was supposed to take place that particular weekend.

The incident gets blamed on Greg Focker (the guy who is "meeting the parents") It just continues to get worse and keeps going downhill from there with several other hilarious mishaps in the movie.

I also heard about that. However, honestly I gave up to train my cat to do so.

It would be wonderful, and hilarious, to see my cats go to the toilet. Fortunately, I don't have any problems with my cats using the litterbox, and they mostly go outside to do their business. Besides, being 4 people in the household with only 2 toilets, having to wait for the cats finishing on the toilet would probably bring more irritation than relaxation. Hehe.

They can!

My brother has trained both of his Siamese cats to use the toilet. He uses a system similar to the CitiKitty one, where you cover the toilet bowl with a removable kitty litter tray so the cat gets used to the positioning it needs to use over the bowl. Eventually you get rid of the litter portion and the cat simply uses the toilet.

Obviously it takes a little time, so you have to be patient. Also you will have to remove the litter portion if and when you need to use that toilet yourself. But I have seen the cats do it, so I know for a fact it is not a myth!

Neither of them know how to flush, but his toilet does not have a handle for that, so I don't blame the cats

It is extremely difficult to train a cat. What you are succeeding in doing is putting him through a lot of anxiety. Leave him alone. Don't try to make him human. Let him be.

(09-26-2013 12:50 AM)oltltli Wrote:  It is extremely difficult to train a cat. What you are succeeding in doing is putting him through a lot of anxiety. Leave him alone. Don't try to make him human. Let him be.

Cats are actually not particularly hard to train. After all, if your cat uses a litter box now that is only because you trained them to do so. There are no plastic boxes full of pleasantly scented gravel in the wild

You just need to remember that their attention spans are shorter than a dogs, so you get fewer repetitions in each training session.

Have you tried putting your cats paws in his litter box and just let him stand there a while in there with the littler on his paws? If not, try that and it might work that he goes to the litter box. That's how they come to believe that they own the litter. Also keep the box in the same spot all the time. Cats get anxeity when the litter box is moved...If you are moving the box, you might have to retrain them for them to get used to the transition. I hope that this helps.

As far as cats being toilet trained, I haven't done it myself, but I know someone who did. They do have to be comfortible with the litter for you to toilet train them.

I've heard of this, and yes it can be done. It does take a lot of work though. One part of the process is actually putting a small litter box into the bowl of the toilet, and showing them that it's there. Most cats will eventually do it, I've seen it. Each cat will take a different amount of time to adjust and some just wont do it at all.

I have not ever tried toilet training a cat nor have I known anyone that has tried nor been successful with this idea but I do get the idea of it because it sounds like a problem solver. A person with multiple cats or even if it is just one would not have to worry about the smells that litter boxes hold and keep around in a house but I suppose that you would have many other problems to deal with after that.

It is completely possible to toilet train a cat. However, it is generally agreed upon that most cats have to be kittens at the beginning of training for it to really work. There are a number of methods for potty training cats, but here is the one that my mother used for her Maine Coon kitten (around 5 months old):

First, put the litter box right beside the toilet. Leave it here for a few days, longer if your kitten is having trouble using the litter box every time. Its important that they get that skill down first, otherwise you risk finding surprises all over your house for the rest of time.

Then, gradually raise the litter box. Put books or boxes underneath it. Phone books work great. Keep raising the litter box until the stack is the same height as the toilet seat. Over the course of a month to a week, slowly move the litter box over the seat. Move it by about an inch or two at a time.

Obviously, you can move the box when you use the bathroom yourself, but make sure to put it back right away. Otherwise, your kitten is likely to get confused.

Once you've got the box directly over the seat and your kitten is adjusted, remove the box completely, and toss some litter into the bowl. You may have to go back and forth for a bit putting the litter box on the seat if your cat has trouble adjusting.


I'm not sure if this would work with an adult cat; I've only heard of kittens taking to the practice. But that doesn't mean it isnt worth a try! I'm sure to some extent it depends on the disposition of your kitty. Good luck!

I had a cat that did not like stepping on any litter I could find. I had four cats at the time. My oldest was the one I would have trouble with. She preferred using the shower floor or if she used the litter box would barely step in it, and end up peeing outside the box.

So I bought one of those kits to train them to use the toilet. One cat, my baby, did all the steps until it came to standing on the toilet, but at one point she came tearing across the room and jumped on the toilet only to find the lid was up. She has a fear of the toilet now.

The one that hated the litter box took to it right away. She was ahead of the steps, and within a few days was happily using the toilet. Unfortunately she would get on the rim, face the tank, and pee. All over the floor.

The other 2 cats were making good progress but I took down all the tools and closed the lid to keep the oldest one from peeing all over the floor.

I have no doubt that some cats can learn to use the toilet. Years ago I had a friend who had a rabbit she trained to use it.

Ours cats will go into the cat pan, but the one cat always goes into a corner of the pan not the middle like the other cat does. Also, our cat pan can't have a lid, they won't go if is has one.

My step-mothers cat, has to be first in the cat pan after it's been scooped. He'll sometimes try to get in when you're in the middle of scooping it!

We once had a cat that just started using the toilet on her own, and we don't even know how or why she did it. We think that it might have been a monkey see monkey do thing.

It all really depends on your cat.

For what it's worth, one of my friends trained her older, rescue cat to use the toilet over the course of about six weeks. They used the Citkitty system too. Now Mike is pretty good about it. He will still go in their closet if they leave the door open, but that's because he got in there one day and decided it was a fantastic place to go. Now they keep the door to their room closet shut all the time.

Of course, they've had to deal with some side effects. For instance, no more bathroom reading. Also, they need to leave the door cracked during their showers, and long soaks in the tub with the door closed are a thing of the past. They say it's worth it to not have to clean up litter boxes.

Since I have five cats, two of which are boys, I've resigned myself to having multiple litter boxes to clean. (We have four boxes.) I just can't see the system working for that many cats, and I'd rather rescue more animals and deal with the boxes than have fewer pets and try to make them use the toilet. I know others' mileage will vary!

There is a product called the Litter Kwitter that is supposed to be "guaranteed" to work. The videos are definitely amusing and like a previous post stated, it would be weird to have to wait for the cat to use the bathroom HA!

It does make sense and I would love to not ever have to clean a litter box! I think training older cats would be very difficult though because even my cats that I had, I couldn't even change the location of their boxes without them taking some sort of stand and just messing on the floor where their box used to be even after using it in the new location. Maybe mine were just awnry? :/

I guess you can. When I go to pet supplies stores, there are various equipment there that will teach a cat how to use a toilet. In fact, in an animal welfare group that I member of on Facebook, a member posted a picture of her cat using the toilet. It was rather very efficient, too! I guess that you can do this by putting the litter box on top of the toilet until the cat familiarizes itself on its location. Afterwards, you can just remove it and see if the cat will do its business directly even without the litter box there.

Of course, you can . There are few steps which can make your task easy. Please find complete instructions here http://www.petsworld.in/blog/how-to-toil...r-cat.html

I have seen pictures of cats that actually use the toilet, and seem to be very pleased doing that; but my cats have just used the litter box, when I had cats that were inside cats. We lived in the country, and often the cats just went in and outside, and we didn't need to even use a litter box because they would go to the door and meow to be let out.
I think that one thing that is VERY important to a cat is that their litterbox is clean and dry. I alwys kept the litterbox in the bathroom, and whenever I was in the room, or even noticed the cat using the litterbox; then I would clean it right away. I also scraped the litter around even when the cat had not used the box, and this allows the litter to dry out better. It also helps the bathroom to smell better when the litterbox is kept cleaned out, and the litter is changed often.