toilet-training cats

So back to the start again.

I bought another tray and made a very small hole in it.

Unfortunately, Joey's rare bout with urinary tract crystal formation resurfaced a few days ago. I got that sorted out but what surprised me the most was the fact that despite his need to go to the toilet every 15 minutes or so for about 3 days straight, he still used the tray! Impressive.

So now he's fine again (I'm glad, that crystal thing can kill male cats in less than 24 hours. It would have been ironic to lose him to a stupid crystal formation problem rather than to the fall he took from our 4th floor flat window, which he survived with a mere graze!) we are back to the toilet-training.

read more

Hello folks,

So I managed to get another tray. I've filled it up with litter and put it on the toilet bowl under the toilet seat. I showed Phoebe where it is and she peed in it straight away.

Good.

Joey's carrying on as usual, ones and twos without a fuss. So he gets lots of praise. Phoebe got some too when she used the new tray.

So the plan now is to take it at a snail's pace. I'm going to leave it a couple of weeks just to make sure they are both used to it, more for Phoebe's sake.

read more

Well Phoebe is really getting bad now. I really thought she was the smarter of the two. Obviously not.

She's made it a new habit of peeing and pooing under the couch in the same spot when I'm asleep.

I had her in the bathroom for ages last night trying to show her where to go. I even made her watch Joey performing to see if it would encourage her. I keep putting her on the tray but she's either not getting it or being deliberately evasive and ignorant to my encouraging actions.

read more

Hi guys,

Here's where I am with the toilet training. Last night I widened the hole in the litter tray so now it's about an inch and a half in diameter.

All seems to be progressing swimmingly, with Joey and Phoebe depositing successfully as if nothing had ever been any different!

I have also decreased the amount of litter in the tray now to just a baby handful of granules. There are two reasons for this:

read more