Automatic Litterbox Central

I've been working on training my two cats (Gyzmo & Toby) for a couple months now. I am using a hanging flower planter as my "litter bowl". I started with lots of litter and gradually got it down to just a bit, which is when I started opening the hole in the bottom of the planter. So now Toby will go just fine with no litter (I think he actually aims for the hole!), but Gyzmo has reverted back. He has started going on the floor, on my futon chair, on the cat bed... he just won't seem to go in the toilet anymore (he was doing fine when there was just a little litter left). I tried to go back a step and give him more litter for a while, and that worked until I lowered the litter level again. I don't know what else to do to get him to go in there and not the furniture! Someone PLEASE HELP!
-poobear

I sympathize with you regarding the furniture. Milo seems to think the world is his litterbox. He does use the toilet. When he feels like it! I didn't even teach him, he just hopped up there one day and peed. I was overjoyed. Then I found out he was peeing anywhere he happened to be! We have been fighting ever since. I did train my 2 girl cats when they were babies and one of them insisted on there being a little bit of litter present or she would not use the toilet. Hmmm. Kind of defeats the purpose. They ended up going back to the litterbox with an occasional trip to the toilet. Are you praising your cat with lots of 'good girl/boy' after they go in the toilet? My cats are totally tuned in to that 'good boy/girl' thing. They like the pets and attention they get that goes with it. I think they wait til I am around to do things just to get their atta cats. I have to follow Milo around practically to make sure he doesnt go somewhere inappropriate. I now use the litter robot and will use it the rest of my life. The cats like it and use it. Even milo, after he has sniffed every grain of litter in it. He still uses the toilet too, when it suits him.

You have to be super diligent with toilet training=during and after. And patient. I suspect the cats that use the toilet, do so just for the approval they get from their human and probably go elswhere when left alone. Grrr I would have a backup system in place and not count on they using the toilet all of the time. Sorry I couldnt offer you any hope. I've been down that road and it dead ends.

PooBear - I wish I could help, but I'm having pretty much the same problem. My two cats and I are in the middle of toilet training. We started in mid-March and it's the end of May. They go in a metal bowl with a cup or so of litter in it, placed in the toilet basin and the lid holds it in place. I'd been reducing the amount of litter down to about 1/2 cup, then last weekend I took all the litter away and put a bit of water in the metal bowl. They did NOT like that! They held it all day until, fearing an accident, I dumped out the water and put some litter back in the bowl. The next day I tried again with no litter and no water. So I came home to find poop in the bathtub and poop on my nice rug from Macy's. RRRGH!!! (I hear it's recommended to use enzymatic cleaner on that so they won't try to poo in the same spot again).

So we're backing up a stage and will just do litter in the bowl for a while until things are status quo. But I have no idea how we're supposed to advance at this point. If they just plain don't like the water and insist on litter...?!?! I live alone and work full time so I can't be there all day long to instantly pick up pee and poop. I was very optimistic about training - some people must have more cooperative cats because they made it sound so easy. I'm not giving up...yet, but this is very discouraging.

BTW, they are both sweet and really like the food treats, also being brushed, so there is some incentive there for them when they go in the toilet.

Hello. Just came across this forum, looking online for auto type litter boxes. Thinking that I might have to go back to a litter box for my 2 kittens. Anyway, I am training them to use the toilet. They are sisters and have both taken to using it for peeing. One will poop on the floor close to the toilet. The other has mastered both.
This is what I did. I took a Fresh Step bucket (I think it was 28lb size) and cut it to fit inside the toilet so the lid, when down would touch the top, to keep it in place. It sits higher than the water in the bowl and is easy to take out. (Using the bucket is after getting them to jump up on the seat to use). Fill the bucket with about 4 inches of litter (first used clumping, Fresh Step and would have to scoop out and toss in garbage, then changed to flushable type and scoop out and flush now. Just lift bucket and flush.) Taught them the 2 positions needed and they soon enough were peeing from the seat. The pee position is easier to master first from seat. Cut down on the level of litter when they were pooping from the seat too. When there is a covering of litter, cut a small hole in the middle of the bottom of the bucket. There is an indentation in the manufacturing of the Fresh Step bucket, so make the hole slightly larger than the indentation (about 2"). Keep the litter scattered in the bucket, avoiding the hole. One kitten didn't mind it and continued to pee and poop in the bucket. This is when the other one started to poop on the floor. So I soon went back to a bucket without the hole. She is still pooping on the floor, seems like she needs the 4 inches of litter to poop in the bucket. So this is where we are. Trying to decide to continue or not. I would like to since one has mastered it so far and other is half way there. The idea of the hole is to slowly increase the size of it until they are going directly into the hole. Then you could try to remove the bucket completely. Even with it being 2" they were peeing into it. That was great since I didn't have to clean out the bucket as much. BUT, I haven't gotten to the step of removing the bucket. Hope this will help in your final steps.

Just started yesterday with the Litter Kwitter. It is very sturdy so at least that's good. One of my two cats had peed in it last night so I'm hoping for no accidents when I get home today. Will try to keep ya'll posted on the progress.

8/18/09: Younger cat has been doing great with the Litter Kwitter and I believe if she was my only cat she'd be fully trained by now as she is very docile and not picky about bathroom things.
Older cat (4 1/2 years) had been peeing in ring 2 (out of 5 rings) of the Litter Kwitter but did not want to poop there - he pooped on the floor next to the toilet every day instead. I believe he did not like the Swheat Scoop flushable litter which I had to use as the 2nd ring of the LK has a hole in it and some litter goes in the toilet (so you can't use clay litter after you move on from the first ring).
SO - after consulting a professional animal trainer friend, we have moved back a step. I put the 1st ring of the LK back on the toilet and am back to (temporarily) using clay litter until the older cat gets with the program. As soon as he saw the litter he liked was back, he jumped up there and went poop. So the plan is to do this for a couple weeks with no changes so he makes it a habit and then sloooooowly transition to the Swheat Scoop litter over a period of a couple/three weeks with ring #1. If he can deal with that for a couple weeks after that point, then we'll try moving back to ring #2. But for now I'm just happy to have him not going on the floor. Disgusting.
Younger cat is not picky about the new (old?) arrangement and is going just fine. (good kitty!)

If anyone is reading this and needs tips, let me suggest strongly: take things very very slowly and the second your cat balks, go back a step to where they were performing successfully. I didn't want to back up because I was irritated at the cat for not getting it, did not want to throw the well-behaved cat off her training, and did not want to have to buy MORE litter. But they're animals and I guess this is what has to be done. Anyway, I'm still optimistic that patience and positive reinforcement will win out. It's been almost five months but even if it takes five more months, I consider it time well spent if someday we are litter-free!

Just my two cents:
We started out with a Cat Genie but were grossed out when we would get the occasional "baking brownie"- see the CG forum for this- so I decided to try the toilet training thing. Started with the Feline evolution which was a great transition from floor to seat but abandoned it when we got the stage where you are supposed to use the shower cap liners (this made no sense to me or the cat) then switched to the Kitty whiz. With this we got down to a sprinkle of litter in the last ring with Kitty pooing and peeing straight into the water. She never seemed to mind peeing but I think she was only pooping to make me happy- would set herself up the the position to poo but then look around sadly and reposition- it would take a while for her to finally be able to settle in and go and she never looked real happy about it, even when she got her treat.
Then has a major setback when she got sick all of a sudden with cysitis (crystals in the pee tearing up the inside of her bladder) and was jumping up to pee every 5 minutes. (this is when it became impossible to giver her a treat everytime she went- wherein I think she started to get dismotivated). Took her to the vet who told us to switch from dry food (Spot's Stew sensitive) to wet. At that point she started pooping on the floor next to the toilet. By placing a gauntlet of objects around the toilet and backing up with a new Kitty Whiz and more litter, I got her back to pooing in the potty, but her frequency really dropped off and I was afraid of the consequesnces of her holding it (which is what I suspect may have contributed to her cystitis). Finally I decided to giver her a break and return to the Genie. Did some research on cat nutrition and made the leap to a BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet which ade a world of difference. Poop no longer has the incredistink it had before and is smaller in volume and suprisingly dry. No more problems with soft poo defeating the Genie and now everyone in the house is happy. Would definately recommend BARF - check out http://www.catnutrition.org/index.php. Its a pain but if you're the kind of person who would take on toilet training a cat- you can handle it.
Cat Genie, although not perfect, is pretty good and just easier for the cat. I imagine that the other automatic boxes would work well for a BARF fed cat as well.

i have just started with citikitty training kit... the problem is..now my cat wont go at all..i took the litterbox away last night after setting up citikitty...did everyone elses cats take to it right away? His litter box has been raised for the last few months...