Animals

There are tons of great resources on the web for learning how to toilet train your cat and that is exactly where I turned when my family brought our latest edition home from the breeder. So, we are just beginning the process of trying to toilet train Giggles (kids named our kitten Giggles), but I’ll keep you updated on our progress. For now, here are the resources I came across in my search:

WebSites/Blogs:

http://www.karawynn.net/mishacat/toilet.html – Karawynn Long is a designer (and writer) that lives in Seattle. She published this excellent article that talks about easing your cat onto the toilet which just makes a lot of sense. It’s a simple concept that just takes patience but is what we are going to try first with Giggles.
http://www.wikihow.com/Toilet-Train-Your-Cat – WikiHow has an entry for toilet training your cat and again stresses the importance of patience. They also mention that having a separate toilet to dedicate to the cat is certainly helpful.
http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com/Mingus/cat_training.html – Charles Mingus is one of the most important figures in twentieth century American music and an amazing bass player. He put together this quick and simple set of instructions for toilet training a cat.
http://www.petsdo.com/blog/how-toilet-train-your-cat – PetsDo.com is a resource for all pet owners. They actually sell a system for toilet training your cat. It looks pretty interesting, but their step-by-step instructions have definite value even if you don’t opt for the kit (I’m not going to get it unless my kit-less approach doesn’t work, but you already know that).
http://cats.about.com/od/litterboxproblems/a/toilet_training.htm – About.com is a great resource for just about anything you want to learn about. They have a great article here on litter training versus toilet training that deserves some consideration.
YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I79-BnwbE_g – Another video of going from the litter box to the toilet with common household items and no kits. This is actually the video to accompany Karawynn Long’s website. It’s great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p943wK0tSWQ – How to Toilet Train Your Cat offers everything you need to know to toilet train your own cat in your own home. No fancy gadgets or programs to purchase. It’s 5 minutes and well worth a watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4wka4aKtZE – How to Potty Train Your Cat – shows you how to get your cat to take care of their business on the potty (it’s pretty humorous too). Just to warn you, they are selling a kit but you can at least leverage the concepts (the kit is pretty cool).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFc7h3UpER4 – Learn How to Toilet Train Your Cat – really shows different cats doing their business more than anything and is sort of gross from that perspective. However, at this point any ideas are helpful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTvJrlgOyeg – Teaching Cats How to Use the Toilet uses a slightly different approach with different equipment but is fairly similar to Karawynn’s approach. It is really a mixture of all of the above.
Okay, I’m not sure I can handle too much more of the websites and videos. I am going to just have to begin this adventure myself with Giggles and see how far I can get without going crazy. I think the challenge is really for us humans to have enough patience to get through the whole process without caving in and going back to the standard litter box and pooper scooper. Thanks for bearing with me while I shared this with you if any of you can offer some advice please leave a comment below. Thank you!