Toilet-train your cat!

Stage 2: Transitioning to the Litter Pan

Here comes the exciting part — we're going to get rid of the litter box entirely!

For this step, you'll need a roasting pan. I'm referring to the disposable pans that are made of aluminum — they're readily available at any grocery store for around two dollars. Sizes vary slightly between manufacturers, but you should be able to find one that measures around 11¾" x 9¼" x 2½". This pan is going to be where kitty does her business for the next little while.

The pan should fit in most toilet seats, even elongated ones. Lift the toilet seat and put the pan inside — you might have to apply a bit of force to get it in, and the bottom corners of the pan will likely be crushed inwards a little bit. This is fine — we want the pan to be nice and snug inside the toilet, so when kitty tromps around in her new litter pan, she'll feel nice and secure. The lip of the roasting pan should be resting more or less over the rim of the toilet bowl (although not completely, of course... we are trying to put a square object into a round hole).

Now put down the toilet seat. Because the roasting pan is now between the seat and the toilet bowl, the seat probably won't sit as flush (no pun intended) with the bowl as it normally would. To remedy this, just apply a little gentle pressure on the seat to help flatten out any irregular bumps in the roasting pan and secure our setup.

Some toilet seats have hinges that protrude out, which might interfere with the roasting pan. If your toilet seat's hinges are preventing you from putting down the seat properly, you can cut nubs in the roasting pan to give the hinges space to move up and down.

Bridging the transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2

Once she's gone #1 and #2 at least once in the clean litter in her litter box, it's time to make the transition to the roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the used litter (clean out any clumps first, of course). As unpleasant as it might be to handle used litter, the smell will help your cat identify her potty spot (and at least the litter's only been used once, so it's not quite so disgusting for you!). The smell of the used litter will provide a familiar signal to her that this is where she's supposed to go, and will help bridge the gap between litter box and litter pan. Don't overdo it with the litter — an inch of it should suffice.

With any luck, your cat will be using the roasting pan as her new litter box without fuss. Make sure you hide away her old litter box in a place where she can't find it — we don't want the presence or even the smell of the old litter box to confuse her during this stage.