Toilet-train your cat!

Stage 3: Introducing the Water

This is the stage that's usually the trickiest for most cats — introducing kitty to the water in the toilet bowl. If your cat is anything like the majority of cats, then water is probably not her friend.

For this stage, remove the roasting pan from the toilet, dump out the litter, and get out a pair of scissors. The key here is to introduce the water very, very slowly by cutting the smallest of holes in the pan. Later, we'll gradually enlarge the hole, but for now, we want it to be small enough that your cat won't get spooked... this step will probably be one of the toughest for your cat. Assuming you don't work weekends, try to do this on a Friday night, because you'll want to be around for the next couple of days to monitor kitty's reaction at this stage.

The size of the hole that you should start with will depend on your cat. If your cat has been handling all of the changes so far without batting an eyelash, doesn't show any signs of hesitation and is using the toilet according to her usual schedule, then you can start with a relatively large hole — 1" x 1" or even bigger. On the other hand, if your cat has shown reluctance to previous changes, you may want to start off with a pencil-sized hole, so that she might not even notice it at first. Slowly enlarge that pencil-sized hole to a 1" x 1" hole as your cat gets more comfortable with it.

If you're starting with a 1" x 1" hole or larger, make sure you don't cut away the excess aluminum; instead, cut the roasting pan so that you can bend the excess aluminum like a flap. The flap will serve as our litter "dam" to help block the litter from being pushed into the toilet by your cat. It won't prevent all of the litter from ending up in the toilet, but it'll help. This is important, especially as we enlarge the hole, because without the litter dam, your cat might paw all of the litter into the toilet before she's even ready to go — and then refuse to go because there's no litter left!

Where should the hole go?
Start the hole at one end of the toilet. Don't cut the hole right in the middle of the pan, otherwise we won't be able create the litter dam without seriously complicating our litter box contraption. Plus, it'll be easier for your cat to adjust to the hole if it's not smack dab in the middle of her pooping grounds, never mind the big scary pool of water right below! (More on this in a moment.)

Start the hole in the front of the pan, or in the back?
As you enlarge the hole in the roasting pan, your cat will automatically aim for the litter portion of the pan, and try her best to avoid going into the hole. Her litter "box" will get smaller and smaller, and as that happens, your cat will be forced to start putting her paws on the toilet seat. First, she'll start with one of her front paws on the seat, then both front paws; then, as the litter pan gets too small for her hind legs, she'll put one hind leg on the seat, then finally, all four paws on the seat.

The upshot of this is, if you start the hole at the front of the pan (towards the front of the toilet), your cat will gradually be pushed towards the back of the toilet as you enlarge the hole. (She'll naturally position herself this way to make sure her poops land in the litter.) When the hole gets small enough, she'll put her front paws on the back of the toilet seat, doing her business facing the toilet tank.

Conversely, if you start with the hole at the back of the roasting pan, the opposite will occur: she'll be forced to inch towards the front of the toilet as the hole gets bigger, thereby learning to face forward when the training process is over.

With this in mind, start with the hole at the back of the toilet, and get your cat to face forward. Here's why:

• Freedom of paw placement. If your cat faces forward, she'll have more space to experiment with paw positioning. On the other hand, if she faces the back of the toilet, the seat lid and toilet tank would be right in her face and would get in her way, restricting her options for paw placement.
• Splash-back. Splash-back is the enemy of toilet training. Splash-back occurs when a #2 falls into the toilet and hits the water with a splash, causing the unfortunate pooper's bum to get wet. Humans don't like splash-back, and it's a good bet that cats don't like it much either.

If we teach our cats to poop facing the front of the toilet, their stools will land in the shallow end of the toilet bowl, minimizing the amount of splash-back on their bums. (Take a look inside your toilet — you'll notice the depth of the water in the front of the bowl is shallower than in the back.) This is the primary reason for teaching cats to use the toilet facing forward instead of backward: if they're splashed with water every time they go #2, it won't be long before they find a less traumatic place to do their business!

Teaching a cat to face the back of the toilet isn't without its merits, however. The nice thing about it is that it introduces kitty to the water more gradually by exposing the shallow end of the toilet bowl first. In fact, depending on your toilet, if you cut that first hole in the front of the pan, you probably won't even expose any water at all. Give this method a try if your cat has proven herself to be extremely adverse to water, or if she's been slow to catch on to the toilet training changes thus far, or if she's just reluctant to go with the hole in the back of her litter pan.

Bridging the transition from Stage 2 to Stage 3

Enlarge the hole to reveal the water only when you're certain that kitty is completely comfortable with the existing setup. When the hole is big enough and she's used to seeing the water, you can reverse the roasting pan so that the hole is at the back of the toilet. It shouldn't be too confusing for your cat; she'll most likely be able to figure out how to reposition herself to face the front of the toilet.