This product would be 5 stars if I didn't think that it needs to have an ice cream tub, or some other pan in my toilet, McGiver-ing the thing so it works right. I researched how best to potty train my cats, and decided to try the litter kwitter, as it seemed the most sturdy. I, like other reviewers, felt that the step where the hole is first introduced was too big a step. Here are my tips that I think really help you to avoid any accidents, by creating steps that they don't tell you about that have worked for me.
After every time I made a change, either moving their cat box, or changing a ring, I waited a week at least before moving on to a new step. I originally started out by moving their cat box right up next to the toilet. I then put some phone books under it, so they had to step up to get in it. I then put their cat box on an ice chest with stuff inside to weight it down (in case they jumped into it) that made the entrance the same height as the toilet seat, so my cats would actually jump up on the seat to walk into their box (with the lid either up or down, they didn't seem to care). I then used the litter kwitter on the toilet, but did not initially take away their box, because I wanted them to learn that there were TWO places where they could do their business. These starting steps REALLY helped me, as I have a kitten whose brain hasn't quite caught up with the rest of her yet, and she isn't the fastest learner.
I was worried that she would fall through the hole once I changed to the amber ring, because she was so used to the toilet being a solid surface that she could stand on. I decided to improvise, and came up with a solution. I measured my toilet rim's interior diameter and bought a roasting pan (the aluminum ones you buy from your local grocery store.) I then drew a bunch of holes on the bottom of the pan. I decided that when I switched to the amber ring that I would place this underneath, so that if she fell in, she would not fall on the water. I also added some litter, so if she felt down there with her paw, she would realize that she could go to the bathroom in the hole, and not just on the rim, as she kept trying to do. There is nothing funnier than watching your cat play twister on your toilet trying desperately to make their poop land on that tiny ring with the litter on it.
The pan worked really well, but I realized that I could have done this from day 1, and not had to buy this system at all. I ended up just getting rid of the litter kwitter, and slowly cutting holes in the pan, starting with a very tiny hole at first. I slowly cut bigger and bigger holes, until the bottom was gone, and then I removed it completely. I really liked the pan idea, because I could have the toilet seat down. I figured that if they were going to be going with the seat down anyways, they might as well get used to balancing on it. The big con is that my older cat is a big 15 lb male cat, and when he would stand in the pan, and not on the rim, the pan would sink down, so it was more like a bowl than a pan. This was fine, as the pan's lip was big enough that as the pan warped from being bent, it did not fall in. I did use the green ring when this started happening, hoping it would help, but I ended up taking it away again because he likes to stand with his back paws INSIDE the toilet (not in the water, but still inside), even to this day. It also scratched the porcelain on the inside of my toilet rim, but I'm not too worried about it, as it's only a tiny scratch. I didn't have any problems with kitties going on the carpet, but I also took it REALLY slow.
The other plus about using the trays is that they are SUPER cheap, so you can buy two or three, just in case you need to go back a step, but have already cut the holes in it. I would recommend either going the cheap but flimsy way of using the roasting pan, or buying this, which is more expensive, but more sturdy, and adding something as an intermediary step. I have a friend who used a large plastic bowl (like a mixing bowl, or a popcorn bowl) which she filled with water, instead of cutting holes in it, which would be sturdier and wouldn't scratch your toilet. She slowly decreased the amount of litter in the pan (this teaches them not to dig in their litter, or they will get poop on their paws) and slowly replaced the litter with water. This helps if your cat is freaked out by the water in the toilet. That way they will learn not to stand in the hole, or they will get wet, and they will get used to hanging their butt over water. You then increase the amount of water in the bowl/pan, until the bowl/pan is full, then remove the bowl/pan. She trained her cat fast, because by the time she was done, he was already used to standing on the rim over a large bowl of water.
***Oh, and if you have a cat who has urinary or G.I. tract issues, you DO NOT want to toilet train it, as you probably need to monitor how often they relieve themselves.
P.S. I kept the empty litter box next to the toilet the whole time. My younger cat pooped in there once, but stopped when she realized I wasn't going to clean the box. I think this kept her from finding a nice courner of my apartment to go to the bathroom in.
Update: I bought a new handle for my toilet that is an automatic flusher. This senses the cats and flushes a few seconds after the cats move away from it, which worked great...for about a day! My younger cat apparently loves to watch the water flush down the toilet, so she would jump up and down between the floor and toilet in order to activate the motion sensor in the handle, making it flush repeatedly, and I had to take it out. Recently my older cat was diagnosed with a condition that makes him get crystals in his urine unless he's on a special (and expensive) medicated diet. As a result I had to bring out the old litter box again and keep the lid down on the toilet so he would start going in the box again. He now almost never goes in the toilet, but he will if I don't keep the litter box super clean. My younger kitten switches between the two, depending on her mood, so I guess that shows that cats really don't mind using the toilet.
This product is an absolute waste of money; I highly recommend that you look for other alternatives. I tell you this after trying to use it myself (two kittens) and giving it to my friend to use (four cats of various ages). No one had any luck with it. But keep reading, we DID find other systems to use.
The design and promotional videos all seem logical: just use this thing that puts a hole in the middle, and the cats will use that! Then make the hole bigger! In reality, there are a number of problems with the Litter Kwitter.
The first problem with the product is the first step: replace the cat's litter box with the Litter Kwitter on the floor. This shows the poor design of the product: cats are used to burying their mess, and the Litter Kwitter isn't deep enough for the poo to be buried. The first day I used this, there was cat poo all over the bathroom floor and walls, because the kittens could not figure out how to clean their mess. Further, my friend's cats were uncomfortable with the awkward ridge in the middle of the Litter Kwitter.
The other problems are similar: the whole premise is to put a giant hole in the middle of the litter box, which is completely unnatural for your kitten. Also, they sell a "multicat system" that has intermediate tray sizes, and many reviews I found online complained that these tray sizes are not included in the product. The bottom line: As shipped, the product goes from a too-shallow litter box where poo cannot be buried, to the same litter box with a giant hole in the middle, instead of intermediate hole sizes.
I searched for a number of systems and I found this one to be highly reviewed, but then I read a number of reviews where people compliment the system without having fully trained their cats. My gosh, just read some testimonials on the website for the product! They say things like "I'm soooo looking forward to the end of the litter box" and "It sounds like a great concept. I'll try anything" and "Congratulations on a great idea by the way, whether it works or not, I think it's a brilliant concept." These are ACTUAL COMMENTS that the site has posted as TESTIMONIAL! Clearly, these people don't even know if the system works yet, and I'm quite sure that it probably didn't. Let me tell you that this system is not logical.
After further research, I found another system that cost me about $4.00, and I trained my two four-month-old kittens within 4-5 weeks. The system is The Toilet Trained Cat (The Toilet Trained Cat), and frankly I didn't even buy it because I found it online (about 80% of it, which was enough) and its system makes more sense. The premise of The Toilet Trained Cat is that you use an aluminum foil roasting pan within the toilet, and put a small hole in it. Unlike Litter Kwitter, you put the hole in the corner, not the center. Gradually, you increase the hole size until the cat needs to balance on the toilet while going in the litter/water. Further, the idea of this system is that the cat will eventually "miss", which means they will go in the toilet. Litter Kwitter assumes that a cat is immediately willing to go in the water and not the litter. This is ridiculous.
I am in no way affiliated with The Toilet Trained Cat; I simply find that its system is more logical and much, much cheaper. My cats and my friend's cats are proof that Litter Kwitter has serious design issues. My cats are proof that The Toilet Trained Cat is a better system.
Buy Cat Toilet Training System By Litter Kwitter - Teach Your Cat to Use the Toilet - With Instructional Now
We were quite skeptical about the Litter Kwitter after buying a "CityKitty" a few months earlier which we threw out after a few weeks because there was no way of taking a step back after we physically cut out a larger hole in the plastic. It also was quite "wobbly" for the cat to stand on. Now I know why the Litter Kwitter costs twice the price...it's made of high-quality plastic (the same material as what hard-hats are made of according to the manufacturer) and it's 3 rings mean you can go back a step if needed.
Anyway, after asking the very patient folks at Cleverlad Pets 8 questions about the product, we finally decided to buy one and we are very impressed with our cat's progress in using it most of the time after a few weeks.
After getting him to use the tray on the floor for a couple of weeks with the red ring, we moved it up onto the toilet and then changed to the orange ring on week 3...I think we probably were a little too impatient with our expectations at that point, because went a couple of times on the floor next to the toilet bowl, and became ultra-fascinated by the hole where I think he could see his relfection in the water! At this point, we reverted back to the red tray for a few days until he was using it consistently again before changing back to the orange ring.
To cut a long story short, we're now onto the Green (go) ring and "Jeebus" is using it about 90% of the time after about 6 weeks of training.
We absolutely love not having to clean up a stinky litter tray anymore, or worrying about what germs Jeebus has on his paws from scratching through the litter.
Many thanks to Cleverlad Pets for your patience and great customer service. We hope to report more progress soon, but for now, here's a video of Jeebus using the Litter Kwitter
Litter Kwitter Toilet Train a Cat No More Litter Box
Read Best Reviews of Cat Toilet Training System By Litter Kwitter - Teach Your Cat to Use the Toilet - With Instructional Here
After years of dealing with the dirty cat box, and Roo's bad habit of doing #2 on the floor if it wasn't cleaned to her satisfaction (and it never was), we're well on our way to her using the toilet! This system has the advantage of being very sturdy to hold up even large cats and being re-usable for future cats or if you move and need a refresher course. But nothing's perfect -be prepared for it to take time, maybe longer than they suggest. Each cat is different. Roo is stubborn and hates changes, so we've had to take it really SLOW! She's been in training now for 3-1/2 months. But once she got over her resistance to a hole in the 2nd potty pan, she quickly figured out that all the waste goes away with the flush, which very much appealed to her. She's on pan #3 now and hopefully will graduate to the toilet seat soon.
I have some advisements for anyone wanting to try it --
1Since you are supposed to start out with the system on the floor after switching it out with the old litter pan, you should use a litter liner over the whole thing and put the litter in that, especially if your cat pees around the edges of his/her litter box. It will leak on the floor if you don't, which is definitely no fun to clean up. The liner will prevent that. No problem once it's up on the toilet -any leaks go into the toilet then and a liner would defeat the purpose.
2Also, make a change to a scoopable, flushable litter at the outset, even before changing from the old litter pan. It'll make it easier. It's hard to get soiled litter out with a large litter scoop, esp. if it doesn't clump, partly due to the raised rings that train the cat where the next hole rim will be, etc. A narrower scoop would help if you can find one or jerry-rig something.
3Of the flushable litters on the market, I recommend Swheat Scoop brand, which is finely flaked wheat chaff, and very similar in texture to clay scoopable litter. It clumps, if a bit loosely, which the paper pellet flushables don't at all. Some cats don't like the lumpy texture of the paper pellets either. If the new stuff is close in texture to what they used before, it will help. (We had set-backs partly because I couldn't get the Swheat Scoop 'til we were already into the system several weeks.)
It takes patience, esp. with only one bathroom, but it's worth it. Lots of encouragement, and a little bribery, help, too. (Remember that cats are mercenary little creatures -kittens are easy when they're still young enough to care what you want. Grown ones usually don't give a damn.) Then no more smell, no more fuss, and the coolest cat on the block. Easier to do with kittens and easy-going cats. Older, stubborn, or particularly difficult ones (you know if you have one -Roo's 95% Siamese) may take longer. Don't be discouraged by that. Even tho' it's taking us 4 months (or more?) instead of 6-8 weeks as the product's makers indicate, the end result is still worth it!
Want Cat Toilet Training System By Litter Kwitter - Teach Your Cat to Use the Toilet - With Instructional Discount?
I live in a loft with 2 cats and one toilet, so even the act of toilet training is messy. One cat is larger and older, but he has no problem with the toilet (in fact with a regular litter box he always perched on the edge to poo). The younger one however, is a digger. He will toss his litter all over the bathroom. Needless to say, he's not to happy with a litter-free system. He pees in the toilet, but continues to poo on the floor (its been about 3-4 months now).
I started with a cheap toilet seat screwed into a litter box with a jar in the center (so they couldn't stand in the box). This allowed me to skip the red ring and go right to orange. The problem, as everyone stated was that it DID NOT fit my standard toilet (I suppose by "standard" they mean Australian standard). I thought I got it until a cat jumped on it and it popped off--he wasn't happy. I had to remove the plastic pieces that are supposed to "secure" it. Now I put rubber grips on the underside and clamped the back corners to my toilet. This phase is already not worth the cost.
If your cat is a scooper be prepared for a serious mess! After filling orange with litter, he scooped all of the litter either on the floor or in the hole. Then he realized there was no litter for him to poo in and he got upset and went on the floor...this still continues months later. They seemed to get a hang of orange (minus the poo on the floor) so I switched to green and the jump is WAY too much. They want you to pay an extra $15 for the in between rings--it should come with it for $60!!
Luckily the older cat has pretty much been ready for complete removal. But my little guy is not having it. The bottom line is if your cat likes it, it'll work. This system completely depends on your cat.
For a cheaper option, I recommend buying those big turkey roasting pans and cutting holes in them as your cat progresses. They're cheap, disposable and actually fit your toilet (tho you may need to secure it from shifting)!
Save 17% Off
Watch Buddy at play with one of these little gadgets, and you'll see that the bird forgets about everything else in the world, just for those few moments. Buddy gets rough with it, and he eventually broke the mirror on one of them, but the mirror is plastic, not glass, so I don't see a problem there. The only danger I would anticipate would be if you mount the toy to the side or top of a cage, because the vigorous grabbing and playing could cause the toy to swing back and hit the bird. I decided to leave the phone loose to prevent that happening. It's hard to tell whether Buddy hates it with a passion or if he is just playing. Birds do get totally involved in games just as kids do, and Buddy's feathers display the same way when we are playing tug of war with old socks or old feathers, or even playing catch with socks.
