Potty-Training Your Cat

You can do it yourself, with household items.

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Our Kitties

Solomon is a white domestic short-hair with orange, flame-point markings and blue eyes. Ayla is a female with a toirtoise-shell coat and green eyes..

Other cat owners will comment that we were able to train our kitties because they are special. While we do think they are pretty special, they had their issues. Also, their personalities are very much opposite and posed different challenges to potty-training them. When my (now) wife went to get Solmon from the Humane Society, she was told that he would likely need continual special attention due to the probability that he had brain damage. There was evidence that a parasite (Bot Fly) had developed in, then exited from his brain. -probably something he picked up from his brief time as a stray kitten. He displayed ataxia (head tilt). Now Solomon seems very normal, social, and intelligent, but he still tilts his head slightly. It took a while to get Solmon out of his shell, but once we did, we found that he was an especially naughty kitten. -making noise, knocking things off counters and shelves to get our attention in the night, etc. It took some effort to curve these behaviors and finally divert him to clawing a scratching post vs. clawing the furniture and walls. There were many "misses" before he finally used the toilet regularly.

Ayla is our "feral" (wild) kitty. If you look closely, you can see that her right ear has been "tipped" (tip cut off). Groups like Dane County Friends of Ferals go out, trap, spay/neuter, then re-release these wild strays. They are then able to identify the ones they've already spayed/neutered, by this marking. The rationale behind this program is that this will control the feral cat population better than destroying these animals that would not normally be adoptable. A non-reproducing, live animal will defend a territory and naturally control a population by keeping others away. The absence of an animal just welcomes new generations to fill in. Well, when Ayla was in processing for relocation (to a farm or other country area), it became clear that she was not really feral. Once she got over her initial fear-hostility, she indicated that she was very comfortable around humans (head-bumps, rubs, etc.). The bend in her tail caused some speculation why she might have been initially prone to display fear-hostility. She had obviously had a rough life, to that point. Gravely underweight due to treatment of a sinus infection, her last hope was that an appetite stimulant would help her regain the necessary weight. She did start showing encouraging signs of weight gain and Shawna convinced me to take her in to help her recover and provide a companion and playmate for Solomon. Solomon's "stalk and attack" skills were surpassing ours and we suspected that he'd like a more adept playmate to hangout with while we were at work. With encouragement, Ayla did play with us and Solomon, however she was generally more easily startled/frightened than Solomon. In addition to having to start over and get two cats trained on the potty, it was tough to tell if Ayla was catching on because she understood what she needed to do, or if she was just generally displaying submissive/fear behavior without making the connections to the specific, desired behavior. She was a quick starter, but still sometimes "forgets" what to do. But she's been doing very well and likes to hang out and keep me company when I am up typing on this site.

Both our kitties are indeed very special and display many signs of being healthy and happy cats. We look forward to them continuing to greet us at the window and door, when we get home, for a lot of years.