The Pros and Cons of Training Your Cat to Use Your Toilet

In recent years, it has become common to see people attempting to train their cats to use a toilet.  While in theory this could be a great way to save on litter and help keep your home more attractive, it is actually a very poor and risky choice. 

Your cat has a natural need to dig and to bury waste, and learning to use the toilet is not only unnecessary, but dangerous. 

For starters, the seat of a toilet is slippery.  While you may not notice it when you are sitting on it, for a cat, trying to balance on a slippery toilet and position themselves to use the bathroom is simply an accident waiting to happen.  If your cat falls into the toilet, it may even pose a life-threatening danger.  This is certainly not worthwhile just to save a few bucks on cat litter.

More importantly, the litter box allows you the ability to ensure that your cat is healthy.  When you can see urine and feces, it is easy to be able to check for signs of blood, worms and other health problems.  You can also check to see how much or how little your cat is urinating and defecating. 

Of course, if your feline can only use the toilet and is not litter box trained, you also create problems if they need to stay in a kennel or at the veterinarian’s office, where use of a litter box is required.

The bottom line is that litter training is always going to be the best bet for your cat, no matter how appealing toilet training may sound.  If you must train your cat to use the toilet, make sure you also litter-box train him and make a litter box available at all times.