Day 89

I finally understood what was causing problems for the cats: the plastic cup inside the bowl! As it got bigger they could not set their feet inside the bowl.

So, I removed the cup and there is only the bowl with a hole and a little litter. However, I had to go back to the orange bowl – the hole in the green one was too much for them.

A friend came to stay over yesterday, and as I was explaining how to work out the contraption in the toilet, so that he, human, could also, use it, Ziggy came to demonstrate how a cat does it: he put the four paws on the seat and peed! Pity there was no more battery in the camera...

No more cup in the hole, and a lot less litter.

Of course he still tends to go to the bath tub for #2s, but I have been couching him not to: when he is doing it I move him to the toilet seat!

Mimi does it on target: right in the hole!

But a long weekend away approaches…with flower beds and the neighbours garden as temptations...

Day 86

Phase green bowl is not going very well. In the beginning I just cut half of the top of the cup. Everything was ok. Then, I rushed and cut the all bottom. Crisis! Ziggy went to the bathtub. I was tell him off when he began scratching the floor near the left side of the toilet. It was a hidden poop! Mimi went running out of the toilet – she has been discovered. The next morning Mimi was meowing and calling me all morning. Didn’t get any work done. She was complaining about the green bowl arrangements. I end up changing the litter to the yellow bowl where I usually set the contraption and she did it , relieved. Yesterday Ziggy did the same routine and after my patience wore off I offered him the same easy way out.

After setting up the green bowl with only half the cup's bottom cut I decide to cut it all. Disaster! Even Mimi pooped outside.

A sturdier bowl may help. It will look like this.

On top the green bowl tends to sink into the toilet which I do not understand since it is made of the same mould as the others before; the cup falls off into the toilet and last but not least it got cracked.

So I am sacrificing my good yellow bowl – which I used for clothes washing before – since it fits perfectly in the toilet.

It will be the last one.

Day 80

On Facebook someone posted a German Shepherd peeing in the toilet.
If a dog can do it of course a cat can too!

Day 80

Tomorrow we are leaving phase orange bowl which lasted two weeks.
Two weekends ago I was away and Ziggy went to the bathtub in protest twice. When I came back everything went back on track.

Mimi.

However, whenever Ziggy finds the litter is not to is taste (too humid from pee?) or I do not pay attention when he wants to go poop, he does it in the bathtub.... Anyway, no more going to the carpet, so I am moving to phase green bowl, with a bigger hole/cup.

Ziggy.

As it can be seen by the pictures, both cats are putting their hinder legs on the bowl, not on the seat. We may have trouble when the bowl disappears...
Also I may try to get a bowl that better fits the seat for the next phase, so Ziggy - that is almost 7 kilos and a long cat - can feel more confortable.

Day 73

Today I posted in a thread about cat toilet training in the The Cat Site:
«An answer to those that say teaching cats to use the toilet is not natural: having cats in an apartment is not natural and having cats poop in a box is not natural. But, still, you do it... Cats muscles do no suffer from positioning in the toilet - in fact they assume a very similar position to the one they take in the litter box or outside. They have excellent balance: my 19 year old cat, Mao, used to poop with the four paws on the side of the box (I should have taught him how to use the toilet). In nature they dig to cover they scent from prey or predators. When they understand that water does the same (better, because poop is flushed), they accept the toilet.
Plus some cats do not dig much - like my Mimi - and are really fast to get a hold of it. Others, like my Ziggy, are diggers and you may have to be more patient. For them it is a kind of play  - from which they get treats on top! It is not a kind of punishment or a violation of animal rights like some people are writing on this thread. Of course if the animal shows big behaviour changes and doesn't really want to do it you should not force him. 

As for some veterinarians and some pet experts opinion that the toilet is bad for the cat: they are the ones connected with the cat litter brands that make a million on us!
My experience: when I was 6 I visited a friend of the family and saw her cat pee in the toilet. No one taught her: she imitated the small daughter of the owner, that was very surprised.»

Day 70

I am so happy! We all are. Phase silver bowl went perfectly and the cats are now on phase orange bowl. I didn't even roll the dinning room carpet (although I still have some heavy stuff on the corners, like chairs).

That is how Ziggy's snout gets after so much excavating.

Mimi even aims for the centre of the cup, peeing directly in the water!

My main concern today is that I will spend three days in my mother's house by the sea where they have access to the garden and things my go wrong like it happened before.
I may not take them and ask some one to take care of them. Poor darlings... they love to run after the seagulls and climb the fig tree. They can do it later after the training.

The orange bowl with a cup from fresh cheese.

 

Introducing the orange bowl.

Ziggy, investigating where Mimi's poop goes.

Conclusions until now:
a) No carpets in the house if you have a digger;
b) No going from one method to the other: I began with the DIY bowl with a hole system and should have stayed with it instead of trying the glass bowl inside the plastic bowl (check DYI Systems page here) and the commercial kit Servicat.
c) No moving to the next phase imediatly after the cats use the bowl - you have to stay at least a week - or even two - in each phase.

Day 67

I was away for Easter weekend and the friend that is staying at my place said the cats behaved well, although he once found a #2 covered by the carpet. When I arrived, there was a #2 in the bathtub – but that was probably because my friend forgot to put the bowl in place when he left in the morning.

As I put the bowl back in the toilet Ziggy went immediately to it but he couldn’t do anything. Then he tried again – having all my attention – and quit again. Finally, as I was in the kitchen, he peed.

I melt the hole in the bowl with hot iron from a butter knife.

Before going away I prepared the silver bowl with a plastic cup – much more durable then the yellow bowl with the paper roll. We are sticking to it for a week, and so, for two more days. Then I will see if it is possible to move on to the orange bowl with a bigger hole.

I also made a hole in the bottom of a plastic cup.

Now there is only one carpet/rug in the house, in the dinning room. And tomorrow it is going to be rolled. No more hiding poop under the rug…

(The toilet seat looks silly, I know... I put some stickers on the girls mouth, but it looks even worse.)

Day 64

Today Mimi jumped to the building in construction next door. Recently they build scaffolding and now it is accessible to the cats in a short leap from my clothes line. The waiter from the restaurant in the basement, that alerted us, was kind enough to go inside the building, catch her and hand her to me over the balcony.
No big scare: she has folen out of balconies three times, and got in complicated situations twice (once she got locked in a garden shed). We are getting used to it.

Ziggy digging on the bowl with a hole and a paper roll.

Ziggy is meowing a lot when it comes time to do #2. They both pee on the yellow bowl without problems but when it comes to poop it is a difficult for him to do it.   
I was reading a forum from one of the commercial kits, Litter Kwitter, and most people complain about that: cats pee on the apparatus but have trouble pooping – they prefer carpets and sometimes even beds… I would like to know the percentage of success of this commercial kits.
 

Ziggy, always digging, under the sceptical look of Mimi.

Day 63 (9C)

The experiment with the commercial kit, Servicat, is over. Today I sold it for half the price to a girl that may be luckier since she does not have a digger at home (her cats prefer the bathtub to the litter, so they may adopt the toilet bowl).

The basic scheme for this phase, without litter and roll. When I use the toilet I set their litter bowl on the other yellow bowl.

While I was away for four days the cats went to the sitz bath with no problem. Today I upgraded to the yellow bowl with the roll of toilet paper in the middle. They will stay at it for a week, come rain or come shine, poop on the carpet or not. I am going to follow the original plan with no more detours.