Update!

Sorry that I haven’t updated in a while. It’s been about a month, and a lot of the latter half was spent out of town. During that time, Starbucks’ tin foil had gradually increased in size, and he learned to periodically use all fours on the toilet seat…however the pan in the toilet was a bit of a ‘cheat sheet’ for him. When I was around him, he would go on the seat, but he was also inclined to balance his hind paws in the pan. Also, he spent lots and lots of time inspecting the areas under the pan…So, I removed the pan completely a few days ago. The hole increased in size by about 3cm around the rim since the last update, so in no way did I wait until the bottom was completely opened up. Also, I didn’t increase the hole in a ‘perfect circle’…I took more of a integrated learning/teaching approach to the whole thing: If Starbucks was consistently eliminating in a certain section of the pan, I opened that part up so that he would get used to having to eliminate into water. Then, when I felt he was comfortable with the setup but needed to be weaned off of crowding his front paws in the pan and instead balance on them on the seat, I would slowly remove the front part, which prompted him to use the toilet seat. I admit, there is a little bit of cheating on my end with the final removal: since the toilet bowl is mostly empty (the water doesn’t rest past the very bottom of the bowl), I am able to sprinkle a little bit of kitty litter in there, to signal to Starbucks that this is, indeed, his litter box. And what happened?

As you can see, Starbucks has learned to use the toilet! There was no real ‘adjustment’…noticed the kitty litter and did his thing-balanced and all-very naturally. It’s almost as if this set up works a lot better than the pan! However, the training is not over just yet. He still needs me around in order for him to use the toilet…and he is awfully tempted to use anything else. Although, from my experience, that phase wears off in a few days since cats in general lament change. Here are some more pictures of the quickly growing Kitten!