I just brought a semi-tame feral cat inside on Thursday, the 31st of October. I’ve named her Romy. I’ve written a thread about the many stages we’ve gone through together, from the time SHE picked ME and decided to let ME learn to tame HER, to just now when I became too afraid of a predator stealing her from me that I felt I had to bring her inside. Check out the link below if you’re interested in our story.
My Feral Cat Is Herding Me. And Other Behaviors I Don’t Understand. What Should I Do In Return?
Romy’s been set up in an oversized wire crate in my kitchen dining area and separated from my other two resident cats by a sturdy pocket door. She is eating and drinking and using her litter box reliably. She has passed her vet check with flying colors and has been wormed and flea treated. Next in line will be introducing the three cats and toilet training.
So far I’ve found the articles on introducing new cats to each other quite helpful and plan to continue with the recommended process and slowly. Where I think I am going to need some heavy duty advice is in how I am going to get Romy to share the bathroom habits of Timo and Gemi. They have trained themselves to use the bathtub! I very much want Romy to do the same. But how the heck am I going to accomplish it????
It all started with me wanting to teach Timo and Gemi to use the toilet. I had a cat who is long ago over the rainbow bridge and who used to use the toilet instead of a litter box. She spoiled me! My house doesn’t have good nooks and crannies for cat boxes so my two kittens started out with their litter box In the bathroom and a plan to toilet train.
The litter box was moved next to the bathtub and before long it was moved into the bathtub. Eventually, I bought a kit for toilet training and substituted it for the regular litter box in the bathtub. After some time, I moved that training kit to the toilet. They used it sometimes. But they started using the bathtub! They would pee at the drain and pooh at the other end. They were persistent, so I decided to go along. It has worked wonderfully well actually. My husband and I are antiques with grown children and few visitors so it’s an ideal situation for us. No litter to buy. No litter to sweep up. No litter box to keep clean! And they’ve not once ever made a mistake. My job is to pick up the pooh with some toilet paper and flush it, spritz the area with a little disinfectant and then hose down the tub. For urine it’s just a matter of a hose down and some occasional disinfectant.
How do I get Romy trained so we can all continue to do the same!
Here are some methods I’ve thought of:
1. Transfer Romy to the bathroom, close the door, and go through the same training process with her as I did for Timo and Gemi and hope for the same result. The downside: That will lock out Romy into a small lonely room and lock out Timo and Romy from their bathtub. What will they decide to do for a bathtub? Will they decide to use the tub in the Master Bathroom as they very occasionally do now? Another downside: a MUCH smaller prison for Romy and the training process will almost certainly take a couple of weeks.
2. Confine Timo and Gemi to the master bedroom and assume they will use the bathtub there instead of the one in the guest bath. Meanwhile expand Romy’s range to the rest of the house and train her to the bathtub as in 1. above though this time she won’t be confined to the bathroom. Downside: Her litter box is in another room. Will she find it in the bathroom? Downside: Timo and a Gem will be upset at being confined to a bedroom.
3. Put two or three tiny litter boxes in the bathtub and keep making them smaller and hope Romy will pick up the new site for her litter box and make the same adaptation as Timo and Gemi did. Downside: territorial issues?
Any other ideas? If not, which of the above would you pick?
My Feral Cat Is Herding Me. And Other Behaviors I Don’t Understand. What Should I Do In Return?
Romy’s been set up in an oversized wire crate in my kitchen dining area and separated from my other two resident cats by a sturdy pocket door. She is eating and drinking and using her litter box reliably. She has passed her vet check with flying colors and has been wormed and flea treated. Next in line will be introducing the three cats and toilet training.
So far I’ve found the articles on introducing new cats to each other quite helpful and plan to continue with the recommended process and slowly. Where I think I am going to need some heavy duty advice is in how I am going to get Romy to share the bathroom habits of Timo and Gemi. They have trained themselves to use the bathtub! I very much want Romy to do the same. But how the heck am I going to accomplish it????
It all started with me wanting to teach Timo and Gemi to use the toilet. I had a cat who is long ago over the rainbow bridge and who used to use the toilet instead of a litter box. She spoiled me! My house doesn’t have good nooks and crannies for cat boxes so my two kittens started out with their litter box In the bathroom and a plan to toilet train.
The litter box was moved next to the bathtub and before long it was moved into the bathtub. Eventually, I bought a kit for toilet training and substituted it for the regular litter box in the bathtub. After some time, I moved that training kit to the toilet. They used it sometimes. But they started using the bathtub! They would pee at the drain and pooh at the other end. They were persistent, so I decided to go along. It has worked wonderfully well actually. My husband and I are antiques with grown children and few visitors so it’s an ideal situation for us. No litter to buy. No litter to sweep up. No litter box to keep clean! And they’ve not once ever made a mistake. My job is to pick up the pooh with some toilet paper and flush it, spritz the area with a little disinfectant and then hose down the tub. For urine it’s just a matter of a hose down and some occasional disinfectant.
How do I get Romy trained so we can all continue to do the same!
Here are some methods I’ve thought of:
1. Transfer Romy to the bathroom, close the door, and go through the same training process with her as I did for Timo and Gemi and hope for the same result. The downside: That will lock out Romy into a small lonely room and lock out Timo and Romy from their bathtub. What will they decide to do for a bathtub? Will they decide to use the tub in the Master Bathroom as they very occasionally do now? Another downside: a MUCH smaller prison for Romy and the training process will almost certainly take a couple of weeks.
2. Confine Timo and Gemi to the master bedroom and assume they will use the bathtub there instead of the one in the guest bath. Meanwhile expand Romy’s range to the rest of the house and train her to the bathtub as in 1. above though this time she won’t be confined to the bathroom. Downside: Her litter box is in another room. Will she find it in the bathroom? Downside: Timo and a Gem will be upset at being confined to a bedroom.
3. Put two or three tiny litter boxes in the bathtub and keep making them smaller and hope Romy will pick up the new site for her litter box and make the same adaptation as Timo and Gemi did. Downside: territorial issues?
Any other ideas? If not, which of the above would you pick?
Last edited:
