Wouldn’t life be so much easier if your Siamese knew how to use the toilet? No more cleaning stinky litter trays or paying an excessive amount on litter every year. Plus, it’s kind of cool to tell people that you trained your Siamese to do their business like a human.
That being said, toilet training isn’t for everyone (or every cat). While some struggle to get their head around the whole thing, others simply prefer to use their box.
There are a few things to consider before you move on to toilet training. If you decide that this is the right choice for you and your Siamese, you can follow the step-by-step guide at the end of this article, tried and tested by yours truly!
Are Siamese cats easy to potty train?
As long as you’ve got a lot of patience, Siamese cats can be pretty easy to potty train. Since they’re one of the most intelligent breeds out there, it doesn’t take them long to pick up a new habit or skill.
Siamese cats are typically food-driven and will react well to positive reinforcements. I’ve found that with both of my Siamese cats, Batman and Robyn, I can get them to do just about anything if there’s a reward involved.
When training your Siamese, try incorporating treats into the mixture. Once they do something good, in this instance, use the toilet, reward them with their favorite treat. Now, they will know that they will get something yummy in return after they perform this specific act.
Clicker training is also an excellent way to train your Siamese out of bad habits. A clicker is a remote control that makes a clicking sound every time you press it. It should only be used when your Siamese is engaging, or about to engage, in destructive behavior. This could be peeing or pooing on the floor, not in their tray, etc.
It helps your Siamese know what is wrong and what is right when it comes to toilet etiquette. You’ll be on a sure road to success if you can incorporate both clicker training and positive reward training.
Is it worth training your cat to use the toilet?
When it comes down to it, training your Siamese to use a human toilet is more for you than it is for them.
It means you won’t have to deal with smelly waste or pay for litter. Many people decide to potty train their Siamese to lower the chances of contracting a zoonotic disease.
A zoonotic disease is transmittable between animals and humans, usually through feces, and can cause serious symptoms in adults and unborn children. You can fight Toxoplasmosis by cleaning your cats’ litter box more often to ensure the parasite has no time to develop; however, some prefer toilet training instead.
Another thing to consider is, of course, the cost. Typically, you will be spending around $1 – $4 per pound of standard kitty litter. If you buy specialized litter or one that is environmentally friendly, this will hike the cost up even more.
On the other hand, water generally costs around $1.50 per every 1000 gallons. Depending on your toilet, 1 – 5 gallons will be used per flush, and this works out to be substantially cheaper than kitty litter.
When it comes to benefiting your Siamese, the main thing they will get out of it is avoiding upper respiratory issues. It’s been proven that crystal litters and dusty clay can play a role in triggering these issues in both cats and humans. If you train your Siamese to use the toilet, you’ll cut out these issues.
Why shouldn’t you train your cat to use the toilet?
Usually, if you take all the precautions and train your Siamese to use the toilet safely, you won’t experience problems. A friend of mine has a cat who has been using the toilet for years, and she’s been perfectly fine doing so.
That being said, not all cats are the same, so there is always a risk when training your cat to use the toilet. Before you begin the training process, consider these points.
1. Sharing toilets isn’t always fun
Not everyone has a spare toilet in their house to hand over to their Siamese. If you don’t like the idea of sitting on the same seat that your cat does to go potty, you’ll probably won’t want to move forward.
Even if you’re okay with it, everyone in your household may not be. Not all cats have perfect aim, so cleaning urine and poop off the seat should not come as a surprise.
This also creates more risk of contracting diseases from their poop since particles may land on the seat even if there’s no evidence. The best way to avoid this is to clean your seat well each time your Siamese uses it.
2. Difficult to track their toilet habits
One of the benefits of using a litter box is that you can easily tell if your cat’s bathroom habits change. A change in waste can indicate that something is wrong with their health.
I know from personal experience that we owners usually first sense something is wrong by our cats not peeing enough or experiencing diarrhea. Batman had a health scare a few years ago, and I first picked up on it due to the color of his urine.
While you can usually familiarize yourself with the correct color, it can be difficult to keep tabs on the amount they produce when they use the toilet.
3. Flushing away the evidence
So your Siamese can go potty in a human toilet and flush as well?! As entertaining as that sounds, teaching your Siamese how to flush just creates more problems than it’s worth.
Linking to the above point, when your Siamese flushes their business down the toilet, you don’t get the chance to see if their bathroom habits have changed.
Another reason not to teach them is that flushing may become their new favorite pass time. Some simply find it too much fun, and they’ll be sitting there all day flushing.
4. Finding other places in the house
As your Siamese gets older, they may lose the ability to jump on the toilet. Once it becomes too difficult for them, they’ll start looking for other places in the house where they can comfortably relieve themselves. The same goes for when the toilet seat is left down or the door to the bathroom is closed.
5. Unnatural
We use litter boxes in the first place to appeal to our cat’s natural instincts. In the wild, they’d bury their waste in the dirt, so a little box is their closest bet to that.
Litter boxes also create sent spots that make your Siamese feel at home and comfortable, so once you take that away, you may experience some behavioral changes.
Some cats, especially those who like to dig, may start scratching the toilet bowl or pushing things inside. If your Siamese already excessively try to bury their poop, you may want to give human toilet training a miss.
Should I teach my cat to use the toilet?
Whether or not you should teach your Siamese to use the toilet all depends on their personality and your lifestyle.
If you don’t like the thought of sharing your toilet with your cat, or your cat excessively buries their poop already, you should probably give it a miss. The same goes for if your Siamese gets nervous easily or doesn’t react well to change.
However, it may be good to consider if you have enough time, don’t have the money to spend on litter, or if the litter box is constantly full.
You also don’t have to choose between one or the other. In fact, I recommend you to keep a litter box around the house, especially if you don’t have a spare toilet. This saves your carpet or sofa from any accidents, keeping the comfort of a littler box but lessening the use of it.
How do you train a Siamese cat to use the toilet?
If you’ve decided to go ahead with toilet training, follow these below steps.
These are the steps I went through with my Siamese Robyn, and while they worked well for us, we ultimately decided to stop using the toilet to better monitor his toilet habits.
Step 1: Setting up the bathroom
The first thing you’ll want to do is decide which toilet your Siamese will use. When choosing, pick a bathroom that your Siamese has the easiest access to. If you have multiple toilets, once that you humans don’t use as much.
If you have a family at home, it would be a good idea to add a “Siamese in training” sign on the door or a “Keep the lid up” sign on the toilet to remind everyone in the house what’s going on.
Move your Siamese cat’s litter box into the bathroom and place it next to the toilet.
Step 2: Gathering the supplies
As nice as it would be to plop your Siamese on the toilet and say “go here,” it isn’t as simple as that. You will have to purchase a few things to transition your Siamese from box to toilet.
When I toilet trained Robyn, I made my own training seat. To do so, simply place the disposable pan over the rim of the toilet and secure it down with duct tape. If the pan isn’t big enough, you can use the plastic wrap to fill the spaces.
Step 3: Raise the height of the litter box
Once your Siamese has used the litter box beside the toilet for a week, you can begin raising the height of the litter box.
To do so, grab a stack of newspapers or magazines and stack them 3 inches off the ground. Let your Siamese use the box at this height for a week, praising them when they use their litter box.
You can then begin to raise the litter box 3-5 inches per day, until you’ve reached the height of the toilet seat. If your Siamese begins to walk on the seat, give them a treat.
Step 4: Put the litter box on the toilet seat
The next step is to place the litter box on top of the closed toilet seat lid. Let your Siamese use their litter box for a few days, ensuring they feel comfortable enough doing so.
Step 5: Begin using the training seat
Once you feel like your Siamese is ready to move on, grab the training seat and fill it with flushable litter.
If you’re using a store-bought trainer, you’ll want to start with the smallest pan with no hole. If you’re using your DIY trainer, simply fill it with litter and don’t cut any holes.
Step 6: Transitioning out of the training seat
Once your Siamese gets used to using the tray in the toilet without having any accidents, you can start making the hole in the training seat bigger.
If you’re using a store-bought trainer, you can gradually increase the size of the training seats. If you’re using a homemade one, you can cut a hole in the bottom of the pan, making it slightly bigger each day.
You’ll also want to start using less litter with every size change. Once your Siamese pops in the toilet successfully, fill it with slightly less litter than last time.
Step 7: Say goodbye to the toilet trainer
If your Siamese has successfully used the toilet for two weeks without any accidents, you can remove the training seat. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your Siamese for a month or so to ensure they really have the whole process down.
You can continue to praise your Siamese when they use the toilet to ensure the idea really sticks.
Of course, you should always prepare for setbacks, even if you’ve trained your Siamese perfectly. If your Siamese begins eliminating elsewhere, you can always take a step back in the training process to see if that makes a difference.
Accidents are likely to happen, so it’s important that you’re willing to work with your Siamese while they make this transition.
Why is my Siamese cat pooping on the floor?
If your Siamese has begun pooping on the floor, this usually means they are not happy with their bathroom situation. This may happen if they feel like it’s too much effort to use the toilet, it’s creating them too much stress, or it causes them pain to jump up to a high place.
If you would like your Siamese to continue to use the human toilet, you may have to begin the training process all over again. If you suspect your Siamese is having too much stress due to the situation or causing them pain to go to the bathroom, please consider going back to the litter box.
How do I know toilet training is right for my cat?
If your cat is an adult, comfortable using the litter box, and doesn’t have any problems with change or jumping, they will be the most willing to try toilet training.
If your Siamese is less than six months old or has trouble using the litter box as is, then you should probably pass on the process. The same goes for cats who feel a little shyer or skittish when it comes to toilet time.
It is important to remember that training a Siamese cat to use the bathroom takes a lot of time and patience, so if you’re not willing to put in the work or you don’t have time, stick to the box.
While it is nice for us not to have to clean out the litter box so much, at the end of the day, it’s your Siamese who should benefit the most when going to the bathroom, not us!
Want to learn more about your Siamese cat’s behavior? We have compiled every information you need to navigate through the fascinating world of Siamese cats: Everything About a Siamese Cat’s Behavior: A Comprehensive Guide
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