Having problem with amber stage

[Princess UK]

My cat is 5 years old, he has always been a very clean house cat. He never goes outside. He has only ever done a poo on the floor once, and that was when he was a kitten. Anyway, I started him on the red stage of the litter kwitter, no problem. He was on the red stage for two weeks. I then changed to the amber stage. To my surprise, he did a poo on the bathroom mat and a wee. I tried covering the hole from the underneath with a piece of A4 paper sandwiched between several sheets of laminate, and cut the laminate to the inside shape of the white bowl. My cat was so clever, he pushed it right through with his paw.

After several attempts of using different materials to reinforce the strength of the laminate. I have had to revert back to the red stage. At this moment in time he has lost his faith in the litter kwitter. He has been holding out from going to his toilet.

I then caight him having a wee in the bath. I have now put 3 inches of water in the bath and sink as a litter kwitter member suggested, and have shut him in the bathroom with his food and water. I then heard a loud noise, I then went into the bathroom to find that he had attempted to use the bath as a toilet and had fell in, but had jumped straight out, as his tail and paws were wet. Is there no easier way of teaching him as I feel so cruel to do such things. I will keep everybody posted on his progress. I would also appreciate any advice from the animal behaviourist, who is shown on the training DVD of the litter kwitter.

[pepper2956]

I am having the same problem and attempted the same water-in-basins/locked in bathroom solution. Only I have had them at the red stage for at least a month.
One of my two kittens (6 months old) goes on the floor now! It is frustrating because unless I lock myself in with them for 24 hours, I don't know which one.
Really look forward to a clever way to solve.

[catH]

My cat had a similar problem when we switched to the Amber color...he started going on the floor, which he's only ever done if the litter box was not clean enough. The only thing i could do was to place him on the litter kwitter, praise him and give him a treat while saying he's a good boy. It seems to be helping. The only issue i have now is he keeps missing the litter and his pee gets on the floor

[Norwegiangirl85]

Originally Posted by pepper2956

I am having the same problem and attempted the same water-in-basins/locked in bathroom solution. Only I have had them at the red stage for at least a month.
One of my two kittens (6 months old) goes on the floor now! It is frustrating because unless I lock myself in with them for 24 hours, I don't know which one.
Really look forward to a clever way to solve.

I have three cat's and also had a problem knowing who did what, I downloaded something called: "Debut video capture software" and used my webcam to record what happens in the bathroom when I am not there...

[Catmandu]

Originally Posted by Princess UK

My cat is 5 years old, he has always been a very clean house cat. He never goes outside. He has only ever done a poo on the floor once, and that was when he was a kitten. Anyway, I started him on the red stage of the litter kwitter, no problem. He was on the red stage for two weeks. I then changed to the amber stage. To my surprise, he did a poo on the bathroom mat and a wee. I tried covering the hole from the underneath with a piece of A4 paper sandwiched between several sheets of laminate, and cut the laminate to the inside shape of the white bowl. My cat was so clever, he pushed it right through with his paw.

After several attempts of using different materials to reinforce the strength of the laminate. I have had to revert back to the red stage. At this moment in time he has lost his faith in the litter kwitter. He has been holding out from going to his toilet.

I then caight him having a wee in the bath. I have now put 3 inches of water in the bath and sink as a litter kwitter member suggested, and have shut him in the bathroom with his food and water. I then heard a loud noise, I then went into the bathroom to find that he had attempted to use the bath as a toilet and had fell in, but had jumped straight out, as his tail and paws were wet. Is there no easier way of teaching him as I feel so cruel to do such things. I will keep everybody posted on his progress. I would also appreciate any advice from the animal behaviourist, who is shown on the training DVD of the litter kwitter.

I have 3 kittens,all under 1 year old.On the red stage everything went well and they were hopping up on the toilet quickly within 3 days from the floor.So I thought I would try the amber stage 3 days later as all went great with the red stage.Amber worked good for them the first day until someone put the toilet seat over the L.Q. and that mixed them up and they were doing their business in the bathtub,on the bathroom floor,living room carpet and on my bed.So I reverted back to the red stage for 1 week and all was well again.Now it is back to the amber stage on the 4th day and all was going well except the cats will not drop anything into the hole as we are told they should at this stage.As much as I nicely position them over it as directed on the DVD,they will not stay in that spot and keep scratching in the litter to do their business in the rim.If I try to position them more than twice in a row they will usually jump off the toilet and look to go elsewhere.Luckily I have caught them trying to sneak some place else and took them back to the toilet to do their thing on the L.K. Yesterday I left my bedroom door open and found a huge pee on my bed,yikes.The third time washing bedding.This last time I even had to wash part of the memory foam mattress in the bathtub.Luckily I had enough bed covers and a foam mattress on top so the urine did not reach my main mattress.My bedroom door will stay closed at all times now! I have not found or smelt any accidents in the kitchen or living room and the basement door has been shut.I have a small house with only one toilet so it is 3 kittens trained on 1 L.K. There have been a couple times that they have waited patiently sitting on the bathroom floor waiting for me to finish my thing before they hopped up next to do their business,that was encouraging.It is definitely discouraging that no matter how much positioning and persuading,they will not hit the hole in the amber ring.Any suggestions please for managing the cats to aim into the toilet bowl are greatly appreciated from Dr. Joanne Ragettee,moderators or anyone.Luckily someone has been in the house most of the time to supervise the cleaning out of the shallow L.K. trays.I think all would end as a disastrous,messy,stinky failure at the L.K. attempt if someone was not around most of the time to clean up the waste from 3 cats.As in the course of a whole day too much waste would accumulate in the small area of the L.K. Are there any ideas to start my cats hitting the hole in the amber stage please.We need this to start happening soon as the person who supervises the situation in the day will be starting a job soon.Very important to train the cats to hit the hole to the toilet bowl soon. Also the cats will regularly be travelling with us to a cabin where there is no indoor toilet at this time,so they will need to use litter boxes there.Will the switch from litter box at the cabin and back to the toilet at the house mix them up so they might have accidents in the wrong spot at the house? I am determined to have complete toilet training work.I only hope that the cats will aim into the toilet bowl soon,with no backfires.Thank you for reading and any responses deeply appreciated.

[Norwegiangirl85]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Training three cats is not an easy task, I did it - but would not go trough it again.

The more you know before starting the training, the easier it will be so I definetively advice you to read around on the forum and learn from others mistakes or success. One of the most important things to know is that you have to go at your cats pace and not try to go too fast. I know many people think that they can push their cats and they will get it, but you will learn as I did that the faster you try to push, the slower the process will be. Most cats are not trained in 6-8 weeks, it takes time to learn a habit and making it stick. I trained my three cats in 10 months, one was a fast learner, but the others needed alot more time.

Now, onto your problem: Do not worry that your cats is not hitting the hole on the amber tray, this stage is just for the cats to get used to the water and the hole. Many cats don't do their business through the hole, as long as the amber tray is used that is good enough. One of my cats didn't even hit the hole in the green stage, but when it was removed she used the toilet perfectly. Positioning the cats usually only makes them want to use the toilet when you are not around and that will cause you trouble if your cat is starting to have accidents.

As you have learned it is best to keep your bedroom door closed during training, also keep all soft things off the floor and clean accidents with enzymatic cleaners like "Urine off". Even if you can't smell the pee when you have cleaned with normal cleaners, your cat may still smell it and use the same spot again. Put some water in the tub and sink to prevent them from using those spots. They usually like to use it because of sewer gasses.

Unfortunatly the LK people are not here to help anymore so we need to help each other. I have made a thread with most of the useful information and stories on this forum to read (You can also see polls with some information on how much time people have used to train their cats and so on): http://www.litterkwitter.com/forums/...ead.php?t=3095

Since you don't have an indoor toilet in the cabin, maybe you could make a mock toilet? : http://relaxedcat.com/building-your-mock-toilet/ It's also good to have at home since you only have one toilet.

Keep us posted on your progress

Hope this helps!