06 March 2007

I Wish CitiKitty Had Tightened Up Before I Spent $29 On Their Product

CitiKitty is a company that markets a unique toilet-training device for cats. It's basically a toilet seat-shaped litter box that fastens onto your toilet bowl, but it has a series of widening concentric circles that you gradually remove, until the cat, before he knows it, is simply dropping his waste directly into the toilet bowl not unlike a human.

It's rather brilliant, and for only $29, this 5-week training program can be yours.

Where I take umbrage, however, is with CitiKitty's official position that "your cat will naturally use the CitiKitty Training Seat as it's new litter box [sic]."

Really? Then perhaps that explains why I've been waking up to a steaming pile of poo in my bathroom sink for each of the past 14 days. My cat is not using the CitiKitty Training Seat as his new litter box, and unless I do something about it, there's no reason to believe he ever will. They sell me this product that's supposed to make my life easier - instead, quite to the contrary, I wake every morning to a horrific and malodorous mess.

Interesting fact relating to all this, by the way.. one of the leading pioneers of this concept of training cats to use the toilet was none other than jazz legend Charles Mingus.

11 comments:

mandy said...

Oh. My. God. I almost shot milk out of my nose just now.

I considered getting CitiKitty for my cat Holly but thought maybe, at 8 years old, she might be a little too set in her ways to take to the toilet seat. That your cat has taken to the sink, well . . . I'm sorry but that's really really funny. Perhaps you should just give your cat a little more time to warm up to CitiKitty and then teach him how to do this.

Pepper said...

I think a representative from CitiKitty should come and tidy up your bathroom for you each morning.

Additionally, it is interesting that a product called "CitiKitty" is deficient: Becca's sister has a cat who lives in the city (and, thus, has earned the name CitiKitty), and she is also defective, generally, in her functions as a cat. This is curious.

I wonder if CitiKitty is affiliated with CitiBank?

Anonymous said...

Most cats adapt immediately to the seat. If yours did not you may want to consider starting with the CitiKitty on the floor where your cats litter box used to be. Move it next to the toilet, then raise the height of it training seat every few days until its the height of your toilet.

Also - if you have recently changed to a flushable kitty litter you want to give your cat a week to adapt to the new litter before starting the training.

Jordan said...

CitiBank acquired KittyCorp in a hostile takeover back in aught four, to capitalize on the synergies between Citi's financial services and Kitty's . . . cat toilets. The investment thesis was sound, as you can see.

Is that really a CitiKitty representative posting above? Looks like the Tighten Up Report is stirring up trouble. Can you imagine the scene from CitiKitty's corporate pr team - "Uh oh, Bill, we've got trouble on the World Wide Web" [cue to fireman poles that extend through the floor].

mandy said...

Maybe the CitiKitty rep is actually the ghost of Charles Mingus. Coincidentally, the mingusmingusmingus.com training page -- and the rest of the site for that matter -- seems to be down at the moment.

To be fair, I think it's the cat that needs to tighten up. I mean, confusing a sink for a litterbox and/or toilet?! Get that cat some spectacles!

Eric Hagemann said...

BEHEMOTH DOES NOT NEED TO TIGHTEN UP!!!! j/k, he probably does... stupid cat. Today's update is that I cut away the first ring yesterday and have wound up with poo on both bathroom floor and - get this - IN the food bowl, right on top of the kibbles. If any armchair feline psychologists out there care to take a stab at that one, be my guest...

Pepper said...

Did citikitty really post that? Or do we have a mole? if this is real influence, maybe we should start talking more about politics

bodenner said...

cats crapping in toilets?!
whatever happened to bonsai kitten?

3smartkitties said...

This is an old post, but I felt the need to respond given the Citikitty response. While the OP seems to have had this problem from early on, I just started training my three cats 1 month ago and they flew through each step. I was able to skip the first things, as their litter was already flushable corn cob and the box has always been next to the toilet. However, on the last ring one of my cats also suddenly started using the sink. So, like the instructions say, I used the insert to put it back a step, but he is still doing it. I wonder if the OP ever succeeded in his toilet training mission or if it was a lost cause?

Jeff said...

Not a new product. We just lost Boris at 22 years. We started him as a very young kitten with the clear plastic trainer available then.
He jumped up and used it as soon as we started. Every thing was great until the last ring was removed. He fell in, He still jumped up, but no longer trusted the water, so he watched it as he did his thing over the side of the toilet. We probably started him too young.

Janene F said...

My first cat took longer than the expected time frame but eventually was going in regular toilets and it was great!!! We added a second cat and went back to training and he pees in it but will not poop unless I am there to coach him. This is very tiresome at 12:30am (right now!!!) I really want to figure this out because it's wonderful once they use it all the time!!!