The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#11

Post by sesellis » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:15 PM UTC

There are commercially available kits to do this that are concentric rings that work very well. The kit coupled with flushable litter makes it very easy to toilet train a cat.

However, I can confirm you will get into a bathroom stare down with your cat every once in a while.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#12

Post by xtlyths » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:15 PM UTC

throwawayjd wrote: post #2

I wonder if this is a joke or an actual technique. I'd be very interested to see someone reproducing this.

I successfully got 2 middle aged cats to do this. They have both since passed and I have two new cats. I haven't bothered to train them, but I think it's because my wife cleans their box and I haven't thought about it.

The first two cats did this almost effortlessly. They didn't give us any trouble because we changed steps slowly.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#13

Post by ubermonkey » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:22 PM UTC

Given that the strip is now (ouch) almost 19 years old, it occurs to me that some folks may not have seen Nightlife Mingus' appearance in the web comic Achewood:

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#14

Post by ModernMech » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:28 PM UTC

drakonka wrote: post #7

There are even special litter boxes sold that are intended to go on the toilet seat for this type of training. But as cool as this is, I believe it can be dangerous, especially for owners of male cats. Cats' urinary habits are important to keep an eye on. A change in urination volume or frequency can be the sign of a critical issue that requires veterinary attention. You just can't easily track urine volume if the ca…

> One aspect where the toilet may actually be better is that you _might_ be able to spot blood easier in the water.

One thing that's cool is there are special cat litters now that change color when blood is present.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#15

Post by oneplane » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:28 PM UTC

drakonka wrote: post #7

There are even special litter boxes sold that are intended to go on the toilet seat for this type of training. But as cool as this is, I believe it can be dangerous, especially for owners of male cats. Cats' urinary habits are important to keep an eye on. A change in urination volume or frequency can be the sign of a critical issue that requires veterinary attention. You just can't easily track urine volume if the ca…

This is one of those things I thought of as well. A pet generally won't know how healthy it is or if it feels unwell why it does so. What you can do as a pet owner is monitor behaviour and check what goes in (food, water) and comes out (poop, urine, vomit) as a basic indication of health.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#16

Post by donkarma » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

xattt wrote: post #9

Who does the flushing?

apparently the cat can learn to flush if the cat hits it by accident

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#17

Post by dawnerd » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:30 PM UTC

drakonka wrote: post #7

There are even special litter boxes sold that are intended to go on the toilet seat for this type of training. But as cool as this is, I believe it can be dangerous, especially for owners of male cats. Cats' urinary habits are important to keep an eye on. A change in urination volume or frequency can be the sign of a critical issue that requires veterinary attention. You just can't easily track urine volume if the ca…

And if you have a male cat it’s important to also make sure they’re getting enough liquid, especially if they’re on a dry food diet. My cat almost died while I was out of town because he stopped drinking from stress I guess and was only on a dry diet. Now they’re on a can diet and healthy.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#18

Post by intricatedetail » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC

Then a cat does "business" in whatever that triggers similar response as toilet e.g. your shoes, pots etc. It's also not fun cleaning the cat that fallen into toilet bowl (and all the splashings around).

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#19

Post by jelling » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:40 PM UTC

That's cat's balance is the key here. I tried this with a hairless cat - whom also have very little in the way of whiskers - and the poor thing just didn't have the balance to handle the final steps.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#20

Post by saluki » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:40 PM UTC

Our neighbor when I was growing up had a cat that would use the toilet and flush. I was amazed as a kid.

Not sure I want to share the bathroom with our cats.

We just got a litter robot last week it's pretty amazing. We set it up in a hall closet to get the two litter boxes out of the laundry room. It should pay for itself in 3-4 months by using less litter than our two traditional litter boxes (yesterdays news litter).