CitiKitty is a toilet training kit for cats. This kit is designed specifically for cat owners in busy cities where apartments are small and there is no place to hide cat litter. Rebecca Rescate, who started the business, had the same problem with her cat and her litter after moving to a small apartment in New York City.
Being unable to find a suitable toilet training kit despite having read a number of success stories around toilet training, Rebecca decided to make her own. Since most cat owners don’t have too much time to spend on toilet training their pets, this kit was a huge success.
CitiKitty comes with a specially designed training seat as well as guides that allow owners to understand how to properly toilet train their cat.
The kit also comes with premium catnip, which you can use to reward cats after they’ve managed to successfully be trained.
Is CitiKitty Still Active?
CitiKitty is still active, having sold hundreds of thousands of units, with an estimated annual revenue of about $10 million. The training kit is something of a household name when it comes to cats and cat owners.
How Did The Shark Tank Pitch Go?
Rebecca went on the show Shark Tank in 2011, seeking a $100,000 investment in return for 15% of the CitiKitty business share. CitiKitty was already a success by this time, and Rebecca had sold about 40,000 units, earning $1.4 million before she ever went on the show. Her business model was excellent, with practically no advertising or marketing costs, since her sales came mostly from the website.
The Sharks thought the idea was a cool one, but two of them weren’t interested in the product itself. The other two sharks made offers, and Rebecca struck a deal with Harrington for $100,000 in return for 20% of the business.
After the Shark Tank appearance, Rebecca sold CitiKitty units for millions of dollars. Her reach and sales grew dramatically after her episode aired.
Our Review of CitiKitty
CitiKitty does exactly what it’s supposed to: toilet training cats. Most people will have cat litters at home, but these are not just smelly and gross, but also a hassle to clean. For people who live in small apartments, there is also the problem of where the litter boxes have to be kept.
Cats use litter because they want to mask their scent to hide their presence from predators.
The CitiKitty training set is made to counter these problems. The kit comes with a special seat, made with rings in the middle that can be placed under the rim of the toilet seat. This seat is made to fit all sorts of toilets. This seat can now be filled with a handful of cat litter, so that your cat feels that they are using the litter they are otherwise used to. The training seat works just like the litter box they use otherwise, but on your toilet.
The rings in the seat can be removed one at a time, to expose a little bit of the water inside. By removing these rings slowly (one per week) the cat starts getting comfortable with sitting on the toilet and aiming for the water. As they start getting used to this, the litter can be used less frequently.
Eventually, you can remove all the rings and the cat will get used to just aiming for the water inside the toilet, rather than the seat. It takes about three to five months for this process.
The CitiKitty seat can accommodate heavy cats and also works if you have more than one cat being trained at the same time. It’s simple to use and inexpensive, which makes it a great one-time investment
The only downside is that the plastic tray has to have the rings cut out of them, rather than simply removed, which can be tedious to do since the plastic is quite hard. If you want to start over, you’ll have to use inserts.
Pros of CitiKitty
- No more litter costs
- Hygienic
- Gets rid of litter smell
- Fits all toilet sizes
- Only three to five months of training time
Cons of CitiKitty
- You have to cut out rings rather than simply remove them
- You still have to flush
- Might make a mess if the cat slips up and the litter falls out of the toilet seat
Who is CitiKitty For?
CitiKitty is for all cat owners who are tired of dealing with the cost and smell of their cat’s litter. However, the product was designed specifically with busy cat owners in mind, who live in small spaces and don’t have the space to keep the cat’s litter around.
The product also works excellently for people who are on a tight budget and cannot afford the litter, for people who have concerns around the hygiene factor about litter boxes and for anyone who simply doesn’t want to deal with litter boxes anymore.
Are There Any Alternatives?
There are plenty of alternatives available for cat toilet training now, since CitiKitty is so successful and Rebecca had to fight off a number of copycats (pun intended). The three main competitors for CitiKitty at the moment would be Litter Kwitter, Kitty Loo and Yagamii Cat Toilet Training Kit.
Our Final Thoughts
For any cat owner, dealing with their cat’s litter is quite the menace, and CitiKitty takes care of the problem in a simple, easy to manage method. Not only is the kit simple, it’s very low maintenance and trains your cat in record time.
Having a toilet trained cat is great for managing your household hygiene and cleanliness, and getting rid of the smell. It’s also quite a novelty, since you rarely find toilet trained cats around and your friends and family would be surprised to see your cat perch upon the toilet seat to get her business done.
