Can I flush cat poop down the toilet?
Yes, you can BUT you have to separate the poop from the litter substrate before you do so which makes the concept untenable. I think that answers the question in one sentence but I’ll carry on. There’s even a problem with flushing pure cat poop down the toilet with nothing attached to it and it is this. There have been stories of sea otters and beluga whales being poisoned by toxoplasmosis which the experts said had found its way into the sea from human toilets. It seems fanciful but that’s what they thought.
Either that or toxoplasma gondii oocysts in cat poop was washed into the sea via drains when cats pooped in the open perhaps in someone’s back garden. To be clear, although there is quite a small risk of cat poop containing toxoplasma gondii oocysts there is a window when an infected cat does this. It is quite a short window but it causes concern as the cat is the primary vector of toxoplasmosis.
Heart-shaped poop from cat litter tray that tells you that your cat loves you. Photo: Nikki Martinez on Instagram.
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So, it is not that clever to flush cat poop down the toilet anyway and certainly not when sodium bentonite, which is the clay litter substrate used in clumping cat litter, is used. You don’t want to flush this clay product into the sewer where it may cause a blockage over time. Wood based litter substrate is less harmful in this regard but the same principle applies really.
You will find that all companies concerned with providing water to households and taking wastewater away will state with firmness that you shouldn’t flush cat litter down the toilet. A lot of people flush a lot of different things down the toilet when they shouldn’t. The classic in the UK is restaurants chucking used cooking fat down the kitchen sink. When it cools at the point where it hits the drainage system under the building it congeals into a solid mass and there have been some huge congealed masses sometimes a hundred metres long and more in drainage systems in London causing genuine problems for the water companies.
10 litter box tips. Image: MikeB
Cat litter would be added to that problem in causing a conglomeration of waste which would be incredibly hard to remove. And I guess it is common sense, when you think about. The only things that should be flushed down a human toilet are pee, poop and toilet paper (which dissolves); these are the three ‘Ps’ conveniently. That’s what the system is designed to accept.
It is almost fashionable, by the way, for domestic cats to be trained to use the human toilet. This obviously avoids cat litter being chucked into the toilet but once again I’ve got to refer to my previous comment above. It is safer for other animals and society generally if cat poop mixed with cat litter substrate is put into landfill. An alternative is to compost it but my understanding is that it is not hugely successful and there may be complications.
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