A lot has changed ever since. So many revolutions are changing the world—if it’s not the advent of refrigerators, it’s the air conditioners or even the vaccines. However, one that’s surprising is the toilet. How the heck would your waste disappear with just a flush?
If you’re too curious, you’ve probably wondered where your waste goes once you flush it? And what about your kitty’s poop—where does it go when you flush it? And depending on where it goes, is there a way it affects the environment?
Whether you are a green person or not, the chances are that you’ll at one point be concerned about what happens to the kitty’s poop you flush down the toilet. Or instead, want to know whether flushing your cat poop down the toilet is the right thing to do.
Can You Flush Cat Poop Down the Toilet?
No, flushing your cat poop down the toilet isn’t the best idea and not recommended. First, doing so may bring complications to your plumbing—damage your septic, clog your pipes, etc. Besides, cat waste might have a parasite called Toxoplasma, which can cause some severe health conditions to people.
In the United Kingdom, sewerage systems aren’t designed to kill parasites like Toxoplasma, which means flushing your cat’s poop can result in your kitty’s poop getting into the waterways, posing humans with severe health risks. And because you’re not sure whether or not your cat has the parasite, the best thing to do is avoid flushing your kitty’s poop down the toilet.
Negative Impacts of Flushing Cat Poop Down the Toilet
1. Can Lead to Plumbing Blockages
Cat litters can absorb moisture and expand fifteen times their standard size when they get wet. Even if your kitty’s poop has already absorbed some moisture from its litter tray, it will expand and get into the waterways.
If your cat uses clay litter, your kitty’s poop will harden when it gets wet. And you know how hard it can be when your cat’s poop hardens like cement. So what do you think will happen when this hard cement-like poop gets in between your toilet pipes?
Your plumbing will block, and it will be hectic unblocking it unless you get the services of a professional plumber, which will cost you a good amount of money. The best way to avoid such is not to flush your kitten’s poop down the toilet.
2. Human Health Risk
As I said earlier, cat poop can carry the deadly parasite called Toxoplasma, resulting in severe health conditions for humans. While there are people with strong immune systems that can prevent the parasite from causing any severe health complications, there are those vulnerable.
Pregnant women are at serious risk when this parasite is let out into the environment. The parasite can cause birth complications, such as miscarriages and defects in babies, such as brain damage. Besides, the parasite has been lately linked with mental impairment too.
If your cat consumes any food infected with the parasite, it’ll not show symptoms immediately but will poop the parasite eggs into the environment within one to three weeks. The eggs of the parasite take about five days to become infectious.
3. Can Harm Aquatic Life
Besides just causing severe health complications to humans, the parasite Toxoplasma can also harm aquatic life. According to Science Daily, Toxoplasma parasites cause death to seals, sea otters, dolphins, whales, and other marine life.
And the danger comes from the cat poops let out into the waterways—ending up into water bodies, such as seas, oceans, lakes, and rivers. When cat poop is let into these water bodies, the tiny aquatic mammals ingest them and transfer them to bigger mammals.
Toxoplasma doesn’t just kill the aquatic creatures outright, but it’s been found that sea otters with this parasite stand a higher risk of getting attacked by the sharks. The best way to stop all these from happening is to resist flushing your kitten’s poop down the toilet.
Can You Flush Cat Poop?
No, you should never flush cat poop down the toilet or any systems because, in most cases, the poop can contain Toxoplasma that’s both dangerous to humans and aquatic life. Apart from endangering both human lives and marine life, flushing your cat’s poop down the sewage system could end up clogging your pipes.
If you think of flushing your cat’s litter and poop into the municipal sewers, please don’t because most of them can’t eliminate the dangerous parasite, Toxoplasma. Because this parasite is most dangerous to those with weak immune systems, pregnant women, and aquatic life, don’t ever flush your kitty’s poop into the sewer systems.
Is It Bad to Flush Cat Poop in the Toilet?
Yes, it is bad to flush cat poop in the toilet as this can cause complications in your plumbing systems—damaging your septic and clogging your pipes. Besides, your cat poop could contain a parasite called Toxoplasma that’s dangerous to both humans and aquatic life.
According to CDC, Toxoplasmosis is a severe infection resulting from a single-celled parasite, “Toxoplasma Gondii.” Sure, this parasite can be found globally, but in the United States alone, more than forty million people have this parasite living in them.
Cats are the only animals that can carry the parasite and transmit it to other sources through their poop. In other words, you’ll be helping the cats spread the parasite to the environment by flushing their feces down the toilet.
Why Do Cats Run Around After Pooping?
You’ve probably seen your cat run around after they poop, and you’re wondering why that happens, right? Cats are like humans, and they have the vagus nerves that run from their brains to the large intestines, and they never cause exhilaration when your cat has pooped. However, there are more reasons your cat runs around after they poop—so let’s find them out.
1. The Cat Has Poophoria
Usually, when your cat poops, there’s a euphoric feeling in them, making them run around. The nerve that stimulates this feeling is called the vagus nerve.
Apart from stimulating this feeling, the vagus nerves also reduce inflammation, impact anxiety and fear.
According to thedodo, defecation in cats stimulates the vagus nerves that make your kitty behave in a way—running around and showing some signs of relief or anxiety.
2. It’s a Cat’s Survival Instinct
Cats have an instinct to stay away from any elimination scent to ensure that they are safe from any predators.
Maybe, the cat is smelling a predator’s poop, or it might think that a predator nearby might smell its poop and come after it. This feeling will cause the need to run around either for safety or to get away from the point it defected.
Your cat’s poop has a scent to it, even if it doesn’t to you. Because of this scent, they always want to move away as soon as they are done pooping.
3. Pooping Makes Cats Uncomfortable
Another reason why your cat might poop is that pooping is becoming a nightmare for it—it’s too painful, so it needs to get out of there as soon as it finishes.
Cats facing constipation might blame their litter box. As soon as they are done defecating, they’ll want to move away from the area because they think their difficulty in defecating results from the facility or litter box.
In some cases, your kitty might find it hard to use the litter box or avoid it. If you realize that your cat is finding it hard to poop, contact your vet to diagnose it.
4. He Just Relieved Himself
Apart from pooping, making your cat uncomfortable, survival instinct, and poophoria, your cat could run around after pooping to show relief. In other words, your cat will be showing its happiness after relieving itself.
Some cats also run around, mainly in the evenings, probably because they have napped throughout the day and so want to spend the energy they have reserved throughout the day. There are many reasons why your cat might run around—just make sure it’s not health-related.
Why Does Cat Poop Smell So Bad?
There are various reasons why your cat poop could smell so bad. One of the reasons for this is serious medical complications—probably due to an infection in the colon. Also, the smell of your cat’s poop could smell so bad if they ate some bad food. But if any of these aren’t the causes of your cat’s poop bad smell, it could be excessive gases resulting from what they drank.
It’s not recommended to introduce new foods to your kitty as this can cause their poop to smell so bad. In most cases, cancer, gastrointestinal tracts, inflammation, and infectious diseases could result from fecal abnormality. If this is the case, you need to seek immediate attention from a certified vet professional before it’s too late.
Sure, cats are clean creatures, but they do not like the presence of water. They strive to remain clean even though the presence of water irritates them. On the contrary, their litter boxes will start smelling the moment they poop in them. While the litter box will always stink, you need to be concerned when it has an unusual pungent smell as this could be a severe issue requiring immediate attention.
What Are the Alternatives to Dispose of Cat Poop?
We have insisted that you should never flush your cat’s poop down the toilet, but how do you dispose of them without hurting the ecosystem?
You can use various green and eco-friendly methods to dispose of your cat’s waste without harming the environment.
Let’s look at some of these ways to ensure your cat’s poop doesn’t end up in the waterways, causing severe health risks to aquatic life.
1. Biodegradable Litter
The first thing you can do is purchase a kitty litter made of natural materials—I’m talking about breakable materials. While buying your litter box, check out to see if it’s made of materials such as wood shavings, sawdust, recycled and compressed paper, pine, wheat, grass seed, etc. Most of these biodegradable litter boxes will cost you a bit more but worth it.
However, you need to note that most cat litter boxes have silica dust, which is dangerous as it can result in respiratory infections in humans and cats. Additionally, watch out for any litter boxes that have sodium bentonite or any fragrances. Fragrances and sodium bentonite are harmful and can cause havoc to the environment.
2. Biodegradable Brown Bags
Another way of disposing of your cat waste without letting it out to water bodies is to scoop the poop from the litter box, place it in a bag, and then seal it tightly.
Keeping biodegradable bags to keep your cat’s poop might be a good solution, but they might compost more quickly than expected.
The best way is to use a brown paper bag to wrap your cat’s poop before taking it into your bin. A brown paper bag takes less time to break down than a plastic bag.
3. Compost Cat Litter
There are many suggestions to compost your cat litter, but you need to do this with a bit of caution because this could also be dangerous to the environment—only compost cat litter when you are going to use it on non-edible plants.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, flushing cat poop down the toilet is dangerous. There are many reasons why flushing your cat poop isn’t good. First, you could end up clogging your toilet because cat poop gets as hard as cement when you flush cat poop down the toilet.
Besides, you could end up endangering human and aquatic life. The best way to dispose of cat poop is to use biodegradable cat litter boxes, biodegradable brown bags and only compost them if you’re going to use them on non-edible plants.