After more than 20 years of not having a cat, and never having had a cat that used a litterbox, I find myself now owned by Delilah , my first inside cat.
Having a litterbox in the house is every bit as disgusting and smelly as I thought it would be, and more. I clean it out every day (and no, I’m not pregnant, before you see fit to warn me) and so far have been using Arm & Hammer, on the recommendation of the previous ownees. I always thought you’d clean one out, oh, maybe twice a week, but I was wrong, this is a daily chore. It’s awful, though- even with daily cleaning I smell it when I walk through the door and every time I walk by the room it’s in. Jeezus, that thing stinks. Is there any particular litter you use or have used that makes it smell less, or, preferably, not at all?
On a related note, I’d really like to teach Delilah how to use the toilet and even flush after she’s done, as I’ve seen on YouTube. How do you train a cat to do that?
I use Tidy Cats scoopable. I tried Arm & Hammer a couple of times, because it was cheaper, but it was a big disappointment. No odor control and it didn’t clump well at all.
I hate scooping. I’ve gone as long as five days without scooping (two cats, four boxes) without noticing any smell.
– 'Swheat litter (wheat-based clumping litter. Clay = bad for cats due to inhalation and ingestion)
– Tidy Cats Crystal Litter (call it 1/3 of the contents)
– Nature’s Miracle Litter Deodorizer (2 Tbsp that you mix in with fresh litter)
– Liner in catbox (which has a covered top with a carbon filter, your cat’s mileage may vary)
– Cat litter Genie
– Diet control (Find cat food that is good for the cat and which also doesn’t result in super stinky leavings)
This works pretty well for me – when I can smell urine just passing by, it’s time to change the litter (liner and all). I scoop every other day or so, and I have two XL cats.
Covered cat boxes ( if your cat will tolerate them ) and some variety of silica gel ( if your cat will tolerate it ). I’ve used several litters and far as I can tell pure un-scented silica is king when it comes to controlling odor. I find scented litters are only slightly less annoying to me and when they get soiled magnify the worst of both worlds ( the whole “shit on a pine tree” experience ).
However not all cats go for it - you might want to mix it in gradually.
Costco sells a litter that’s fantastic. It’s called Litter Purrfect, and it’s lemongrass scented, which was weird at first, but it’s the most effective I’ve tried. All three of our cats share one box, and I clean it once a day and never even catch a whiff of anything. I’ve even forgotten a day and we didn’t start detecting any odor until the morning of day three, and the box is in my office, so I’d definitely notice. It’s cheap too! Thirty pounds for seven bucks.
I find scoopable to be a better choice overall and I normally just buy the 35-pound pails for $9 at Sam’s Club. Combine those with the sifting liners and you can change the litter every couple days with ease. The liners aren’t that expensive either; at least not the ones I get at Wal-Mart.
Fresh Step. I’ve tried a lot of different brands and decided the cheaper ones weren’t worth the savings.
I was thinking about trying to train my cat for the toilet but decided a single toilet house was not the place to experiment. If I could dedicate a toilet to the cats I would try it. The kits consist of a cover for the bowl that olds litter in the center. when the cats get use to the litter then you remove it and punch out the center. I think they include cap nip to get your get to seek out the new location. Not sure how you train them to flush.
I also invested in a monster scooper made of heavy duty metal. Worth the money.
This weekend I will get some Fresh Step, based on the recommendations here. If that doesn’t do it for me, I’ll invest in some more extreme measures, including going to Costco, liners, covered boxes, and silica. I didn’t realize there were kits to train your cat to use the toilet- I might look into that, also.
I use Tidy Cat Scoopable. The only odor problems are right after a kitty dump, for about 10 stinky minutes, and only because we have a small apartment. When we had a house, with litter boxes way in the back, we NEVER smelled anything in the more inhabited areas of the house.
Never had any luck with liners of any sort - the cats just tear them up as they’re covering their waste.
To this day, the absolute best litter I have ever, ever used is that ground corncob stuff. It’s flushable, so we just kept the litter box in the bathroom and scooped whenever we happened to think of it. It was expensive, but it clumped beautifully, never smelled, and flushed right down. It was amazing. Then one day, the year-old kitten decided he didn’t want to poop in it anymore, and clearly evidenced a preference for the living room floor. He was super stealthy about it, too–you could turn your back for half a second and there it would be, appeared out of nowhere.
We did all the right things: had more litter boxes than cats, in snug corners and out in the open. We scooped them all the time, everything you’re supposed to do.
He was just about one bowel movement away from a broken neck, when NajaHusband came home one day with a bag of el-cheapo clumping clay litter with baking soda–the stuff I, as an avowed organically-minded pet owner am supposed to detest. He changed out the litter, potty issues immediately resolved, and luckily for Poe, who was sort of losing his marbles prior to the kitten’s appearance, Grendel survived kittenhood.
+1 for Fresh Step. We bought it one time because we happened to have a coupon for it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn’t have to hold my nose when I scooped it.
I had some of that crystal litter (it’s not Fresh Step, it’s Random European Brand), and liked it better than the other, sandy sorts of litter, but I was worried about its environmental impact. What is that stuff made out of? Will it biodegrade, or am I covering the planet in plastic pellets?
I buy the extruded pine pellets that turn into sawdust, but instead of spending $3.50 for a 7 lb bag of Feline Pine , I go to the farm store and buy the same thing in 40lb bags that’s sold for horse bedding. That’s $4.50 or so. I also sprinkle Sweet PDZ in it, which absorbs the urine smell.
