We’re going to have a feline invasion when our daughter, son-in-law, and grandbaby move in with us next summer. They have 3 cats (and a dog, but the dog’s not an issue) and we have 2. Our 2 have been fine sharing a single litter box, but it won’t work with 5.
No, they’re not getting rid of their cats. This will be a short-term arrangement while they get jobs and decide where they want to live. They’re relocating to this area in June and neither of them wants to live with us long-term. But we have to deal with the extra critters for however long it takes. So don’t bother suggesting they rehome the cats - that won’t happen.
Our problems:
[ul]
[li]both bathrooms are too small to accommodate a box[/li][li]our dog loves the tootsie rolls from the cat box, so it has to be secure from her[/li][li]we do have a basement, but it’s my husband’s workshop and he has a business working down there - the basement laundry room is a possibility, but not ideal[/li][li]we will not let the cats roam outside, period.[/li][/ul]
The current cat box sits on the landing to the basement stairs, with access via a cat door that’s too small for the dog. We could put a second box out there if we added a shelf over the current box - anyone ever done something like that?
Another thought was to make some sort of cabinet to hold a litter box, placing the access door so that the dog can’t get in, but the cats can - we could put it in the foyer since we exclusively enter and exit thru the garage.
I also considered emptying the cabinet under the bathroom sink and having a box in there, tho I haven’t looked at the space available to be sure it’d work. Another possibility for all but the coldest months is to have a *catio *arrangement on the porch, accessed from a window with a box out there. It’s a covered porch, so rain won’t be an issue.
Our dog likes poop too so we use a kiddie gate. Right now its blocked with plywood with a cat hole at the bottom for them to get in there. Course now the plywood is too tall for me to reach over sitting down, thanks to husband’s bright idea.
Obviously your cats are different from mine, but when we had two, one box would not have been sufficient at all. I was taught “number of cats + 1” when calculating how many litter boxes there should be, but our basement is just laundry and man-cave so space isn’t an issue for us.
I would go with the shelf idea; doesn’t use any more real estate on the floor, and is isolated from the dog.
Are your litter boxes open or covered? Would the dog get into a covered litter box?
We used to have a covered box, but the dog could get her face into it, so that wasn’t a help. If we do that 2-story outhouse approach, the top one will likely be covered.
I’ve heard the “cats + 1” recommendation, but ours seem to do fine with just the one box. It’s pretty large and it gets cleaned religiously - I’m sure that helps.
I wonder if we can rig a kiddie gate across the foyer? It’s about 5’ wide - that may cause an issue… but it’s worth considering.
We had 3 cats for 14 years, and they shared a single litter box in the basement, under the stairs.
But you know the litter boxes sold in pet stores? Nobody says you have to use those dinky things. We use a plastic storage container (the kind you store your sweaters in during the summer) as a litter box - I’m at work and it’s at home, but I’m guessing it size at about 2 feet by 16 inches, and a foot deep (which allows for 6-8 inches of cat litter depth).
I built a box that’s open on one side so the cats (actually, down to just one cat now) can get in, and walls going up a couple feet on the other three sides to keep the litter semi-contained when they kick it up. Built a step on the open side to make it easier for the cats to get in and out, since it’s a bigger step in and out than a conventional litter box is.
I’d say 3 litter boxes for your 2 and 4 litter boxes for the incoming 3. It’s probably best to have the new cats live and get used to each other’s scent by having the incoming 3 live in the basement for a while and keeping the current 2 and dog above. A 2 cats + 1 dog vs 3 cats fight would be bad. Your husband may have to temporarily tolerate cats in his area.
To make litter changes easier, you may want to wrap a trash bag around the litter box. When you want to change it, you roll it inside out.
They make pieces of furniture that hide the litter box. Here’s one that I got. If you do some looking, there are a wide number of options. I have also put a litter box under a bathroom sink. I took off one of the cabinet doors and used a curtain on that side instead. I used a door spacer, that held the door open a certain amount. It was meant for laundry rooms, but it worked well for this. The dogs couldn’t get in, but humans could easily open the bathroom door all the way when they needed the room.
Sorry, I didn’t read the whole thread. What I did when I had six indoor cats was get one of those plastic kiddie wading pools (might be hard to find one at this time of year) and put three litter boxes in it. That way even when they tracked litter outside the boxes, it stayed in the larger container. I DID have the luxury of an extra room that I wasn’t using, so this stuff went in there. Best of luck.
When I had two cats, I had two boxes next to each other downstairs, one in another room downstairs, and one upstairs. The upstairs one never got used and was in the way, so eventually we just went with the three downstairs.
We had the # of cats + 1 litterbox rule, but eventually we were down to one cat, and we still maintained those three boxes.
Now we have no cats.
But the sad fact is, this house apparently was not built with a litter box in mind, because really there’s only one good place to put one, and that’s in the mechanical room. Everywhere else it’s just really inconvenient.
GMTA - I was thinking about doing something similar, combined with Sunny’s bench that hides the box. What I think would work is a cabinet with a “door” on top so the cats can get in and out, but the dog can’t.
The dog is a pug and while she’s too big for a cat door, she’s still small enough to get into a lot of places. I don’t want to have to invest too much money since (with luck) this will only be for 6 months or so at most.
We have a covered front porch and a tall window that goes almost to the floor. Last summer, we talked about making a “catio” with a cat flap incorporated into the window for our cats - that might provide another place for a cat box, at least in decent weather.
As for the basement, my husband’s shop is for metal working, woodworking, welding - not at all a pet-friendly space. A box down there would be an absolute last resort.
