? about cat litter

[hipchickie]

this may sound silly, but i was wondering what other people do....Our last cat could go outside (not by choice, he even destroyed several window screens to get out when we tried to keep him in) so the litter box was never used much, we scooped 1x midweek and changed the entire thing 1x a week

We just got 2 kittens, one for each of my kids, and the kids are in charge of the litter boxes. They are doing a great job, they scoop the boxes every single day. Since the boxes are kept well scooped, do we still change it completely once a week? How often do other people do it? It seems like a waste to just throw out a whole box of litter

 

[eleventhletter]

We have 2 indoor cats and I usually scoop everyday. I don't want to smell the box. I actually have never completely emptied the box and refilled it other than if I needed to completely replace the box. I just scoop everyday and once or twice a week pour some fresh litter in the box.

 

[Scrap4me]

I compliment the kids on being responsible pet owners!
A daily scooping is great, but do not give up the complete dump once a week! I am the long time mother of 7 great cats--while a daily scooping works wonders for the neatness factor--the weekly dump out is a must. When you do the complete dump, you need to disinfect the litter boxes completely! This helps kill any lingering bacteria that may be left behind after the daily scoop. If you use litter boxes made of a plastic material the odors of urine will be absorbed into the plastic over time and the kitties will begin to refuse to use the boxes. Their noses are 10x more sensitive than ours. Keep up the good work kids and the kitties will be your friends always!

 

[squirrel]

I'm going to switch over my cat's litter soon. I have been buying the Purina Max Scoop.

My mom just told me about the kind she uses. It called the Best Kitty Litter (ever?) and is available at Pet stores.

She says it's scoopable and is sold in a huge bag. She says it has no odor and no dust.

I have an indoor cat now so I scoop at least once a day.

 

[ilovejack02]

I scoop daily , I dump every weekend, every other weekend I dump and bleach, rinse well and let air dry. Crazy girl still won't poop in it , goes outside .. fenced back yard , gets her business on and runs the hell back in. She hates going out for more than a few minutes, precious pampered girl, which I am fine with . Do not want her outside for very long . When I had two cats, I scooped twice a day . We should have had two boxes, but when we tried it they only liked one . Go figure.

 

[kittychatalot]

i have two cats and they love it! there is a large maxi type pad that collects the urine which i change once a week and a bag of the pellets lasts one month for us. I buy it form amazon.com and have the pellets and pads delivered. People come into my small apartment and actually do not realize i have cats. you can find coupons for the set quite often. I have just one for the two cats which stays under my open bathroom counter in the master bathroom.

 

[Deb & Bill]

i have two cats and they love it! there is a large maxi type pad that collects the urine which i change once a week and a bag of the pellets lasts one month for us. I buy it form amazon.com and have the pellets and pads delivered. People come into my small apartment and actually do not realize i have cats. you can find coupons for the set quite often. I have just one for the two cats which stays under my open bathroom counter in the master bathroom.

I just got one of these the other day. Petsmart has them on sale for $24.99 with the Petsmart card. I also got an e-mail coupon that reduced the price another $5. Now I just need to get them to use it.

 

[TinkMomma]

I also highly recommend the Tidy Cats Breeze. Just make sure you still bleach/disinfect the box every once in a while. The urine can still get trapped in any scratches that the kitties may have made in the top portion. Since we're all cat owners (so far on the thread), this goes out to any newbies... Rule of thumb per both vets our kitties see: one litterbox per cat plus one. EXCEPT with the Breeze. We have three cats, two boxes, and noone goes anywhere but the box except in high stress situations (back home from the vet, dog going crazy, etc). Like the pp said, Amazon has great prices on the refills, and they are prime eligible (free shipping!!).

Good luck with the new kitties!!! My kids won't help a bit with the boxes, but sure do love to feed the cats! Lol

 

[eeyorethegreat]

I'm going to switch over my cat's litter soon. I have been buying the Purina Max Scoop.

My mom just told me about the kind she uses. It called the Best Kitty Litter (ever?) and is available at Pet stores.

She says it's scoopable and is sold in a huge bag. She says it has no odor and no dust.

I have an indoor cat now so I scoop at least once a day.

My Mom tried The Best Cat Litter and her cats refused to use it. they started going outside the box. She went back to her regular scoopable and they returned to the litter box. My cats they will go in anything I put in the box!

 

[torinsmom]

I have 4 cats. I scoop every day sometimes 2x day. About once every two weeks, I scoop well, dump the litter into a garbage bag and wash the litter boxes with clorox to disinfect them. Then I put the litter back in. Once a month, I dump, bleach and replace all the litter. This works really well and except right before I scoop, I never have stinky litter boxes.

 

[si-am]

We hardly ever dump the litter completely. If you get a kind that clumps really well, there's really no need to.

 

[Aunt Michelle]

My cats are such rebels! I have three adult cats (2F/1M), and one kitten (M). All indoor cats - all of them use the boxes regardless of what I put in them and we do not dump completely and disinfect, etc. unless somebody has had tummy troubles. We have one giant box, and two regular size high sided ones. I cut a cat door in the wall in the mud room and built a "kitty latrine" in the garage with a lid (lattice and tough screen) that lifts so I can scoop easily. Scoop once a day and using World's Best Cat Litter (corn based) - very expensive but lasts a long time.

 

[omghidanielle]

Our cats are absolutely insane. We have 3 boxes (for 2 cats) that have to be scooped and dumped every single night. I disinfect with bleach about once a month. When we go on vacation, we leave 5 boxes and have to have someone come dump the boxes every 2-3 days.

There's also a stray that sprays our backdoor and wall around the back of the house. So our boy cat sprays the inside door and wall

 

[lizbaby007]

I have 2 cats and 2 boxes. They are scooped twice a day. Morning and Night BUT if I am around and see one of them use it I will go ahead and scoop it. So sometimes they are scooped 3-4 times a day.

I dump and disinfect the boxes once a month.

 

[squirrel]

My cat has 2 litter boxes. The one in the basement never gets used (maybe because that one's enclosed). She likes the one in the dining room (this one should be exchanged with the enclosed one). I should have moved that one when she got older and could hop the gate at the top of the basement stairs.

I should have enough litter to last til after my trip and then I'm going to try out the World's Best Cat Litter. My mom did say her cats didn't like it at first. I think I will add it to the old litter so she gets use to it and slowly keep adding more until it's almost all new kind. Then maybe I should work on switching the litter boxes around. Yikes, I hope I don't confuse her too much and cause her to make a mess.

 

[torinsmom]

Our cats are absolutely insane. We have 3 boxes (for 2 cats) that have to be scooped and dumped every single night. I disinfect with bleach about once a month. When we go on vacation, we leave 5 boxes and have to have someone come dump the boxes every 2-3 days.

There's also a stray that sprays our backdoor and wall around the back of the house. So our boy cat sprays the inside door and wall

In always have to disinfect after a vacation. Man, my cats must get freaked out and it somehow affects their scent. The litter boxes stink when I get back every time. I have someone coming to scoop every day, so it has to be something else.

 

[thomas998]

With multiple cats you really need more than 1 litter box. Cats can be very finicky and if cat one goes, then cat two needs to a few minutes later... often cat two will not want to be that close to cat ones business because it still smells... In that case the cat will often use some other place.

We have two cats and if we had known what a pain in the back side having two were we would have never gotten the second one.

As for litter, it really just depends on which one works best for you... we've used low dust (not dust free though still dusty when you pour it), scoopable, multi-cat... you name it we've tried it. Fresh Step seems to work best for our cats. And the trick is to clean out whatever they leave behind as quickly as possible. If do that then you can easily get a week out of the box... frankly we can often get two weeks because when you are using the scoopable stuff most of the nasty is removed when you take out the scoop.

One other thing you might consider... you sound like your cats are also allowed outside... if that is the case then you will increase the chance of the cats eating something wild which could pose a risk to whoever cleans the litter box. Toxoplasmosis can be spread by cats in their feces, but is usually only found in cats that eat an infected mouse or bird... a house cat that eats only cat food is rarely going to be a carrier... so just be aware.

 

[purplegirl247]

We scoop every day, then dump the whole shebang about every week and a half or two weeks. If we don't, the urine starts to smell like ammonia.

 

[angierae]

I find that even with clumping litter, there will be little "pieces" of the clumps that fall into the litter, and it will eventually start to smell. I do a full dump and disinfect every 2-3 weeks.

I do want to try the Tidy Cat Breeze system but I'm afraid of outlaying that much money and then my cats hate it.

 

[Hellothemouse]

We scoop every day, then dump the whole shebang about every week and a half or two weeks. If we don't, the urine starts to smell like ammonia.

this is the same thing we do!