Leaving on vacation, litter box question

[helenabear]

I am not a cat person and so I don't want to sound stupid, but don't they make those automatic scooping boxes? Then the person who comes to feed them would just have to pick up the tray and dispose of the mess instead of actually scooping. You could even set up a garbage can specifically for that outside.

They do, but honestly I haven't found them ever to work well, especially with multiple cats. They get jammed too frequently and would be more work than it is worth.

IMO, I would go with the disposible pans they can just toss out and ask them to do that for you. When I cat sit, I have no trouble doing litter though (have cats of my own) so when I am asked to watch the cats, i know that is part of it.

 

[CEDmom]

Thanks for your response, that sounds like a good idea.





To the others who left what I would consider rather negative responses, we love our cats and wouldn't do anything to hurt them, they will be fed every day, people are leaving responses that makes it sound like we are leaving them alone for eleven days.

I don't think anyone is leaving negative comment they're trying to save you a big mess when you get home. Quite frankly is someone excepted me to use a toilet for 11 days w/o flushing I'd be looking for somewhere else to go .

 

[CheshireVal]

I'm sorry, but 11 nights with no scooping, even if you had only one cat, would be really gross.

We have two cats and if we're going to be gone more than one night, we leave out two litterboxes. If we're going to be gone more than two nights, we hire a petsitter to come every other day to feed and scoop. It costs us $18 a visit-- so when we were at WDW for 11 nights last year we paid about $100 to the petsitter.

If you can afford a long vacation, you should be able to swing another hundred for that. Check petsitters.org for reputable people in your area.

 

[dreamcometrue]

does your neighbor have cats? If she does, I bet she wouldn't mind one bit to scoop. I also like the idea of the disposable litter boxes. I honestly wouldn't let them go for that long without scooping, even 3 of them. Cats can be very picky and if their litter box is full, they will just go anywhere...carpet, etc. Besides, you will come home to a stinky house. I have a friend who is a pet sitter, who will come to people's houses while they are on vacation, and feeds their pets, does the litterboxes, walks the dogs, etc. She charges $10 for a basic visit, if she has to walk the dogs she charges more! So even if you have someone like that come in every other day to scoop the litter boxes, it's not going to cost you that much.

 

[emmabelle]

I don't think anyone is leaving negative comment they're trying to save you a big mess when you get home. Quite frankly is someone excepted me to use a toilet for 11 days w/o flushing I'd be looking for somewhere else to go .

I'm sorry but one post actually had words that were typed in bold face, and I thought that was over the top. To be honest, when we only had one cat we would just dump the litter once a week without scooping it, I guess we just never knew that we were doing anything wrong. The litter box is a hooded one kept in an unfinished basement and we don't spend much time down there, so we never much thought about scooping it. We also put 10lbs of litter into our box, and were planning on leaving them with 30 lbs of litter to use.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

11 days is too long IMHO!

when we are gone for 8 or 9 days, we have someone scoop. We leave out 2 boxes (we have 2 cats and normally have 2 boxes) - and then have 2 back ups ready to switch out. We don't expect them to clean the boxes or empty the litter - just put the 2 used ones aside and put out the 2 new ones that are all ready to go.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

OP, you asked a question and now you have received many answers. It sounds like you all ready had your mind made up. I always wonder why people ask questions, when they don't want to hear the answers. but I digress...

I have one cat and we scoop at least once a day (more if needed) and completely change the box twice a week. I figure I wouldn't want to have to keep going in my own waste, why would I expect Kitty to do that? Plus the litter box is kept in the laundry room, so we can smell it if it smells.

I like the idea of the disposables if you don't want the caretakers to have to scoop or clean the liter boxes.

 

[helenabear]

to the OP, you say you do the litter box once a week with regular litter, right? You aren't scooping then coorect? I will admit before we used scoopable, we could go a lot longer than two or so days (that we do now with our two large litter boxes). I still think 11 days is a bit much. If you are used to doing 1, then I would make it triple just in case.

 

[bluejaygirl]

I bought a stack of disposables, and just had my friend (who was checking the non-boarded pets)toss the whole thing in a garbage bag when it got rank. Much easier than scooping..

 

[emmabelle]

OP, you asked a question and now you have received many answers. It sounds like you all ready had your mind made up. I always wonder why people ask questions, when they don't want to hear the answers. but I digress...

Actually, I totally regret asking the question and wish I hadn't responded, but thanks anyways.

 

[flipturngirl]

I would put the cats in a kennel if you do not want your neighbor to clean the box. Everytime we go away our grandmother comes and feeds my cat and the box......

 

[poohandwendy]

deleted- i'm just going to start my own thread so I don't hijack this one with my questions~

 

[EthansMom]

In the past, we've left our older cat for longish vacations (7-10 days) with one giant clean litterbox and she was fine. We'd also leave her lots and lots of food and water (plenty of dishes of water).

Now that we have a kitten too, we plan to have MIL come in to check on the cats' litterboxes, food and water. The kitten eats more, drinks more, and poops more than our older cat. She also eats stuff she shouldn't (paper, fabric, food dropped from the table) and generally makes messes, so it's smart to have someone check on her.

If I had two older, quiet cats, I would leave 3 or 4 litterboxes and a heck of a lot of food and feel confident that things would go well.

 

[shortbun]

Where do I get a disposable litter box? We usually leave an extra for our one cat and ask the neighbor to scoop once. Our neighbor has cats so they don't mind doing it once. Disposable might be better although I hate increasing our trash dump contribution.