cat litter box questions

[Little Forest]

We have ended up with 2 cats! I am new to the world of pets here.

Please tell me how you sort out the litter box. Take out the poop and clumps of urine 1-2X/day? Top up with litter as needed? How often do you wash the whole thing out and refill with all fresh litter?

I have been using brown paper bags to throw away which seems to do the job and I prefer to using plastic bags. Does anyone compost cat waste though? They are inside cats so presumably not high risk of parasites I assume.

[Virginia]

Originally Posted by Little Forest

We have ended up with 2 cats! I am new to the world of pets here.

Please tell me how you sort out the litter box. Take out the poop and clumps of urine 1-2X/day? Top up with litter as needed? How often do you wash the whole thing out and refill with all fresh litter?

I have been using brown paper bags to throw away which seems to do the job and I prefer to using plastic bags. Does anyone compost cat waste though? They are inside cats so presumably not high risk of parasites I assume.

We used to have two cats.

We had two litter boxes. They wouldn't share a litter box. My goal was to scoop each every single day, top with litter weekly, and completely empty/wash monthly.

[Soliloquy]

I've had cats for over 25 years. The most I had at once was 5. Right now we have 4. We have 3 boxes. They all love each other, 2 are brothers. No issues. But some cats are picky and want their own box. Some cats want one box for pee and one for poop. They're like crazy, furry, people.

A couple of years ago I discovered pine litter. Best litter EVER. It does not clump. But there is NO urine smell until it's time to dump out the whole thing and add fresh. I scoop out the poop about every other day and dump the whole thing maybe every 10-15 days? And it's CHEAP. The bags are small but you only put an inch of litter in. It expands as it gets wet and turns more into saw dust. As soon as I start to get a whiff of urine, I know it's time to dump the box. I'm spending less money, less time, and getting better results. I love it.

You can compost pine, wheat, or coconut litter. (You cannot compost clay litter.) It needs to compost for a full year, just like chicken manure. I've never done it, I'd read up on it before trying.

---------- Post added at 11:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 AM ----------

And I don't wash the litter box. I haven't needed to. But, if I was going to, I'd do it outside with the hose.

---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 AM ----------

By compost for a full year, I mean before using it on plants. If you just want to compost to avoid putting it in the landfill, you could just dump it somewhere on your property. I really should start doing that. I could dig a hole and just keep adding to it.

[rdsmommy]

I second the pine litter. I loved using it because you don't have to deal with the litter box smell and you can flush the poop. However we discovered dh and dd are allergic to pine so we switched to paper pellets which work basically the same way. I scoop the poop once a day and leave the rest until it's time to change it all out. With our 3month old kitten we have to change it once every 3 weeks or so.

[MegMarch]

We use a clay litter. I found the Boots and Barkley brand at Target makes a non-scented one and it's almost always in stock, so we tend to go with that.



I have read that it's best to have 1 box for each cat, plus a spare. We have 3 cats and 3 boxes. Two in the utility room, another in a bathtub. Because we have a cat who seems to have anxiety or stupid or something? and sometimes walks around like he has no idea we have litter boxes and then pees on stuff. Putting the box in the bathtub seems to have fixed it. I guess he is more likely to find that one when he wanders?



We scoop 2x a day, but when we go out of town we only have the pet sitter come 1x a day and they seem to accept that. We top off and clean as needed. In nice weather, outside with a hose. In yucky weather, in the bathtub. Scoop into grocery bags since we have those on hand. If not, I'd probably save things like bread bags and last legs zip locks for it.

[kiloyd]

My current method for my 1 indoor cat is pine pellets. I discovered I can get a 40# bag of pine pellets labeled for horse bedding at Tractor Supply Co. for $7.00 and it lasts me 3 months!!!! (some cats don't like the pellets though)

I scoop the poop when I see/smell it, he typically goes once a day. And dump the whole thing weekly.

I wash or wipe out as needed, either spraying with vinegar/water mix and wiping with paper towels or a quick spot clean if poop has stuck on , with a cleaning wipe.

[sothisislove]

Oh, I should try pine!!

[lavenlove]

Originally Posted by sothisislove

Oh, I should try pine!!

It sounds awesome but I’m afraid my kitty would refuse it. I guess I could fill a box with pine next to the traditional clay litter and see if she investigates. We are down to one cat but there’s not a good place in our house for a litter box, so it’s currently in our kids’ bathroom which means it’s more like the cat’s bathroom and an extension to my laundry closet!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Soliloquy]

You could also put some pine on the bottom and her usual clay on top. Then gradually reduce the amount of clay.

[sweetpeasmommy]

I’m totally trying the pine pellets. We have 5 cats and I spend way too much on cat litter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Soliloquy]

It seriously makes me so happy. I went on and on about how great it is for weeks after I switched. My dh got so sick of hearing about pine litter. But I am the one doing it and wow, so much better.

[kiloyd]

Originally Posted by Soliloquy

It seriously makes me so happy. I went on and on about how great it is for weeks after I switched. My dh got so sick of hearing about pine litter. But I am the one doing it and wow, so much better.

YES! I don't like the smell of clay cat litter.

I used to use Swheat Scoop, and that was good too.

I was buying Petsmart's version of Feline Pine and then discovered the same pellets labeled for horses WAY cheaper! I dump out the box about every week and put about 1" in.

[RooMama]

Ooh! I might need to look into pine. We have 2 cats and for years they were happy with just one box and then we remodeled our house. Now one kitty is a very naughty kitty.

[HadassahSukkot]

DH scoops twice a day, and around every other week will then scrap everything in the litter box and clean the entire box, the mat under it etc so that there is no smell in the house and our cat won't refuse to use her box.

Also, not all litter is the same, and some litter will bother your cats. We found that for our maine coon, some clumping litter will cause hard rocks in the bottoms of her feet, so we had to switch. We tried a paper or pine based litter and she was not happy with us at all, so we switched back to a clay clumping litter that has no deoderant or other smelly stuff and she's happy. Go figure.

When we had two cats, I think my dad did that around once a week with the litter box washing, and we kept two boxes. My mom would probably have more to say now that they have about 4(?) cats in the house.

[sweetpeasmommy]

I haven’t gone all in but I did put two litter boxes with pine pellets and left the rest with normal scoopable litter. So far they only pee in the pine pellets, no poop. I’m to go all in at this point because you know how litter box issues can go badly and become a real ongoing issue.

Still, I’m really liking it. The cleaning is taking less time and the trash doesn’t weigh a ton like it used to.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk