Litter Box Help!

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sotto1031

sotto1031

Member Since 2015
Hello friends!

I'm writing today because I am at my wit's END with my litter boxes. When the kids were in separate spaces, I started using Feline Pine for the Queen's box, because she was urinating so much that it made a total mess of clumping litter like Fresh Step. I practically needed power tools to chisel off all the litter caked onto the box.

Once the kids were roaming freely together, and using all the litter boxes interchangeably, I started using Feline Pine in all of them, but I don't think Anthony is really digging it (no pun intended). And it really does nothing to mask the scent of fresh cat poop, which both cats are very good at producing, so I just feel like the house smells like a disgusting mixture of pine and poop most of the time. I also feel like I am going through a lot of the stuff, which seems like it is going to get costly.

So, what kind of litter do you all use? Especially those of you who have sugar kitties and non-sugar kitties living together. THANK YOU for your help!!
 
sotto1031 said:
Hello friends!

I'm writing today because I am at my wit's END with my litter boxes. When the kids were in separate spaces, I started using Feline Pine for the Queen's box, because she was urinating so much that it made a total mess of clumping litter like Fresh Step. I practically needed power tools to chisel off all the litter caked onto the box.

Once the kids were roaming freely together, and using all the litter boxes interchangeably, I started using Feline Pine in all of them, but I don't think Anthony is really digging it (no pun intended). And it really does nothing to mask the scent of fresh cat poop, which both cats are very good at producing, so I just feel like the house smells like a disgusting mixture of pine and poop most of the time. I also feel like I am going through a lot of the stuff, which seems like it is going to get costly.

So, what kind of litter do you all use? Especially those of you who have sugar kitties and non-sugar kitties living together. THANK YOU for your help!!
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I have four kitties (one sugarcat and three civies). I use Okocat, the natural wood formula style. So far, this is the only litter I've found that all of mine - one female, three males - like, and that also controls odor well. The only drawback is that it's a little pricey, in my opinion.
 
We use Dr Elsey Precious Cat Ultra (blue bag). Got it on a recommendation for lower dust with good clumping and was pleasantly surprised that it did REALLY great on very little odor too. I refuse to use anything else at home now. Clumps fabulously as long as you keep it deep enough (too thin and you will have concrete on the bottom of your litter box). We also use it at the community room style shelter I volunteer at. I can always tell when I go into a room and a donated litter was used by the smell and the increased dust. We currently have 8 cats in the house. 1 senior with kidney disease, 3 sugar cats.
 
Yes, the litter is a real pain in the butt! It's very annoying to have just one cat ruining the whole litter box every day for the rest of the cats. I know she can't help it. It's a lot more work for me as far as clean up and another expense. I agree with Melanie and Smokey - I tried Dr. Elsey Precious Cat Ultra also - it's the best litter ever in my opinion. She is right that if it's too thin you will literally have "concrete" on the bottom of the box. I discovered this the hard way (several times) lol It doesn't have a lot of dust. It controls odor. It clumps like nobody's business. I suggest purchasing a high quality strong steel litter scooper. If you try to use a cheaper plastic one, it will bend and make it really hard to scoop the litter because it clumps THAT good!

It's not super expensive and I get a 40 lb. bag delivered straight to my door step from a site called chewy.com. It's about $17 (with shipping) but if you do auto delivery, it's only like $14. They can just keep sending it every 2 or whatever weeks. It may have been melanie & smokey that I got this info from. I can't recall, but whoever it was - thanks! It's the only litter I use now (I never thought I'd be at a point in my life where great litter was so exciting hahaha) :)
 
We use FreshRescue clumping. It's a corncob litter with a pine scent. It's pretty cheap at Walmart. We went with a natural litter because both my cats have asthma and clay litter has too much dust.
 
Try spraying a clean box with non-stick cooking spray before filling with litter.
Crystal litter does allow the liquid waste to drain through; you may want to put a pad underneath to absorb the urine and reduce odor.
 
I third the recommendation for Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra. Best litter ever! Mikey refuses to ues World's Best. I think he objects to the smell. I've had friend find bugs in it too. Hm, are bugs low carb? :)
 
Melanie and Smokey said:
We use Dr Elsey Precious Cat Ultra (blue bag). Got it on a recommendation for lower dust with good clumping and was pleasantly surprised that it did REALLY great on very little odor too. I refuse to use anything else at home now. Clumps fabulously as long as you keep it deep enough (too thin and you will have concrete on the bottom of your litter box). We also use it at the community room style shelter I volunteer at. I can always tell when I go into a room and a donated litter was used by the smell and the increased dust. We currently have 8 cats in the house. 1 senior with kidney disease, 3 sugar cats.
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Ditto here. I have 2 civvies and 1 sugar. I use the precious cat litter. I also use Pet Supply Plus brand. Non scented. I have asthma so the smell and dust are factors for me. It clumps great.

I use to use fresh step but when they started putting the carbon in 2 previous cats were allergic to it. Never brought it again. None of mine will use the light weight litters.
 
sotto1031 said:
Has anyone used World's Best Cat Litter?
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They had a large donation of that at the shelter when I first started volunteering. I was not a fan. I thought it very messy, didn't control odors (I thought the litter itself smelled really bad) and it didn't do hard clumps, it just coated the mess. Granted it was in rooms with 4-12 cats in them so maybe in a home the mess and smell would be lower, but I did not like it.
 
Thirty years, 12 cats, and I still haven't found the perfect system.

I have three cats and four boxes, one with Feline Pine but I concur it can do little about the cat poop smell as they don't seem to like to bury things in it. It actually makes me go clean it out sooner, so I guess that's not all bad... :rolleyes:

I use Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat straight in one box, but also but I mix it in with the Blue Walnut in two others - it makes everything lighter. The walnut doesn't clump as strongly and it would leave brown stains on white paws, but it is great for odour control and it "lightens" that concrete at the bottom of the pan.

I currently have an "experimental" box where I have the very bottom of the pan with a layer of Feline Pine, which admittedly is a dream at keeping the bottom of the box dry (plus it is so LIGHT when it's "used"), then covered with 3 inches minimum of Dr. Elsey's. We'll see how that goes...

FYI, I don't use Feline Pine specifically. You can get a 50 lb bag of horse pellets at the feed store (like TSC) for the same price less than half the quantity of Feline Pine. Call me cheap!!

I have read also that pelleted chick feed is comparable to WBCL but as someone mentioned, you can find bugs in it. It also has an odd, gamey, barn-like smell after a while that I find off-putting. Lastly, it created an almost gooey residue in the bottom of the pans that was just gross. Tried it, didn't like it... your mileage may vary!
 
I've used the Breeze litter box for over 5 years and loved it. Once you scoop the poop out, there's practically no scent. I use a litter genie in conjunction with it to deal with disposing the poop, and it works awesome. I change the bag once every week or so and there's never any smell. You change the pads in the Breeze once a week, and just scoop the poop into the litter genie whenever the cat goes. You completely change out the pellets once a month.

The one caveat is--this litter system does NOT work well with loose stools. When Bandit had his bout of pancreatitis/IBD back in March, I put one of the breeze boxes downstairs for him to use but I filled it with Feline Pine (without using the breeze pads). The pine dust falls through the slotted bottom into the tray when you sift through it, and I just empty the tray every other day or so when it is filled up. It requires a little more effort than the Breeze pellets/pads, but you don't have to change out the pellets ever because you're constantly cycling through them, and it's good for dealing with runny stools. Bandit's poop has been back to normal for a few months now, but I've been lazy about switching back to the breeze pellets for that box--it may not be a bad idea to just keep it like that in case we have any more loose stool incidents. The two upstairs boxes are breeze so little extra work dealing with one with pine isn't a big deal.
 
This is all SO helpful -- thank you, everyone! I knew I couldn't be the only one with litter issues. :p

I went to the store last night, and sadly they didn't have the Precious Cat Ultra, just one with pine mixed in and one called Cat Attract. So I might order it online. In the meantime, they did have World's Best, so I figured, what the hell I'll give it a shot. I definitely don't like the cornmeal/farm smell (although I guess there is a scented option that people seem to like). I will say though, the Queen's clumps don't stick to the litter pan AT ALL. It was the easiest scooping I've done since I brought her home.

Brashworks said:
FYI, I don't use Feline Pine specifically. You can get a 50 lb bag of horse pellets at the feed store (like TSC) for the same price less than half the quantity of Feline Pine. Call me cheap!!
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That is exactly what they do at the shelter where I volunteer! That's where I even got the idea of using pine litter... if I were going to use it long-term, I'd definitely go for the cheap stuff too!
 
We just tried the Dr Elseys and it's fabulous!!! The low dust is my favorite part of it (We've always used Tidy Cat in the past). Chewy & Amazon have it for about $14 a 40 lb bag.

I have tried World's Best. It's great for low dust, however it stinks (literally) for odor control and clumping. Same with the Blue Walnut. That stuff tracked horribly!
 
The Blue Walnut tracked little paw prints around my house. I didn't think it clumped enough. The light weights to me don't seem to clump at all. Tidy Cat has to much of a smell even their "unscented" would send me into a sneezing attack or set my asthma off.

I have tried Elsey's other litters also. I like them all except the one for long hair cats. I mostly get the blue box, but buy the others when there are none on the self. Which seems to be often.
 
After my civie Beni developed a sinus infection from wheat kitty litter and trying other low dust brands I finally settled on Petco's low dust, scent free clay kitty litter. You buy a reusable 40lb pail and bring it back for cheaper refills. Best of all my kitties like it and Beni's sinus infection went away for good.
 
I use the costco litter. I cant remember the name of it but its in a green container. I rotate litter boxes, when the litter is really low I dump it and use bleach and water to soak the box and put new ones out. I do this every week or every other week. It seems to help a little with with clumping cement. I also use a plastic paint scraper or wallpaper scraper to loosen the clumped urine, by sliding the scraper under it then using the cat scoop to pick up clump. It may be a little more work but it makes it easier to get the clumps to break free.
 
I also use the Dr Elsey's, works great. Virtually no dust, love that and good order control. Chewy.com is a great way to buy it. I bet my FedEx guy thinks I'm buying bricks online! Lol

About every 3-4 weeks, I wash out the sandbox and I use paste wax for floors on it. It only takes 5-10 more minutes and works so well. I have 6 cats, and one large sandbox that I bought at Petco, it has curved sides which is awesome as that means no tight corners!
 
Tammy are you saying all 6 cats use that 1 box??? If that is so I really need to try that litter cause right now I am using scoop away and it is ok... way to dusty and does not control the smell of boy kitty pee real well.
 
smiley747 said:
Yes, the litter is a real pain in the butt! It's very annoying to have just one cat ruining the whole litter box every day for the rest of the cats. I know she can't help it. It's a lot more work for me as far as clean up and another expense. I agree with Melanie and Smokey - I tried Dr. Elsey Precious Cat Ultra also - it's the best litter ever in my opinion. She is right that if it's too thin you will literally have "concrete" on the bottom of the box. I discovered this the hard way (several times) lol It doesn't have a lot of dust. It controls odor. It clumps like nobody's business. I suggest purchasing a high quality strong steel litter scooper. If you try to use a cheaper plastic one, it will bend and make it really hard to scoop the litter because it clumps THAT good!

It's not super expensive and I get a 40 lb. bag delivered straight to my door step from a site called chewy.com. It's about $17 (with shipping) but if you do auto delivery, it's only like $14. They can just keep sending it every 2 or whatever weeks. It may have been melanie & smokey that I got this info from. I can't recall, but whoever it was - thanks! It's the only litter I use now (I never thought I'd be at a point in my life where great litter was so exciting hahaha) :)
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I like the auto delivery thing. Great idea. I will have to see if I can find some of it in the Pet store to see if the Royal Brothers will use it.
 
Mogmom and Goofus said:
I also use the Dr Elsey's, works great. Virtually no dust, love that and good order control. Chewy.com is a great way to buy it. I bet my FedEx guy thinks I'm buying bricks online! Lol

About every 3-4 weeks, I wash out the sandbox and I use paste wax for floors on it. It only takes 5-10 more minutes and works so well. I have 6 cats, and one large sandbox that I bought at Petco, it has curved sides which is awesome as that means no tight corners!
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Paste was? Is that for easy cleaning? Any smell to it?
 
Mogmom and Goofus said:
I also use the Dr Elsey's, works great. Virtually no dust, love that and good order control. Chewy.com is a great way to buy it. I bet my FedEx guy thinks I'm buying bricks online! Lol

About every 3-4 weeks, I wash out the sandbox and I use paste wax for floors on it. It only takes 5-10 more minutes and works so well. I have 6 cats, and one large sandbox that I bought at Petco, it has curved sides which is awesome as that means no tight corners!
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I have that same litter box from Petco, it's huge, looks like an igloo and like you said it has rounded corners for easy clean up.
 
We also use Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra. If you want a more pellet-ish litter, there's always newspaper pellets, but it doesn't cover smells well.
 
Maahes won't poop in the litter box because of his legs, so he poops on puppy pads right outside of them. Naturally this smells. My secret? A cheap air purifier and a febreeze car vent plug-in (plugged into the blow vent of the purifier) near the litter boxes. It keeps the house from smelling like cat poop at ALL times, even right after he poops. Could be an alternative if expensive litters are cost prohibitive and aren't helping.
 
Julia Rae said:
Tammy are you saying all 6 cats use that 1 box??? If that is so I really need to try that litter cause right now I am using scoop away and it is ok... way to dusty and does not control the smell of boy kitty pee real well.
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Yup, all 6 use one sandbox. I sometimes scoop it twice a day. One of the kitties, Moggie, travels in the semi with my husband,( long story) so he's not home a lot, but there always 5 at home. I've tried SO MANY kinds/brands of litter, it's the best one I've found. I have an asthmatic cat and the dust causes her a lot of problems, Dr Elsey's is virtually dust free.
 
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I am trying Tidy Cat litter and bought a metal cat scoop. This litter is so much better, it only clumps the urine and doesnt turn it into cement like the costco litter I use for my other cats. For my other cats with normal urine output the other litter is fine but Ben uses the litter box so much, I was going through 35 pounds of cat litter in three days with that costco litter just on him alone. The Tidy Cat is lasting alot longer. And the metal scoop makes it so much easier to clean the urine clumps.

Windy Ben's Human
 
Benshuman said:
I am trying Tidy Cat litter and bought a metal cat scoop. This litter is so much better, it only clumps the urine and doesnt turn it into cement like the costco litter I use for my other cats. For my other cats with normal urine output the other litter is fine but Ben uses the litter box so much, I was going through 35 pounds of cat litter in three days with that costco litter just on him alone. The Tidy Cat is lasting alot longer. And the metal scoop makes it so much easier to clean the urine clumps.

Windy Ben's Human
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I hope the litter works for your cats . I used to buy Dr. Elseys Precious Cat Ultra and it was great for awhile but I started get some very dusty bags and my cats were having sneezing fits so I switched to Arm & Hammer Super Scoop Unscented and so far it is great with hardly any dust .
Off topic , I have seen the term " civies " used several times . What is that ?
 
Philippe & Mei Li said:
I hope the litter works for your cats . I used to buy Dr. Elseys Precious Cat Ultra and it was great for awhile but I started get some very dusty bags and my cats were having sneezing fits so I switched to Arm & Hammer Super Scoop Unscented and so far it is great with hardly any dust .
Off topic , I have seen the term " civies " used several times . What is that ?
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I have no idea what a civie is. I have seen squallie used and dont know what that is. I figured sugar cat means a cat with diabetes and is on insulin.

The costco litter is so dusty, it says 99 percent dust free, but that 1 percent dust is alot. What is SS after people's cats name in the signatures?
 
Benshuman said:
I have no idea what a civie is. I have seen squallie used and dont know what that is. I figured sugar cat means a cat with diabetes and is on insulin.

The costco litter is so dusty, it says 99 percent dust free, but that 1 percent dust is alot. What is SS after people's cats name in the signatures?
Click to expand...

Someone answered that for me , Civvie refers to a non - diabetic cat . I don't know what SS is though ..
 
Bojangles & Waimea use World's Best. Even though they have separate boxes (and Waimea her own room so no litter box sharing) when Bobo developed diabetes I started with the Multi-cat formula. If you clean the box everyday it clumps just fine. It works best for Waimea since Bobo does pee more (and always in the same corner). But with the more natural litters kitties often don't cover the poop, so it can be stinky. I wouldn't change litter though - I do like World's Best.
 
You might check out a cement mixing tray from Home Depot. Its big enough, there aren't any major corners, and litter comes off the plastic fairly easily.
 
I buy the large flat storage boxes (they are designed to be under-bed storage, I believe) from Walmart. They work great for my cats, who don't care for the smaller size of the traditional litter boxes. These also have slightly lower sides which make it easier for older kitties to climb over.
 
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