Litter box dilemma

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Chloe007

Chloe007

Member Since 2019
With Oscar still urinating way more than usual, I'm finding myself having to buy new litter almost every other day. By the day after I clean it, it's soaked to the point where scooping it is nearly impossible, so I end up changing it completely.

I just have normal litter boxes and wondering if any of you have a recommendation that will help control the litter usage or at least help make it easier to manage. I've tried different types of litter, and he won't go in the pellet type litters, so the next logical step seems to be changing the box itself.
 
FurBabiesMama said:
Maybe a bigger box?? I have this one and love it: https://www.chewy.com/petmate-giant-litter-pan-microban/dp/113423 (Got mine at Amazon, but they are currently out of stock there. Found same one on Chewy just now.)
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I appreciate the thought, but the one he's currently using is about the same size so I'm not sure size is the problem :/. Doesn't matter how much litter I put in, his urine just soaks until puddles start forming on top of rock hard litter.

I was thinking about one with a sifter, I used to use one for him pre diabetes and I loved it, but I'm not sure it would help much in this situation.

I was also thinking about an automatic cleaning one, they're a lot of money but if it works, it would pay for itself in less litter I'd have to buy. But again, not sure it would help in this type of situation.
 
Chloe007 said:
Doesn't matter how much litter I put in, his urine just soaks until puddles start forming on top of rock hard litter.
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Are the clumps being scooped out at least a couple of times a day? This sounds like maybe not... or like the litter is not absorbent enough. I understand going through more litter when they are unregulated and peeing people volumes, but I never had 'puddles on top of rock hard litter'.
 
I found normal litter boxes aren't big enough I had this problem to. Laugh if you want but I use the bottom of a rabbit cage. You know the kind with wire on top plastic bottom. I use the bottom part and I clean my box every night. Never had a problem since. I also find low dust litter helps a lot to more solid pee clumps no puddles
 
Rebecca.garfie said:
I found normal litter boxes aren't big enough I had this problem to. Laugh if you want but I use the bottom of a rabbit cage. You know the kind with wire on top plastic bottom. I use the bottom part and I clean my box every night. Never had a problem since. I also find low dust litter helps a lot to more solid pee clumps no puddles
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That sounds brilliant! Luckily, just within the past few days we've been seeing an improvement, and I've been better able to scoop out clumps that don't take up 1/3 of the litter itself.

@FurBabiesMama I do clean the box usually once per day, the problem is, when he's peeing such large amounts, they clump up and take a huge majority of the litter with them. One day of him peeing can leave me with such large clumps to where after I scoop them, there's barely any litter left. I'm sure cleaning it multiple times a day may help, but I just don't realistically have enough time in the day to scoop out his box multiple times. It's surprisingly hard to get them out, and cleaning the box has become a chore...which is why I'm looking for a solution to make my life easier so I don't have to be scooping multiple times per day, or at least for when I do, it's easier to clean. I was looking for recommendations for different types of litter or litterboxes that would make it easier, I'm not questioning why it gets so bad. Thankfully it's gotten a bit easier over the past few days, he's urinating less and we started filling up each box with about 12lbs of litter each, making it easier to scoop.
 
We use a baby pool--like for a infant. My Rico has passed but he and Drevon were both getting fluids so we had to get creative. It worked great for us and if there is arthritis you can cut it so kitty can literally walk right in. They aren't expensive so you can replace them as needed. The first time you put litter in of course is the largest amount I think we used two 20# bags of Dr Elseys Precious cat to fill it initially.
 
upload_2019-12-5_1-0-32.jpeg

Dre had some neuropathy issues so we thought it would look nice in front of the fireplace instead of the basement or spare room :confused: NOT. Anything for my Dre though :rolleyes::bighug:
 

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My mothet doesn't have diabetic cats but she does have five of them, and she swears by Arm & Hammer Clump and Seal Slide. She says it doesn't stick to the box and is very easy to scoop. I haven't tried it myself with that sticky diabetes pee, but maybe it would still work well.
 
Just to add my two cents worth I bought a few containers from The Container Store. I'm not at home to post a picture but they are basically large clear plastic storage containers that you can get from Wal-Mart or Target too. They are big enough for the cats to feel comfortable turning around and covering their business and not such high walls.
 
jayla-n-Drevon said:
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Dre had some neuropathy issues so we thought it would look nice in front of the fireplace instead of the basement or spare room :confused: NOT. Anything for my Dre though :rolleyes::bighug:
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Omg this is amazing. Unfortunately...I think I would just be coming home to three cats having a play date in the litterbox if I had this. One of my cats likes to sleep in the litterbox whenever we clean it (and we usually replace them about once a month, just because dirty boxes gross me out)...so I have a feeling this would turn into a bed for her haha. But honestly...I'm not ruling it out, yet.
 
April & Quincy said:
Just to add my two cents worth I bought a few containers from The Container Store. I'm not at home to post a picture but they are basically large clear plastic storage containers that you can get from Wal-Mart or Target too. They are big enough for the cats to feel comfortable turning around and covering their business and not such high walls.
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We already have bought pretty much the largest sized litterboxes we can find...but still, the ones I've found aren't really that big. I'm thinking I should go bigger, for some reason it never crossed my mind that it doesn't literally need to be marketed as a litterbox to be used as one. So this is helpful! I think I'm going to go look around in my storage room and see if I can find a large container that can be repurposed...
 
RockyRoo said:
My mothet doesn't have diabetic cats but she does have five of them, and she swears by Arm & Hammer Clump and Seal Slide. She says it doesn't stick to the box and is very easy to scoop. I haven't tried it myself with that sticky diabetes pee, but maybe it would still work well.
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This is actually the litter we were sticking to for a long time! I do agree it's probably one of the best out there for this problem. Recently we decided to go quantity over quality though, scooping those clumps is seriously a lot of work, so instead of scooping them out everyday I started just completely changing out the litter every three days or so, while still removing the surface level ones daily. So now we've just been using Special Kitty since it's only $9 for 40 pounds. It's just been easier to completely change the litter instead of trying to get those hard clumps out, plus no matter what type of litter we use, there's barely any left in the box once a couple clumps (a couple pees) are made. Once his urination is even just a little bit more under control, we plan to go back to this litter.
 
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