Really OT! Need your best tips for controlling litter box odor!

[Lady Katherine]

My wonderful hubby got me a Ragamuffin cat for a late Christmas gift -- one I've been wanting for ages. She's a sweet little thing and we all just love her, but yikes!! :eek: Remember on the old TV show "Friends", when Phoebe would sing the "Smelly Cat" song? Well, I can't get it out of my head!

 

I empty this stupid litter box two to four times every day, sometimes more, and it's not enough! The little fiend runs in there the minute I've left the room, and uses it again. OR... she'll wait until I'm happily settled in a nice warm bubble bath (never before), and she'll hop in the box and stink up the whole room again. :ack2:

 

We have a septic tank, so I started out using one of those biodegradable litters you can flush. It couldn't control the smell, so I switched to a stronger multi-cat brand and carry the waste out to the trash each time. It still stinks! :banghead:

 

I'm feeding this stupid animal the same expensive food the breeder used (Diamond cat food), and when I tried to switch, the problem got a LOT worse. I haven't tried Science Diet yet, but she's so intollerant to changing food that I'm not very hopeful it will help.

 

I'm already using a covered box, and there isn't another spot in the whole house where this thing will fit. Hubby forbids me to move it to the laundry room for fear it will stink up the whole house.

 

He is not talking about getting rid of the cat (yet), but he's not happy. :toetap05:

 

Anyone have any ideas? Favorite litters, helpful foods, anything? Should I take this poor creature to the vet? I've had cats before, but I don't remember ANY of them smelling this bad. If anyone has the magic solution, I am ALL EARS!! :bigear:

[Nestof3]

We have a little box that is covered and also has a swinging door. The is the best I've found to control odor. I love it because the scoop is inside and there's a little grate that they step on before exiting to help litter drop off their paws before they come out.

 

We also use either Fresh Step or Scoop Away only.

 

We have two cats, and the litter box is actually in the kitchen.

 

The only time we smell anything is after the cat poops.

 

My son cleans it out in the morning, and I'll clean it out during the day after one of the cats poops.

 

Hope that helps.

[Jann in TX]

Luckily our cat is now an indoor-outdoor guy and prefers to go outside:). The first years we had him he was indoor only. I found that adding baking soda really helped with the odor. I also used odor-neutralizing 'stick-ups' (not the perfumy ones) and usually placed it on top of the air filter insert or on the side near the entrance.

[Brigitte]

A couple of suggestions...

 

1) While it seems counter-intuitive, an open box has fewer odor problems because the odor is able to dissipate. The covers trap the odors.

 

2) If you are using scoopable litter, Scoop Away has the best odor control of any that I have used. Our newest cat (I still call her our kitten, but she is over a year old now) produces the stinkiest waste of any cat I have ever had. Scoop Away has a frangrance to it that continues to work long after you fill the box.

 

3) If you don't have to use scoopable cat litter, Feline Pine is hands down the best at odor control of any litter I used. In fact, it might be too good. I had three cats using one box and rarely scooped between cleanings because you NEVER smelled the box. People would be shocked to see our cats because they could not smell the box at all. I have used the store brand of the Feline Pine and it worked extremely well. That variety of cat litter is also very budget friendly. I just wish my "princess" would accept change better so that we could go back to using it.

 

4) How often do you dump all the litter and start fresh? That could be a factor too. Eventually you have to start with a clean box and all new litter.

 

5) How old is you box? The plastic does start holding the odor. So, a new box could be in order too.

[Jeannie in NJ]

I have 7 cats and no-one has ever mentioned any smell from their litter boxes as we have extended family that would mention it if they noticed it. I use Tidy Cat Scoop litter. I alternate between the Odor Control one and the Multiple Cats one (which of course you would not need). I scoop out our boxes often, but for sure whenever one of them poops I will scoop it out right then. Honestly, this controls the smell. You might want to call your vet especially if there is an extremely strong urine smell. One of our cats started having a very bad urine smell and it turned out that he had an urinary tract infection with bladder crystals. Put him on fairly cheap antibodics and sd food that we got from the vet and problem solved.

[klmama]

When I used that for my cats the smell was much less than with store food. They pooped less, too, because of less filler. I'm not familiar with Diamond food to know how it compares.

 

As for litter, I found the best odor control came from Cat Attract and others from the same company. It costs quite a bit more, but it clumps better than Tidy Cat Multiple Cat formula and controls the odor better as a result.

[Remudamom]

All of the above, and I've noticed that when our cats were kittens it was much worse. Maybe when they get older they don't go as often? We have four indoor/outdoor cats that were kept inside only when they were little. They go outside a lot now, but we moved the box into the garage, and they sit by the door when they need it.

 

You're probably going to keep your little Rags inside all the time, right?

[2cents]

I agree with the poster who suggested the open box. We have 4 cats and only use a Brand name premium multi-cat scoopable (ie. Tidy Cat, Fresh Step etc.) The box is in the laundry room and we can easily see when one of the cats is doing his/her deed. We immediately scoop. My biggest tip for keeping odor down after scooping is to scoop into a gallon size zip-lock bag. You can use the bag throughout the day and toss in the evening. Sealing the 'deeds' in the ziplock keeps the odor away. I also sprinkle a little Tidy Cat deodorizing power after I scoop and give a quick room freshner spray. It all combines to work very well! Good luck with the new kitty!

[Alice]

Fresh Step scoopable litter and Arm and Hammer litter box deoderizer.

[Marie in Oh]

Our cats stink much worse when they eat canned food so we have switched to all dry.

[Krista in LA]

The best one I've found for our 2 huge cats that have a lot of output is Tidy Cat Scoop for Small Spaces. It seems to work a lot better than their other kind for odor control. That said, it's still going to stink right after the cat poops in it which will happen right after you get in the tub no matter what. Our cats will always use the box as soon as it's been scooped too.

[Michelle T]

The best one I've found for our 2 huge cats that have a lot of output is Tidy Cat Scoop for Small Spaces. It seems to work a lot better than their other kind for odor control. That said, it's still going to stink right after the cat poops in it which will happen right after you get in the tub no matter what. Our cats will always use the box as soon as it's been scooped too.

 

 

LOL, and they always seem to rush in to use the box right after cleaning. Actually, that's pretty smart of them!

 

I use Johnny Cat Less Tracking litter, which does seem to track SLIGHTLY less than the others. That's my main complaint, I'm constantly sweeping around the cat box because of the litter tracking. The litterbox mat doesn't help, because two of our three just leap over it, exploding cat litter everywhere.

Michelle T

[GailV]

Our cats stink much worse when they eat canned food so we have switched to all dry.

 

Ours is just the opposite! I imagine it has to do with the ingredients in the particular foods you use. There are junky canned foods, and less-junky dry.

 

I had a cat who reacted to any grains, so had some sort of IBS -- diarrhea and vomiting -- if fed anything other than quality canned or homemade.

 

We use open boxes, and have no problem. My only comment on litter brands is that the heavily scented ones can be offensive to the cats (they have very sensitive noses), and then you'll really find out about odor if they refuse to use the litter.

[newbie]

We use Feline Pine for our indoor kitties. We were having problems recently with vomiting and other stomach issues. They were eating Fancy Feast , we took her to the vet they found nothing.

 

We switched her food to Merrick and she is a whole new cat. No more messes. She is still not crazy about the food, but she has a whole new coat and gaining weight. It has human ingredients, all natural.

 

Hope helps,

Jeannette

[Erica in PA]

I'll also give a plug for Scoop Away litter. We use multiple cat formula, for our two kittens, and it's amazing stuff. I scoop out in the morning, and any time I notice that one of them has pooped. There is no smell whatsoever. We live in a small apartment, and our litter box is right off the living room, so it has to be completely odorless. At first I was dumping out the entire box and replacing it every week, but then I noticed that on the box it says you only need to do that once per MONTH. So while I don't expect to really go quite that long, I am going as long as I can before I need to change it. It's been close to two weeks already, and it's perfectly fine.

 

We use dry food, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. From all my research a few weeks ago, it appears to be have the best ingredients for the lowest price. It's comparable in price to some of the store brands, but much healthier! Smaller specialty pet stores tend to carry it.

 

Erica

[GailV]

Saw this YouTube video, thought of this thread:

 

 

 

WARNING: Explicit footage of cat elimination, plus implied beer guzzling (I'm not sure if it was the cat or the owner that was guzzling beer, though).

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the record, I was looking up info on clicker training cats, not just surfing the internet looking for videos of cats going potty.

[Maria from IN]

What has helped here is using a cat food that has no fish ingredients whatsoever. It's hard to find because all cat food manufacturers seem to think that they must add it to satisfy their little fuzzy tummies, but it sure doesn't help the litterbox.

 

We've only fed our cats dry food, but I would think that canned food achieves the same result. When this old crochety cat was a kitten we used a brand from Wal-Mart called Maximum Nutrition in a blue and silver bag, but now we use a mix of Cat Chow Indoor and Science Diet Mature Indoor formulas.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Felline Pine has been the best I've ever found

 

I am currently in the "switch over" phase, so I just have some mixed in with my Tidy Cat Crystals. The smell is gone! Even though our dear kitty doesn't want to be bothered with covering his goop, I still can't smell it.

[Miss Peregrine]

We put a cat door in our garage access door and the litterbox is in the garage.