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Litter box recommendations?

the_mother_thing

the_mother_thing

Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Mar 2, 2013
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Probably a silly question, but I haven't had a litter box in years since Charlie preferred to do his biz outside. Now that we have Miss Muffin moving in, I need to pick one up for her before Sunday's homecoming. I'd prefer something enclosed (lid, swinging door, filter, etc) but not sure if there are some better than others, or if there are more 'modern conveniences' now that I might consider. I was kind of interested in those 'self-scooping' ones, but not sure how good they really are, in practice. :confused:

Any suggestions/recommendations (good or bad) based on your experiences? Thanks! :wavey:
 
Congrats on your new kitty, she sounds like a little minx. I'm so sorry about your poor King too.

As an official "crazy cat lady" (@tm) the best advice I can give it keep it simple at first. You could try the fancy one (self cleaning and so forth) but some cats can be scared of things that move or make noise, and that's not a problem you want where a kitty box is concerned so I have always kept to simple boxes that are cheap and easily replaceable. I keep one covered box in the house for those who like to be enclosed (some feel trapped that way and others are fine with it) and then several others in different sizes around the house with different wall heights.

I would give her 2 boxes (in slightly separate, quiet locations). One smaller sized and one larger. I change all boxes once a day.

I've had cats ALLLLL my life and notice that given the choice, they often prefer to do separate business in separate boxes. :roll:

If she's a longhair- also you can't start too soon getting her used to being combed...and having her claws clipped. The earlier you start messing with her claws and taking tiny nips off the tip with a clipper the better...
 
I once had a fancy self-cleaning one and hated it. Now we just have an extra large normal one that I have tucked under a counter in the laundry room. That's been perfect except I *think* we may be getting a dog soon so I might need to get a covered one to keep him out.
 
We just use plain boxes & the "litter catching" matts that never catch everything.
They're in the basement so it's away from all company & foot traffic. I haven't tried the fancy new boxes.
One if my cats is super finicky about which litter I use so I fear any changes would just cause problems.
Keeping it simple.

One of my friends kept theirs in the guest 1/2 bath & cleaned it religiously. It never ever smelled and I never saw any litter
anywhere every time I visited. Plain old corner type box. I was impressed. If you keep on top of it I don't think it's a problem.
 
I have the clever cat and an extra large litter mat underneath and a litter genie. However, we just went from 3 to 4 cats so I've ordered a litter-robot so I hopefully can be relieved of some scooping responsibilities! Our newest girl is a tortie, too, but with short hair and extra toesies, so I was extra delighted to see your thread about Miss Muffin!!!!
 
Great points from everyone; thanks so much! I wondered if those auto-scooping ones were more hassle than they're worth. I will aim to keep it simple for now, and ask the foster moms what litter they use to keep the changes to a minimum for her. I am trying to think through everything I can to make the transition for Miss Muffin as smooth as possible. As weird as this might sound, I even thought about asking the foster moms to bring a 'deposit' she made in her litter box there so I can put it in her new one here so she knows 'this is mine'. Is that crazy, or might that be a good idea? :shifty:

The guest bedroom has a door to a bathroom, so I planned to keep the litter box in there where she can get to it but the dogs won't.

She is shy and leery of strangers, so it will probably take some time for her to warm up to us, but once she does, morning brushings (like I did with Charlie) are something I am looking forward to. :D
 
Okie_girl|1489071962|4138396 said:
I've had good luck with the clever cat litter box. The top entry does keep the litter from going all over the place, at least to some extent!

https://www.clevercatinnovations.com/top_entry_litterbox_about.aspx
Click to expand...

I saw these, and like the idea. My only concern is if she can comfortably jump up & into it with her leg injury. She probably can since she can jump onto a chair. I just worry if she has a day where maybe it aches a bit (arthritis), that it might be problematic for her.

Ideally, I would LOVE to potty train her. My grandparents did that with one of their cats, and that was awesome!
 
DD just sent me this. :lol:

fb_img_1489075845536.jpg
 
Some cats don't like covered boxes, some prefer translucent ones. Most prefer deep sided boxes and most like to pee in one box and poo in another. Even if you have only 1 cat, you should have 2 boxes.

I used to use sterilite storage boxes which were perfect for my rather large cats. However, I got fed up with having to empty, clean, and refill 6 boxes each month. Each box took a lot of litter.

So I bought 3 Litter Robot Open Air automatic cleaning "boxes" and they're awesome. Expensive at $450 a pop but worth every penny. Cat leaves the box, cleaning cycle begins, pee & poo drop into drawer under the robot and all I have to do is change the bag when the blue flashes telling me it's full.
 
Lovely neighbors left me a custom-made box when they moved. It is about the size and shape of a child's toy box. There are two equal-sized compartments, one with a large mouse-hole-shaped entry from the outside into an antechamber with a mat of plastic grass, then another mouse hole into the second chamber, which contains a large regular litter box. The top opens, both for cleaning and for letting the cat get used to using the system without being cut off from the light. Both of my cats preferred privacy when doing their business and liked this gadget almost immediately. It looks like a piece of furniture!
 
If you do have an outdoor area, I highly recommend Purrfect Fence. I have used their systems in 3 houses now to keep the cats in the yard. It is very good. The first house I had no fenced in yard so had a free standing system connected to the house. The last 2 houses we've had fenced yards, and so retrofit the system to the fence so they have the full yard to explore. With 6+ cats, that's a necessity, along with safety.
 
For my new furbaby who is working on walking straighter and leaping higher as her legs strengthen, I've placed a step stool in front of the box and removed the top of the clever cat. This is the temp set up for her until the liter robot arrives.

_39140.jpg
 
PintoBean|1489084316|4138482 said:
For my new furbaby who is working on walking straighter and leaping higher as her legs strengthen, I've placed a step stool in front of the box and removed the top of the clever cat. This is the temp set up for her until the liter robot arrives.
Click to expand...
I hope your furkids take to the LR as well as mine did. I was hesitant to spend so much on a litter box and risk having the cats not use it. When the first one arrived, I took it out of the box, plugged it in and ran out to the garage to get some litter. When I got back into the house 45 seconds later, someone had already peed in it :)) Heads up that you might need to keep the old box next to the LR for awhile if the cats are hesitant about the LR.
 
Thankfully, my yard is fenced in, and Miss Muffin cannot jump high enough to leap the fence, so we are good there.

I did message the FMs to get an idea of her current set-up, and while they have a couple for the foster cats, it seems 'Miss Thang' prefers to use the 'open' litter box vs one with a lid. :drama:

I was just reading about the litter robot on amazon (reviews, q&a, etc), and came across this. :lol: :lol:

img_0859.jpg
 
A vagina!? :lol: I think it looks like a spaceship. Anyone who thinks it looks like a vagina needs to be more choosy about their sexual partners or perhaps check out some pictures in an anatomy book or see a psychiatrist.... ;))
 
Yea, I didn't think 'vag' when I first saw the pictures ... that person needs something alright. :lol:
 
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