For those of you with a lot of cats, how many litter boxes do you have? If the "rule" is 1 box per cat plus one, then does a person with 7 cats actually have 8 litter boxes? I just don't know where one would find room for all of those!

I'm just curious because there are so many people here with a lot of cats.


(I have 2 cats and 2 boxes. I was going to add a 3rd but I have a tiny apartment, they only use 1 box as it is, and I haven't had problems yet. I do scoop them twice a day though).

I have 13 cats and only four boxes. It may not sound like enough, but it really is. I'm home all day so I can keep them scooped out constantly.

I have 5 cats and 4 litter boxes. And many days there are 1 or 2 boxes the cats didn't use.

I have 10 cats permanently indoors and 2 more that go in and out. The ones that go out prefer using the outdoor facilities. So with 10 cats using my litterboxes, I have 6 boxes. 3 of them are oversized sterilite bins so they are more like double bins. The other 3 are oversized litterboxes. I couldn't do anything less in my house.

We have 8 indoor cats :) We have 4 litter boxes for them which we clean everyday if not more...it works with our situation but everyones different! We have lots of time to take care of & clean up after our cats :happy2:

I think that having changed from a 1 cat to a 2 cat home, it's probably most important to have that 'one for luck' box if you have just 2 or 3 cats. The reason for that is to prevent 'guarding', if one cat is territorial it is likely to want to keep one area as its marker, ie will want 1 box for itself. They can prevent a more submissive cat from using that one box just by sitting in view of it - us humans probably wouldn't even notice the underlying tension playing out in front of us until submissive cat can't hold it in any longer and pees/poos on the bed to alert us to his plight!

If you have 2 cats and 3 boxes, then the more dominant cat cannot guard all 3 boxes simultaneously, so submissive cat can go in peace. If you have 8 cats and 4 boxes, then any 1 particularly dominant individual would still not be able to guard 4 boxes in order to demonstrate his territorial superiority over his more submissive housemates, and there is a more complex pecking order going on, so probably 1 dominant cat is not going to focus all his energy on trying to prevent every other cat in the house from using all of 'his' boxes.

Cleanliness is a slightly different issue, obviously it's going to be problematic keeping 1 box clean enough for 8 cats to feel comfortable and happy to use, even if you're scooping all day there's probably a queue forming. So I would say use as many as you have room for and can keep clean, if you use too few your cats will likely tell you in due course! Each individual cat is different (Radar is not at all fussy about which litterbox he uses for what, whereas Sonic is picky about litter and privacy), and the dynamics in each multicat house are different - so I think the 1 per cat +1 makes good sense for 2 to 3 cats, but beyond that a lot of it will come down to practicalities of your household and the dynamics between the cats.

When I was breeding rexes I had a maximum of about 5-7 cats in the house at the time. I had 4 litter boxes and they were scooped once or twice a day. No one had any problems with eliminating elsewhere.

We have four cats and four boxes; they are scooped every other day. Two of them are HUGE tuppie bins, and two are relatively large covered boxes.

I have 4 cats and 5 boxes (plus an additional small box for my new kitten while he is isolated from my other cats). I use large Rubbermaid sweater boxes on the main floor in a bedroom dedicated to my cats (the cat room) and one in the basement just in case.

I have not had litterbox problems (knock on wood) and I credit that to having enough boxes.

I can't accurately say I have X number of boxes, as my kitties are split into "family groups" as I call them. :rolleyes:

Cow has one 18 gal rubbermaid tote for a LB.
The 4 downstairs have 2 big rubbermaid tubs(over 2x the size of the 18 gals)
The upstairs 3 have one large rubbermaid tote plus an 18 gal rubbermaid tote

I have 14 cats and right now I have 10 litterboxes out. 3 are regular/small sized litterboxes and the other seven are the extra large ones, all covered. I also have a cat room where all the LBs are located I usually scoop everyday, but I have been known to forget or just be too darn tired, but I never let it go more than 1 day. I also have no issues :bigthumb:

13 & 14 cats?????? WOW :jaw: Bless your kitty-loving hearts!! :clap: (sorry if it's a little off topic)

I think that having changed from a 1 cat to a 2 cat home, it's probably most important to have that 'one for luck' box if you have just 2 or 3 cats. The reason for that is to prevent 'guarding', if one cat is territorial it is likely to want to keep one area as its marker, ie will want 1 box for itself. They can prevent a more submissive cat from using that one box just by sitting in view of it - us humans probably wouldn't even notice the underlying tension playing out in front of us until submissive cat can't hold it in any longer and pees/poos on the bed to alert us to his plight!

If you have 2 cats and 3 boxes, then the more dominant cat cannot guard all 3 boxes simultaneously, so submissive cat can go in peace. If you have 8 cats and 4 boxes, then any 1 particularly dominant individual would still not be able to guard 4 boxes in order to demonstrate his territorial superiority over his more submissive housemates, and there is a more complex pecking order going on, so probably 1 dominant cat is not going to focus all his energy on trying to prevent every other cat in the house from using all of 'his' boxes.

Cleanliness is a slightly different issue, obviously it's going to be problematic keeping 1 box clean enough for 8 cats to feel comfortable and happy to use, even if you're scooping all day there's probably a queue forming. So I would say use as many as you have room for and can keep clean, if you use too few your cats will likely tell you in due course! Each individual cat is different (Radar is not at all fussy about which litterbox he uses for what, whereas Sonic is picky about litter and privacy), and the dynamics in each multicat house are different - so I think the 1 per cat +1 makes good sense for 2 to 3 cats, but beyond that a lot of it will come down to practicalities of your household and the dynamics between the cats.

This makes a lot of sense, very well put. I just can't imagine it being necessary to have 9 boxes for 8 cats (for example).

Also, what does LB stand for? (I've seen that in a few posts).

2 cats and 2 litterboxes. 1 upstairs, 1 downstairs. It's a 2 story, 2 bedroom townhouse.

Pam Johnson-Bennett (http://catbehaviorassociates.com/faqs.htm#16) says the rule is 1 box per cat.

If you're unsure, an extra box can't hurt. In the apartment we lived in when we adopted Stimpy, we had 3 cats and 4 boxes. But our bathroom was HUGE.

13 & 14 cats?????? WOW :jaw: Bless your kitty-loving hearts!! :clap: (sorry if it's a little off topic)
Thanks!! I love having so many cats- never a cold lap (or private bathroom visit :rolleyes:)
This makes a lot of sense, very well put. I just can't imagine it being necessary to have 9 boxes for 8 cats (for example).

Also, what does LB stand for? (I've seen that in a few posts).

LB is just short for LitterBoxes. That's a long word to type out repeatedly :lol3:

We have 10 cats in the house and 2 litter boxes (55lt storage containers) Scooped twice a day, all the cats are happy.

We only have 4 litterboxes out for 5 cats because they were not using the others really and are fine with sharing.

Autumn has decided that she wants to use the box WITH Scully so we now have a huge rubbermaid for them and then smaller (but still big) rubbermaids for the other 3 boxes

9 cats and 4 boxes, 2 are big rubbermaid containers. they get scooped at least twice day

My H and I just adopted two cats on Tuesday. We only have one litter box because the women at the adoption shelter said they would be fine sharing, I am going to purchase another one today anyways. I had a question about location. When we got the cats they stayed in the bedroom with us, we just moved their things into the living area which is not very big. Would it be okay to put one litter box outside on our balcony as long as it's covered (we live upstairs). I won't do this right away because they are not used to the house ye, but eventually can we put one box outside?

My H and I just adopted two cats on Tuesday. We only have one litter box because the women at the adoption shelter said they would be fine sharing, I am going to purchase another one today anyways. I had a question about location. When we got the cats they stayed in the bedroom with us, we just moved their things into the living area which is not very big. Would it be okay to put one litter box outside on our balcony as long as it's covered (we live upstairs). I won't do this right away because they are not used to the house ye, but eventually can we put one box outside?

I wouldn't. I would rather the cats share 1 box inside than have a 2nd box outside on a balcony. Too risky.

I have 7 cats and we have 4 LB's. One is an oversized rubbermaid pan. I tried to downsize that one to a regular pan but it filled too quickly even when I was scooping twice a day. We recently bought a rubbermaid ornament container and converted that to a LB. Benson has a issue when he urinates, he shoots over the pan. This box isn't as wide to keep the heavy cats from using it.

I have 5 cats. We recently down-sized from 4 LBs to 3. (2 18gallon Sterilite totes, and one regular cat pan in a "kitty washroom" cabinet.) I would've liked to stay at 4, but DH had objections to the location of the fourth box. The kitties seem to be doing okay with the 3 boxes. I scoop every day, and they've all been using their boxes faithfully. :cross: I told DH, though, that if we have any problems, that fourth box is going back and he'll just have to get used to it! :nod:

I had 4 trays for 3 cats until this morning, I am going to see if I can get away with 3 trays (they all use a different tray, occasionally Rolo will use Zi's tray, but not often, so no issues there). I normally run at one tray per cat, rahter than one plus one.