Am I wasting money? Changing clumping litter

I generally dump all the the litter in Lusa's pans on a weekly basis. I use Arm and Hammer Super Scoop Fragrance Free. Is this too frequent to change all of the litter? I'm going through about a package and 1/2 of litter a week.

The reason I do this is, even though I scoop the litter boxes at least twice a day, but there are always tiny bits of pee/poo that my litter scoop can't catch. Despite what the package says, the clumps do sometimes break apart.

Thanks!

I used many different clumping litters with various numbers of cats. In general they ended up going stale...they'd scoop out, but there was no scent. Using fresh step now and with(currently) 7 boxes and 21 cats I am changing the litter every 2-3 weeks. Using Fresh step clump. How much litter are you putting in the box to begin with? I know it recomends starting with 2-3 inches(I have rubbermaid totes that I cut a entrance in so I easily dump 40 lbs into each 25 gallon tote. RJ

I use scoopable litter on the bottom---about 3 inches and then a non-clumping kind on top of that--about 2 inches.
I change the litter boxes out all the way about once every other week.Because as you say,the clumping kind does break off into little pieces at times.
Also,you can buy the Tidy Cats litter box deodorizer if you notice the litter boxes kind of smell.

Thanks, guys. I'm using about 31.5 lbs a week in 2 boxes, so 15.75 lbs per box (more or less). I'd say the litter's a couple of inches deep. Lusa's only 3 months old, so she's still pretty small (3.9 lbs).

So you don't think Lusa would mind the "crumbs" that are left behind after scooping and less frequent changing would be OK?

Also, how often do you clean the litter pans if you only changing the litter every 2 or 3 weeks? Do you just transfer the litter from the used pan to a clean pan?

Sorry for so many questions. Lusa's my first indoor cat.

We have two boxes for our 3 males, using Fresh Step and scooping every day and a half (i.e. this morning, then tomorrow night, then Tuesday morning, then Wednesday night.) They tend to pee in one and poop in the other. The girls have 6 boxes, and we do them the same. They get scooped every other day, and fresh is added then as well. They get dumped once an month and cleaned with soap and water then refilled. We keep about 3-5 inches of litter in each.

The "crumbs" aren't too much of an issue with ours. As long as you don't shake around the cmulps too much, they don't break apart as much. And by adding fresh after every cleaning, they kinda disappear into the fresh.

I use the arm and hammer with deoderizer (sp) it works great and clumps really good. i scoop twice a day (morning and night) i usually have to change the whole box about every 3 weeks. i have a small apartment and 3 cats we only have room for 2 big covered litterboxes they pee in one and poo in the other. i have people over all the time and i never get tired of hearing... "i would have never known you had cats at all if I hadnt seen them myself" i am terrified of that "kitty smell" I cant stand it. my sister has 5 cats in a super huge house and you can smell them the minute you walk in the door. sad to say i dont visit her much but havent told her why.

Problems like this with scoopable litter are the main reasons I switched to Feline Pine. No clumping litter, no odor, no problems, it's flushable, it is really obvious when it is time to dump becuase it turns to sawdust and it leaves my house smelling like fresh pine all the time.

I dump the litter and then cleanboxes out with a little bit of bleach to a gallon of water. most of my cats are attracted to the bleach smell so I do it with them out of room and door closed(theyll roll around the box thats just been cleaned) Rinse well and then dry them and fill with brand new litter. Jen-your so lucky my cats stopped using the feline pine when I was about half way transitioning them to it(i had used no name regular clay and mixed with the feline pine) I love the smell when they pee on that lol. Any switching tips or did your take right to it? RJ

I use Fresh Step scoopable litter and love it. I have 3 cats and 3 litter pans in my 1 bedroom condo. I scoop them at least once a day and then I change them out completely about once a month. It works for me and people are surprised when they come over the first time and see 3 cats walking around (because they can't smell them/the boxes.)

I scoop every day also.I add a bit of fresh to the litter boxes after I scoop them out.
I change them all the way out about once every other week.
As for the little pieces,I just use the litter scooper and mix all the litter around.That way if there are pieces, they are mixed and the cats don't seem to mind it one bit.Alos, that keeps down the smell.

I only change my clumping litter about once a month. I find the clumps rarely break up, and I use two scoops anyway - one with larger holes and one with small holes so that I can get up any small bits that do break away. Maybe you could do with changing litter to one that clumps better?

I scoop twice a day, and change the whole thing once a month.

I have a big rubbermaid tote for a litterbox, and I fill it like half full, so when trout pees it does not even get to the bottom so the actual box doesn't get gross at all..The key is deep litter!! You just scoop the clumps out and their not seeped to the bottom, its great!!

Our two cats are outdoors pretty much all day when the weather is nice and only come in at night. Since they prefer to "go" outside (they will hold it until we get up in the morning, then run out to do their business), they don't use the box much in the summer. During nice weather I can get away with scooping once a week, and I only have to change the litter every couple of months. In the winter months, I scoop several times a week and change the litter as needed. As far as when to change it completely, I usually just add litter to keep the level up whenever I scoop, then at some point the clumping litter just suddenly stops being effective - doesn't clump very well and starts to smell - that's when I do a full change and take the box outside to hose it out before re-filling it with fresh litter.
I don't worry about the little bits that fall through the scoop - it's still much cleaner than where they choose to go outside, so I figure as long as they don't mind, why should I?
Hope that helps!

Thanks a bunch, everyone. Obviously I'm changing it more often that I need to. I'm going to wait a bit long next time to dump the litter. I might also look into another brand of litter like Fresh Step that will clump better.

I am a very frequent changer too - I am using World's Best Litter and even though I thoroughly scoop up to three times a day (AM, when I get home in the evening, and before bedtime) I just worry about the lingering bacteria. I just completely refilled the litter after washing the pan in a bleach solution and the old litter seemed to have a slight whiff of odor. It wasn't noticable in the room -only when scooping. I do a complete change about every three weeks, even though the litter says you can go longer. I guess it is just me.

I just had to get a small bag of the new Arm & Hammer Natural (?) clumping while waiting for my order of WBCL to arrive - I like it but it has the strangest smell. Very strong. Not bad, just unusual. That is the only reason I would not buy it again.

Meant to add about fresh step-signup for thier paw point rewards and you can get free/3 off coupons for the litter RJ