The TRUTH about how often people clean the box

meow meow

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
406
Purraise
1
I am starting to believe that many people do not take the task of litterbox cleaning very seriously. Then, I am afraid, when inappropriate elimination problems arise, the cat is usually out of there.

Case in point. A friend of mine recently put down her 8 year old cat for peeing in the house (mostly the newly finished basement). She said they "tried everything" to get her to stop including a vet visit. Well, during the basement remodel I was over her house and she had put the litterpan in the kitchen temporarily. It was a small covered box that was full of poop. Definately more than a day or two days worth. It just makes me wonder how often she actually scooped.

Then we were over our neighbors. They too have a small covered litterpan for their cat. My daughter was playing in the basement and opened a door to the furnace room. Cat poop on the floor. My neighbor assumes that the cat must have gotten stuck in that room at some point. Now this is the neighbor that leaves her kitty home for a whole week alone without anyone checking on it or scooping (according to her the cat doesn't care if his box is clean or not). She is also the type that will give the cat the boot if he messes up.

Lastly, my dear cousin who said that she knows when she needs to scoop by the smell -- usually every four days or so. I very nicely told her don't ask for trouble -- scoop everyday. Would you like to step through your own waste when using the toilet? Would you like to use a toilet that hasn't been flushed in four days??

These three experiences tell me that many people don't understand that this simple step (daily scooping) is really essential to your cats well-being. Most people will say "of course I keep it clean" but you have to wonder what that means.

One other example is my SIL who cleans houses. The litterbox at one house just smells like urine even when scooped. She says it looks as though the box is about 10 years old and never gets completely emptied and washed (or better yet replaced). She did nicely suggest to the owners that a new box ($5) would probably really help with odors.

Just a rant.
 

yosemite

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
23,313
Purraise
81
Location
Ingersoll, ON
IMHO these people don't deserve to have these cats. I hope you can educate some of them at least.
 

reesespbc

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
2,411
Purraise
1
Location
Baldwinville, MA
I have a friend who everytime I see the litter box it seems like it's full. We have a litter locker so I scoop once a day, sometimes I'll forget and do it the next day but it never goes past a day without scooping. I'll admit though, I probably don't clean the litter box as much as I should. Maybe once a month and a half or so. I usually wait until I can tell that urine is just clumping on the bottom of the pan and making a mess, and the litter itself just doesn't look clean anymore. Which reminds me I should probably do it soon


I'm ultra sensitive to smell, so even after I've scooped it I can still walk into the bathroom where we keep it and smell a slight smell of litterbox, but no one else can.
 

zissou'smom

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
6,482
Purraise
8
Zissou tells me when her box isn't clean enough for her (she does-- purposefully wakes me up digging around and then sits there and meows at me!). And then I clean it. Not every day, though
. I think it's probably more of a problem if people have basements or something out of the way. Hers in in my bedroom closet (the door's always open) and it's the first thing I see when I wake up.

You are right, most people don't scoop it every single day. Most people also wouldn't let it get THAT bad or kick the cat out for piddling on the carpet. I mean, I may not clean every day but for the most part you couldn't tell the difference just by looking at it! If you can see that a box is dirty, you're right, that is very bad and no wonder the cat doesn't want to be in there.
 

lionessrampant

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 14, 2005
Messages
4,161
Purraise
6
Location
Windy City Kitty :)
I'm like ReesesPBC. The vast majority of the time, it's once a day...occassionally even twice a day. Sometimes, though, I work late or get busy otherwise and it goes overnight. But never more than that...otherwise...EEEWWW!!!
 

reesespbc

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
2,411
Purraise
1
Location
Baldwinville, MA
Originally Posted by lionessrampant

I'm like ReesesPBC. The vast majority of the time, it's once a day...occassionally even twice a day. Sometimes, though, I work late or get busy otherwise and it goes overnight. But never more than that...otherwise...EEEWWW!!!
I try not to do twice a day because we use the litter locker and when I was doing it twice a day, I was running out of bags twice as fast. But Reeses, for a cat as little as she is, boy...she can make you cry, so in those emergency situations I HAVE to scoop right away even if I already did it
 

renovia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
4,360
Purraise
8
Location
Maine
i have to scoop morning and night and some times even a third time. we use a litter locker but since i found them cheap online i don't care how many times i crank it....as long as my house doesn't smell.
 

althekitty

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 20, 2007
Messages
632
Purraise
1
Location
Nottinghamshire, U.K
I scoop everyday and when I know he's 'been' I scoop it up as I go. Alan loves his litter box and he is very vocal before, during and after! He likes to watch me scoop too! I have a litter locker too so it's not a biggy for me. Alan really loves to dig in there and I think he finds it upsetting if he digs his little heart out to cover his poo and accidentally uncovers a previous one
Bless him, I want to keep the little guy in the hygienic way that he likes to keep himself. They are very clean animals and if they can't go out to do it then it HAS to be clean for them to go inside. I wash out his litterbox every week too.
 

jellybella

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
2,314
Purraise
3
Location
UPNY
Since Stan has been pretty insistant on where and how he wants his box (that would be in the far corner, but not directly against the wall and spotless) I'm finding myself scooping 3X a day.

Once in the morning, once when I get home from work (when most of the business seems to happen) and once before I go to bed. The boxes are in a room off the kitchen, so if someone drops a real stinky, I'm on it fast by necessity. I try to do a full empty/cleaning on one box a week, so with three boxes they usually don't sit for more than a month without a complete cleaning.

Part of this also has to do with Stan's habit of peeing directly on the plastic box and (sometimes covering it).
He makes a great "pee cement" with the clay litter. I can't see punishing Bella by making her walk through that just because she shares the boxes with him.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

meow meow

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
406
Purraise
1
I am also reminded of my sister's house. They have two cats, one small box with about 1 inch of litter in it. I am sure the cats are peeing all over the bottom of that box.
 

goldenkitty45

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
19,900
Purraise
44
Location
SW Minnesota
I agree. But have to confess that I don't always clean out the box every day. I try to do it every other day. When I had more cats I WOULD clean the pans every day - had to!

And the pans usually get dumped and cleaned with a little diluted bleach or some dish soap once a month.
 

critter crazy

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
126
Purraise
1
Location
Binghamton, NY
Well when I had one cat, I scooped every other day, but now that I have two cats, I have to scoop every day.

My SIL is a fine example of someone who dosent get it. You walk into her house, and the first thing you smell is Amonia, from the Litter box!! It has to be one of the most disgusting things in the world! Not only does she buy the worlds cheapest cat litter, but she only cleans the box once a week!
 

kitytize

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
2,155
Purraise
2
My sister will complain to me about her cats peeing on the floor. I tell her you must scoop the litters everyday. She says I do! Then when I am at her house I see her litter box over flowing with poop! I have 5 cats and 4 boxes. I scoop every single day. You will never see my boxes full of poop.
 

godiva

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 10, 2006
Messages
2,219
Purraise
14
Location
Indianapolis, IN
We clean ours once a day, sometimes twice a day if we're home.

Sofia, one of Sneakers' kittens, came back to us because of litter issues. The lady said she "tried everything" and I sent her a few articles with ideas. We ended up taking her back, and when she came back, she smelled like dirty litter, so I suspect maybe she didn't change the box out often enough.
It's okay though, I'd rather have her with me anyway. Sofia will still poop outside the box if it's dirty, but it isn't that often. She's just picky, I guess.
 

bnwalker2

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
8,991
Purraise
4
Location
Rising Sun, Indiana
I scoop mine many times a day, I have to because the box is in our bedroom right now. Every time I see one of the cats leave the box, I go over and scoop it out. Unless of course I'm not home for some reason and then I clean it as soon as I get back.
My boyfriend's mom has two cats and they have one of the covered litterboxes. They keep their box in the basement where we are currently sleeping but their box never gets scooped out... she just empties it about once a month and puts new litter in it. One of their cats goes outside so it's really just one cat using the box but she will frequently go outside of the box... not a pleasant thing to step in when you go down into a dark basement. I finally took over and I keep their litter box cleaned out too.
 

chromodactyl

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
563
Purraise
1
Location
London
scoop everyday,freh litter every other day-un hygenic otherwise,bacteria.NOt nice for you-smelly house,vile for yr cat.People should think that if you give the cat a dirty tray,it walks in there and then sits on yr lap with ths same paws-maybe that will encourag cleaner trays
 

mybabyphx

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
1,884
Purraise
2
Location
Arizona (PM me if you are from AZ too)
Ok, so after reading all of these posts-- I think to myself-- am I changing mine enough? Hmm.. PHX doesn't seem to mind the way I do mine. He will tell me if he wants it changed too. Oh, trust me, he will tell me!!

I just empty out the litter box and put new litter in there every 3days- but it has gone as long as 4-5 days, but not usually. I do scoop it if it looks to be getting full. And when I put new litter in there.. I try to make it pretty deep for him- several inches of litter. But when my boyfriend does it (
) he puts like 1 inch of kitty litter in there. I really think that PHX wants more than that since I don't scoop every single day!!! I only have 1 cat, so it never gets FULL! I always change it before it gets to that point. And luckily... my house never smells like pee or poop.. unless of course he just recently did his business. Which I keep his box in the bathroom!

When I walked into the house of where I got PHX from originally... their house smelled of urine/spray. And it wasn't a fresh smell either. It was a old musky spray smell. If you know what I mean
So, I am sure PHX is much happier with my place... I spoil him rotten
But then again right now, he's the only cat. He came from a house of like 8 cats, and before that he was in the animal shelter.
 

goldenkitty45

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
19,900
Purraise
44
Location
SW Minnesota
Raising rex kittens, you learn to keep a clean litter box. And I would warn the new owners to keep the box clean as the kittens were used to that. I was at a persian breeders house - felt so sorry for the kittens having to walk on a lot of poop in the litter box. How they stood it is beyond me.

A good way to transmit worms or other diseases is NOT to keep the litter box clean!

Next time you run into a problem of someone complaining about inappropriate peeing/pooping is to ask how often they scoop - then tell them "would you want to pee or poop in your toilet if there was pee or poop sitting in there all the time?" Maybe that would get thru to them
 

littleraven7726

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 1, 2002
Messages
3,339
Purraise
12
Location
Next to the World's Largest 6-pack
i don't know how people aren't totally grossed out by a box heaping full of poop.
that's just nasty. we have a few friends who are like that. luckily we don't visit often. my sister and i had to work on my mom because that's how she always let her boxes get. but then she finally adopted a cat who has persnickety litterbox habits. the poor thing has had so many UTIs. i think it's a combination of stress (other cats) and holding it too long.
they have all been bacterial UTIs. she finally has scooping litter in one box, but it still gets way grosser than i would allow.

my cats would be packing their bags if i kept the box like that.
in fact raven WILL poo outside the box if it's too dirty. he trained me early on. we fired a pet sitter for letting the boxes get like that while we were gone.
the boxes were full and we came home to poo all over. that's not a nice way to end a trip.

i scoop 2-3 times a day, and change the boxes completely every 2-4 weeks depending on how the litter has gotten.
 
Top