Caring for many cats, tips please

Hey all....

Haven't been around the forums much lately....Got a new job and been working, working, working. I've aquired several more cats, (strays and those who've been dumped near me or relatives). I now am caring for 11 cats. Five are adults and six are kittens. I am going to find homes for the kittens, but I'm waiting until I can fix them, (till they're old enough), and fully provide for all their shots before I give them to homes.

I am having issues keeping up with all the work. Money/food/vet bills/costs are not issues for me whatsoever. I've moved to a larger place that I live in alone, but I think I'm having issues setting up a system or schedule that will work better than what I'm already doing. For example, litterbox issues. I feel like the more boxes I set out, the harder it becomes to keep up with them. I was considering limiting it to two or three large storage sized boxes as litterboxes instead.

I was considering buying a couple automatic litterboxes, but am assuming that that wouldn't make much of a difference and would be likely to break down.

(I'm no longer taking in strays or helping people with strays as I know I'm at my limit, for those of you wondering, etc.)

Any tips would be welcome.

10 adult cats here and I would never reduce my litter boxes to 2-3. I use oversized bins and if I limited myself to 3, I would have to scoop about 5 times a day. While more litter boxes seem to be more work, the additional boxes spread out the waste so that you can scoop less times a day.

Try a better litter that doesn't mess up the boxes so much. Buy extra boxes to rotate into the mix. I use a full 40 pound bag of litter in a fresh box. I scoop daily, fully replace the litter every other week, and when I replace the litter, I rotate in a clean box. That gives me 2 weeks to work on sterilizing the dirty box and I can do that when I have free time. I always scoop when I first get home from work and that becomes a part of the daily routine for me.

The more cats, the more work it is. I don't know any other ways to make life easier.

Here is what I do for my crew of 7...

I have 4 large storage bins that have the fronts cut out for litter boxes. I use the 65 gallon long ones and they work perfect. For 10 cats I would probably have at least 5 if not 6. You might not think this is enough boxes but it seems as if one box is the same as having two giant regular litter boxes. Even still one of my boxes rarely gets used and it's in the same room as the the one that gets used the most . I clean them all out twice a day and will check the main use box right before bed and scoop out anything I find. I never have an issue with really messy boxes and it takes me about 5 minutes to do all the boxes.

For cleaning them get a nice and sturdy garbage pail with a good lid and that has handles so that you can carry it around with you. Put a regular sized kitchen trash bag in it. Carry the pail with you to each litter box and scoop and dump. I always use the same bag a few days so that I am not throwing out a plastic bag a day. That is just a "green" preference of mine. I keep my pail in the utility room with the lid tight and I also dump some baking soda over the used litter to keep away any smells.

Invest in a good stainless steel litter scooper. You will be happy you did. It makes cleaning the litter boxes sooo much easier.

For claw clipping we have claw clipping day. Once every two weeks the younger ones get their claws clipped and the older ones get checked if any claws need clipped. Once a week we have cat grooming night. Everyone gets a good brush. They get treats afterwards and catnip so they look forward to the brushes coming out.

The key to keeping up with the work is making a schedule and sticking to it. I may come home from work and feel dead tired but I still make sure the boxes get cleaned. If you do all the "cat chores" at the same time and the same day every week it just become routine.