Does your house have an obvious cat-smell?

My bedroom reeks of a cat. And i am moving to a new house, i don't want this stink to start in my new bedroom/house.

   (I scoop daily, wash litter box every 2 weeks, i don't know why my bedroom stinks like a pet so much. I give my cat a bath whenever he needs to be bathed, vaccuum the room every 2 weeks, wash sheets and blankets almost every week. i am planning to get the bed's mattress professionally cleaned before moving (my cat sleeps on it with me). carpets have been professional cleaned and dried twice in the last 10 months (I got him a year ago). i wiped the wall beside the litter box with lysol wipes, what else could i do to get the stink out? Everybody who visits my room says the same thing that it reeks of a pet, even if i did all the cleaning and changing to brand new litter a second before.) Is this natural in a cat-house/bedroom? (I am worried my new bedroom will start stinking the same. Where do you keep your cat's food bowl and litter box? Honestly, i am so conscious about this issue that i even think about giving him to someone else, but then i feel extremely guilty about it because i adopted him and he's literally an innocent baby to me, but i can't help the thought because i am equally passionate about having a beautiful new room (it'll be the first time i'll get to have stuff of my own choice, my own decorations and all. I don't want his litter box and food bowls in my new bedroom, but i don't want any other room reeking of a pet-odour either).

It'll be all hardwood in my new house, and i don't want it ruined. I am really confused right now. I can't imagine living without him, i know his personality and i love him, but i love a peaceful clean environment too. What do i do? (I don't want to end up making an entire floor stinky by keeping the litter box out in the open or in the basement, right now it's just my room that stinks, but because i keep my room's door closed most of the time, the odour doesn't get to other rooms on this floor.) 

-canada (and not very rich to be able to afford some special heated shed or sunroom for him. i tried keeping his litter box in the washroom once. and the entire floor started stinking because i left the door open 24/7 with fan on....but i guess he wasn't comfortable there so he jumped out of the litter box too early maybe) 

Hello! I have a bunch of questions. What do you feed your guy? What kind of litter do you use? Is he neutered? What do you smell?

When I think of smelling cats it's always their urine. Is that what you are smelling?

What kind of litter are you using? What kind of food are you feeding?

I hope that you will be able to get the assistance you need in order for you and your cat to both be happy.

There shouldn't be an odor if you keep things clean. I ask all the same questions as above posters .

I have 4 cats and my litter boxes are kept in the basement.  I did have one in my master bathroom when one of my cats was being treated for a UTI earlier this year.  Neither my hubby or I noticed any smell in the bedroom from the litter box in the bathroom.  I have friends that are dog people or just do not have pets and they always tell me that you can not smell the cats in my house.

Is the room where the litter box is now carpeted?  I am asking this because carpet holds scent much more than hardwood. If this cat is like mine and kicks litter out of the box perhaps some urine was transferred from the litter to the carpet.  It may be a good idea to invest in a black light to see if there is urine on the carpet. You can get a black light online for very little money.  If there has been any sort of accident with the litter or his pee the carpet needs to be cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner to remove the odor.

When one of my cats was a baby kitten her litter box was in her safe room which was our den.  Our den is carpeted and she would fling litter like crazy.  We moved the litter box into the bathroom which not carpeted. We rented a steam cleaner and bought an enzymatic cleaner to clean the rug. There were no more issues.  The stains and the smell went away.

For two to three hundred dollars you can convert a closet into a cat oasis bathroom. Install a ceiling vent fan (bathroom fan) on the ceiling and then run a duct in the attic to the side of the roof and put a vent. Add a timed motion detector and voila. Every time your cat goes the air will get sucked up and out of the house. 

Yup---we need to know those answers before we can suggest some things..

talkingpeanut said:

Hello! I have a bunch of questions. What do you feed your guy? What kind of litter do you use? Is he neutered? What do you smell?

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I feed him dry food (http://www.petsmart.com/featured-sh...OhdPVLTqfo6zX-2?var_id=36-357&_t=pfm=category)

Special kitty scoopable litter (http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/special-kitty-scoopable-scented-tight-clumping-cat-litter/6000195569858)

He was neutered last year when he was 12 weeks old. It's not the smell of urine, i am not sure how to describe it. 

Maybe you should get a litter box with a lid. I have one and find them good. No spills of litter or pee. Also wash the litter box once a week. The plastic gets quite smelly if you don't rinse it out. Hope this helps.

I live in a small flat with my two female, desexed kitties in Australia. Cat urine has a distinct smell. One of my girls likes to perch on the edge of the litter box and she accidentally would per over the back of the litter box. I already had hoods for those boxes, so I put them on and the peeing over the back of the box was solved.

I get a bit of water on the floor sometimes. And I have sweep up cat hair and litter a bit, but the cats don't make a mess or smell at all.

I feed my girls a grain free diet and they do all of their business in their boxes. I scoop those boxes once or twice per day and I clean the boxes completely every week.

If you could try to think about what you're smelling that would be helpful. You shouldn't have stinky tom cat pee, so that's good. The food has decent ingredients, so I don't think that should be making his poop super stinky either. Are the stools well-formed?

I would switch away from a scented litter. I find that it makes things much worse and it's a very unnatural scent. Cat Attract clumps very well, if you want to try something else.

What does your litter box look like?

I would also stop bathing the cat. Most cats don't need baths and you may actually be throwing off his natural body oils.

Has he been dewormed?

Try a few different litter brands and see if you find one that you like better. It may be the litter you're smelling.

Oh---do you scrub the litterbox out whenever you change the litter? I'm kind of surpirsed how many people don't ,

I live in an apartment where the litter box is in the 2nd bathroom. I never smell 'cat' in here. That is one of my biggest fears. I keep asking my friends if they smell 'cat"....

I am feeding Pride, Nature's Variety food, and using Precious Cat clumping, unscented litter. I scoop 2-3 times a day. 

The only time I can smell 'something' is when I have to dump the litter and scrub the boxes. 

When my guy poops, of course it smells; but it does go away. If something has come up and I am behind in dumping the litter, I catch a whiff of 'cat'---mostly poop.

I am wondering what you use to dispose of the scooping? I mean, how do you get rid of it?

I use a Litter Genie. I think these are the best. Living in an apartment, I am not dumping my trash daily. I have the Litter Genie and throw out the waste as least once a week. If I let it go an entire 7 days or a day or 2 longer, it starts to get raunchy. 

The litter I use is awesome at clumping. I think that has a lot to do with stink..

I will say this: when I volunteer at the Pet shelter and have to clean and scoop, I can come home, shower, clean clothes, but the smell is still inside my nose.. I am constantly smelling that stuff all day long, no matter what I do.. 

Are you able to air out your apartment/bedroom daily? Fresh air does help with any type of smells you get. It just airs things out...

I have noticed that since I have been feeding a high protein, low carb food to my guy, his poops do not smell as nasty as they once did. Perhaps it could be the food. What you are feeding is not a bad food. I used to buy that. 

B bluecapps

We converted one of the closets in our house into a kitty bathroom (basically just a place to put the litter to get it out of the way because the box was huge and we live in a small house).

We added a light (plain old desk lamp on the top shelf) in there so they don't have to walk into a pitch black room to do their buisness. We also took the door off and added long curtains, this is more for keeping the litterbox out of sight than trapping the scent inside the closet. But I imagine you could also keep the door on and add a cat flap or cut a hole in the door. You would still need to clean the litter as often as you can because if it isn't ventilated, it will get smelly if you let it sit for a few days.

We have 3 cats that all use the same litterbox, but the box gets cleaned 3 times a day. We use fresh step crystal litter in addition to fresh step extreme clumping litter. The crystal litter helps TREMENDOUSLY with the smell. I would never use it exclusively because it doesn't clump so any pee would just pool at the bottom of the litterbox and that's just gross.

I hate that 'cat smell' too, and have found that it has a lot to do with the litter. I change litters once in a while and always go back to Tidy cats clumping for multiple cats, the others just don't keep the odors away. When I scoop enough away to replace it, I clean the litter box and spray it with a good enzyme cleaner and let it air dry, that seems to help too. When I scoop I put the clumps in an inexpensive sandwich baggie and seal it shut, then throw it in the trash. Keep a good air freshener close by too. All the luck!

They use the Sweet Scoop litter at the Shelter.. I absolutely hate the smell of it. Mix that with the debris from the litter box, and it is really nasty!!!   It gets all over me.. I swear, even though I take a shower when I get home, and wash my clothes, it is embedded in my sinuses!!! It is gross!!

I do not think it clumps well... it is light weight, but I do not feel it is worth buying, if it were for me..I would never recommend it. 

About keeping litter boxes in closets: I remember a coworker at a previous job, complaining because her apartment's closet stunk of cat urine.. She said it was nasty! They had to eventually take out the carpeting, Second time, and replace the understructure and re-paint walls again.. 

I remember when I moved in this apartment. The smell of smoke was very strong, despite it having been painted and  new rugs installed. The closet were rank.. I got the smell out of the apartment, but the smell in the closets lingered for months! I tried everything I could think of to get rid of it.. finally, somehow, I succeed..

I would just be careful about putting a litter box in a closet--even if the door was removed. 

You really need good ventilation for boxes...

Artiemom said:

They use the Sweet Scoop litter at the Shelter.. I absolutely hate the smell of it. Mix that with the debris from the litter box, and it is really nasty!!!   It gets all over me.. I swear, even though I take a shower when I get home, and wash my clothes, it is embedded in my sinuses!!! It is gross!!

I do not think it clumps well... it is light weight, but I do not feel it is worth buying, if it were for me..I would never recommend it. 

About keeping litter boxes in closets: I remember a coworker at a previous job, complaining because her apartment's closet stunk of cat urine.. She said it was nasty! They had to eventually take out the carpeting, Second time, and replace the understructure and re-paint walls again.. 

I remember when I moved in this apartment. The smell of smoke was very strong, despite it having been painted and  new rugs installed. The closet were rank.. I got the smell out of the apartment, but the smell in the closets lingered for months! I tried everything I could think of to get rid of it.. finally, somehow, I succeed..

I would just be careful about putting a litter box in a closet--even if the door was removed. 

You really need good ventilation for boxes...

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artiemom

The closet we keep ours in does not have carpet in it. I forgot to mention that. It is also well ventilated. The only time it ever smells is when one of the girls goes poo (for some reason my 2 girls never cover their poo, but my boy cat Tesla always covers his). And thats when I have to break out the arm&hammer air freshener (after using the litter scoop to cover the poo). We change our litter so much that the stink is not an issue.

I suspect that the person who was the previous owner of your coworker's apartment did not clean their litter very much (I have met some cat owners who only scoop their litter once a week! [emoji]128562[/emoji]). Or the litterbox could have been in a different spot but it may not have been cleaned much so the cats started going in the closet.

Raina21 said:

@Artiemom

The closet we keep ours in does not have carpet in it. I forgot to mention that. It is also well ventilated. The only time it ever smells is when one of the girls goes poo (for some reason my 2 girls never cover their poo, but my boy cat Tesla always covers his). And thats when I have to break out the arm&hammer air freshener (after using the litter scoop to cover the poo). We change our litter so much that the stink is not an issue.

I suspect that the person who was the previous owner of your coworker's apartment did not clean their litter very much (I have met some cat owners who only scoop their litter once a week! [emoji]128562[/emoji]). Or the litterbox could have been in a different spot but it may not have been cleaned much so the cats started going in the closet.

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I did not mean anything malicious towards you, I was just stating my thoughts. I sincerely hope you did not take it that way...I apologize if you did..

That Arm and Hammer stuff, is really great! Before we got Artie's IBD under control, I swear, you could use his poop smell on the battlefield!! It was that bad! But once I sprinkled that on top--it disappeared. I always keep a box on hand, just in case.. ((hugs))

artiemom

Oh no. I didn't take any offense. Don't worry. [emoji]128512[/emoji]

I was just trying to clarify why putting ours in the closet works well. But I know it may not work very well with others. Particularly if the closet is carpeted.

Ok----  we are all good...thank goodness!!