House Smelling Bad???

Hi

Me and my partner have 3 INDOOR cats (we would worry too much if they went out...), i just need to ask everyone who has indoor cats some questions.

1, How do you keep your house/apartment smelling good? - Smellies etc dont seem to work!!

2, Can you get a litter tray that has smellies in there so cover it up etc? Whats the best litter tray to get? We have 1 of those trays with a roof and flap!

We dont want people to come round and think we live in a smelly house, we dont have windows open, incase they get out etc, and smellies dont work...

HELP!!!

Thanks

Matt P.S. - How can i get pictures of my 3 cats in my signiture space?

Hi Matt- are your cats male or female? Are they fixed? (neutered or spayed)? And what are you feeding them? How many litter pans do you have, and where are they located?

www.citypet.com has a great product that takes care of litter dust and odor and is also an air freshener to boot-

Hi Hissy

Im on that site right now, what a great idea!!! And its only £18!! Thankyou for the link were going to try it, after we find out about shipping hehe.

We have 2 boys, and 1 girl (all under 1 year old), none are done - but were getting the girl done, i hope she doesnt have babys, shes only 5 months old!!

We feed them 2 meals a day, we feed them "Whiskers" and "Felix", as our ginger cat only eats Felix for some reason, oh, and we put felix buscuits in the meals too as they love that, we dont "THINK" were feeding them too much, these are our 1st cats, 2 of them look in perfect proportion, the ginger cat is a bit chubby as he eats alot, and he likes to clean up at our meal times (lol).

We only have 1 litter tray, as its quite big, so they all use that when they need to, and we clean it twice a day, its got a flap on the front, and it still smells in here, but with us working in the day, we can only clean it twice a day, 3 times if needed.

Thanks

Matt

Matt with three cats, ideally you should have four litter pans. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. You see it is not natural for cats to pee and poop in the same place. Left on their own outside, they never would. Try adding more litter pans to the house, they shouldn't be in the same location but spread out in various locations-

I have been running a citypet filter for over two years now and I love the results-

Oh my god! We thought 1 tray was enough! Being as they go at diff times!

No idea we needed 4!!! Im shocked! But we will get right on that!!!!!

Whoops, and thankyou for the advice mate!

I still want to upload a picture, how can i do that? You have to see 1 of the boys, he has a mustash lol

Hey just FYI, you really better get your males fixed too because as soon as they hit maturity (could be as young as 5 months possibly) they can start to spray. Spraying, if you don't know, is just spraying urine, usually more foul smelling then regular pee which is foul smelling enough, but they are doing it intentionally to claim their territory. With TWO males in the same house, this will almost definately happen and it could turn into a horrible mess and a smellier house then you can ever imagine. I even had a female that did this too. So they all could start and it will be a continuous thing because they all live together in such a small environment. Unneutered male cats fight pretty often too. So that is another worry.

Also, females can become pregnant very very young. Sometimes as young as 5 months. Be careful or you are going to end up with a mom cat that is waaaay to young and immature to know what to do with a bunch of babies. She could end up killing them all. (or everything can go perfectly, its hard to say but why risk it ya know). I know you know they need to be fixed, but I was not aware of a lot of what I just mentioned until fairly recently so I take every oppertunity to inform others who might not realize. That is really great that you don't let them outside, I know everyone feels differently about it but defintely they cannot go out before they are fixed.

How old are all your cats?

Check for a low cost clinic or something if you are worried about the cost. Some people doubt mobile clinics or low cost ones, but the way I see it, fixing a cat is such a routine procedure and has been done forever that I don't really worry too much.

Oh and if you neuter your cats before they get to that point where they start spraying, they probably won't even start. The hormones just aren't there. Now there are always acceptions to this of course. If you wait until after they begin to spray, they are more likely to continue to do it after being neutered.

The female, it is just healthier to spay females before their first heat cycle.

S/N'ing all of them is an essential step to prevent pungent odors. Here is a grab bag of additional ideas that might or might not be useful:

You can experiment with different brands of cat food to see if you can find one that minimizes the smell of their poop.

You can also experiment with some of the exotic brands of cat litter.

I don't know what kind of "smellies" you try, but Febreze helps with Nano. I also use baking soda around the problem areas.

Vacuum your carpets a minimum of twice a week if you don't already do so.

I run a damp washcloth over Nano about twice a week. Basically give her a quick rubdown that seems to help.

Keep your cats well-groomed if they are longhairs.

Hope maybe one or two of those ideas help! The rest is just trial and error that you will learn over time as a cat owner.

Yes to all the above, Matt. I have three cats and four litter trays (five when I go away and I am not so sure about someone else cleaning them out regularly. One thing I used to do was line the litter pans with old newspaper, as many other people I knew did, and then I discovered that it was causing more smell than just plain litter. So I use plastic liners, or none at all and I sprinkle some litter deodorant in the pans each day. I find I need to change some pans more often than others - the pee ones get smelly quicker, as long as you scoop-clean the others. Food also is a factor - sometimes if I change the food my three get incredibly smelly for a few days. I now feed Whiskas sachets and the smell is almost non-existent. I know htat is not a good food according to many on this forum, but it is the best I can get here.

Horrible subject I know, but it is necessary to talk about it. With all the above, my house does not smell at all, much to the surprise of many Bosnian friends who tend to think of cats as dirty and vermin.

There really isn't a cat smell in my apartment and I've had a lot of people comment on that fact. So I must be doing something right! We use Tidy Cats Crystal Blend litter. Their commercial is really right! Since we switched to this brand we really can't smell anything in their boxes, unless they just got done doing their business. We have an automatic electric litter box that scoops up the clumps and deposits them into a covered tray. They sell hoods for these boxes and that cuts down on smell as well. We also have two other large litter boxes and a "Litter Locker" to deposit their clumps in when we scoop. Both girls are spayed and they get baths maybe once a month. We also have three Ionic Breeze air purifiers, which I got for my allergies, but they seriously work for the smell. We have one small one next to the regular litter boxes. Vaccuming helps as well and since we've switched them to Natural Choice food I can hardly smell their bowel movements. Febreeze is great too, as someone mentioned. I like the allergan reducing kind.

I have 6 cats and when people walk into my house, they say you can't tell I have cats except for the fact they greet, rub, walk all over the people & you can see cat toys everywhere.

But re: the smell:

As Bob Barker says: have your cats spayed & neutered! Immediately!

I have 6 litter boxes for 6 cats. They get scrubbed & redone once a week. Some of the litter boxes are for pooping only and peeing only; the cats have a way of using them to their benefit. I don't use any mix-ins or anything with the litter; just Tidy Cat for multiple cats.

I scoop the poo pretty much every morning & night inbetween the cleanings. I have to with 6 cats! What I do is keep plastic bags located near the boxes (in something the cats cannot get to, cuz Hammie eats plastic). Scoop the poo & tie it tight, then I put it in the garage in a garbage can til garbage day.

I dust & run the vaccuum like twice a week, I'm a neat freak so smells don't linger long in my house to start with. Another savior is Baking Soda. If ya buy a big box of the stuff, you could mix it in with the litter and sprinkle it on your carpets, it helps pull smells from the carpeting.

Also, I burn a TON of candles. The really smelly-good kind, like Glade? They're of course in places where cats cannot get to them (sconces on walls & such). The candles smell wonderful.

And, I use AirWick plug ins. The oil that heats up. It takes about a month to run through one plug in. I have 3 on the first floor and 3 on the second floor.

Hope that helps!