litter box help

[vikeup]

More questions about the Himalayan baby we are bringing home at Christmas time.  We have an approx 4200 sq ft house with 3 finished floors (including basement).  Will we be ok with a cat box only on 1 floor?  I was planning on putting it in the master bedroom on the top floor but if the kitten is in the basement will she know to go upstairs to use it?  I've read about keeping the cats bum hair short so litter/poo doesn't get stuck.  Is the clumping litter good?  That seems like it would be the easiest to scoop.  I looked at the self cleaning boxes but am not sure about the crystals that they use as far as keeping the smell down.  Thanks in advance for all the advice & I apologize if my questions are silly!  We just want to make sure we are fully ready for our new baby.

 

[catlover73]

No question is too silly to ask here.  It is great that you are making preparations first.

One tip I will give you is to keep any eye on the kitten if you have any men living with you when they are using the toilet.  Baby Starbuck jumped on the toilet and fell in while my hubby was using it.  We had to give her a bath because she got peed on in the middle of the night.  Fortunately it only happened once.

How old will the kitten be when you bring her home?  Depending on the size of the kitten she may not be able to navigate stairs too well in the beginning.  I have an adult cat who is a munchkin which means she has short little legs.  I adopted her when she was 6 weeks old and she was too small to go up and down the stairs in my home by herself so even though I live in a much smaller 3 story townhouse I had litter boxes on each level for her.  I also had food and water on each level of my house for her.  She got around the stairs by shoulder surfing on us until she grew enough to navigate the stairs on her own.  You do not want the kitten to have accidents if she does not know how or is to small to go up and down the stairs when you first bring her home.  My munchkin cat can now navigate the stairs and uses the litter boxes in my basement with the rest of my cats.  Anytime I have had kittens or senior adults I have always at a minimum had litter boxes in my basement and my top floor.

With the size of your home I would not just do one litter box on the top floor only.  I would keep a litter box on each level at least in the beginning until she gets used to your house. At a minimum I  would at least put one upstairs and one in the basement.  Younger kittens do not always realize that they have to go to the bathroom  in time to get to only one litter box in a multi-level house. Also I would not give the kitten full run of the house right away  unless you are home to supervise her since it could be overwhelming. You definitely want to make sure the kitten knows where the litter boxes are and is using them before you give her full run of such a large home.

As for using clumping litter it depends on the age of the kitten and if she tries to eat or play in the litter.  I have used clumping litter with 6-7 week old kittens without any problems.  If the kittens decides to ingest clumping litter it can be a problem. You can buy pet wipes to use to clean stuff out of the kitten's fur.

I do not know anything about litter crystals since I have never used them.  Hopefully someone who has experience with this will chime in.

Does anyone else know if litter crystals are safe for kittens?

 

[LTS3]

I would place one litter box on each floor. Kittens can't often hold it long enough to make it to the litter box in a large house.

Scooping litter is best because you can remove the pee clumps. I've never used crystal type litters so I can't say how well they work.

For at least the first week, confine your kitten to one room. Kittens can get overwhelmed with too much space and new things and they also get into all sorts of mischief. A spare bathroom or bedroom works well as long as you kitten proof it: no electrical cords, blind cords, no medicines or household cleaners lying around, no personal care products on the counter (toothpaste in particular taste yummy but may contain an ingredient that is toxic), toilet lid down, etc. Think extreme baby-proofing. Put a litter box and food and water dishes and toys in the room. If the room doesn't have a window, keep the room light or a nightlight on so the kitten isn't in complete darkness. Visit often so the kitten gets used to you. Don't crowd the entire family into the room at once. Keep the kitten in the "safe room" when you are not home. When you are home, you can let the kitten out for short periods of supervised time. Some kittens are ready for full access to the house after a few days, others not for a few weeks. It just depends on how quickly the kitten settles in. Have the whole family help to kitten-proof the house. Your house is pretty large so it may take a few days to fully kitten proof it.

 

[vikeup]

We plan to keep the kitten in our large master bathroom at first.  It does have an east facing window that we plan to put a perch on for the kitten to lay/sit on.  We always keep toilet lids down - my parents hated the look of an open toilet lid and it rubbed off on me.  There are no electrical cords in the bathroom (except my hair dryer/flat iron that are only plugged in while in use) and all of our blinds throughout the house are cut short to protect our kids.  We will need to secure the other electrical cords throughout the house. We adopted our youngest two daughters 6 & 3 years ago and the house is still pretty baby proofed from our last adoption.  She was 2.5 when we brought her home but she was a "very spirited" child and got into literally everything.  

If we put a cat box on all 3 floors, will we eventually be able to condense down as the cat gets older or will it always return to that spot as a toilet?  Clumping litter sounds like the way to go.

 

[catlover73]

 
We plan to keep the kitten in our large master bathroom at first.  It does have an east facing window that we plan to put a perch on for the kitten to lay/sit on.  We always keep toilet lids down - my parents hated the look of an open toilet lid and it rubbed off on me.  There are no electrical cords in the bathroom (except my hair dryer/flat iron that are only plugged in while in use) and all of our blinds throughout the house are cut short to protect our kids.  We will need to secure the other electrical cords throughout the house. We adopted our youngest two daughters 6 & 3 years ago and the house is still pretty baby proofed from our last adoption.  She was 2.5 when we brought her home but she was a "very spirited" child and got into literally everything.  

If we put a cat box on all 3 floors, will we eventually be able to condense down as the cat gets older or will it always return to that spot as a toilet?  Clumping litter sounds like the way to go.

I condensed my litter boxes back down once the kittens started using the litter boxes in the basement regularly.  When I decided it was time I just put food and water where the extra litter boxes were for a few weeks.  I would still go with more than one litter box though because you are dealing with a very large multi level space.