How often do you change a cats litter tray?
My wee girl is looking after her friends cat while they move house and get settled which may be some weeks. I am paranoid that the litter tray will smell, do you change the gravel stuff every day? Any advice/tips on reducing catty smells would be gratefully received 
Tagged with: advice tips • gravel • litter tray • wee girl
Filed under: Cat Litter Box
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You change the litter as often as it needs to be changed/scooped or whenever your cat tells you to. Mine tells me by either peeing in the fireplace or peeing on my chair. She’s got me well-trained–I change it out almost every day. Who says you can’t train a human? (We’ve got three cats, including an outdoor cat who has to come inside to use the litter box.)
depends when it litters
I recommend scooping the box with a small litter shovel once a day if possible. You can keep the gravel in there for a few weeks if you keep up on the scooping of feces and clumped pee. Don’t get lazy in scooping though, cats tend to relieve themselves on your carpet if they feel the box is getting too full for them to walk in.
Most brands of litter these days are clumping litter, which makes cleaning at least once a day a total breeze. If the cat runs low on litter, as that your friend show your daughter where the fresh litter is. If it’s staying more than a week, litter should be changed; there are plastic liner bags that can go inside the tray to make this process easier. My fave brand has Febreeze scent added (Arm & Hammer) but cats are picky about litter and hopefully your friend will leave you her brand.
changes
is it clay or Clumping Cat Litter and how many kittys?
always add a litter box deodorant smells great and keeps the smell of poo and urain down
dont bother with the liners they dont work cats love to sread them
for one to two cats
if its clay
change ever other day and add some litter box deodorant
if its clumping
scoop every day change once a week
for more then 2 cats
clay
dump ever day
clumping
scoop every day dump ever 3 days
if it’s used – definately daily. or if you use clumping just the clumps. my cat hated clumping and loved the gravel
If it’s clumping litter, you should do it daily. You should really only have clumping litter. It makes things so much easier.
Also, you can find litter deodorizer at most stores.
i would suggest using a cat litter deoderant ONLY if the current owner already uses it – otherwise it’ll put the cat off the litter tray.
You need a poop scooper and to lift out poo once a day. Ideally, have a bin nearby and even better, have a separate bin for it, so that you don’t smell the poo every time you open up your normal bin. As you’re just caring for it for a bit (bless you!), it would be totally understandable if you don’t want to do this. What you can do though is get bin liners that smell nice – they have them down here in NZ so I presume they’re also in the rest of the civilized world?
Once a week, you need to empty out all of the litter and, using a washing up brush that you preferably won’t use for your own dishes, scrub the empty litter tray with detergent (or bleach if you prefer). Let it dry, then put enough litter back in (about an inch deep). Usually best to do this just after kitty has been, to prevent accidents! I always bleach the brush afterwards too, just to be on the safe side.
Finally, it might be best to keep this kitty indoors all the time, as it might wander off and try to go home if it’s let out, but then again, you may have already thougth of this!
I have a cat and I clean her litter tray daily, I just put a small amount of litter in the tray and always scoop out as soon as she has relieved herself. Even with clumping litter if you do not clean the tray every day it will smell. Cats urine is very strong and they are very clean animals, they do not like using a tray that has been used already
It is a lot of work but to keep your house smelling nice and a happy cat, clean it every day. Also use a good brand of cat litter the cheaper ones are not as good.
I change it every week but dont hesitate to change it early if it stinks
I have two cats and two litter boxes. My vet recommends a litter box on each floor of the house which is also what the state of Ohio recommends. I do not use the clumping litter. I clean (scoop) the boxes out twice a day. In the morning and again in the evening. Then once a week I change the litter and the litter box liner. Some cats are picky and will not go in the box if it smell bad to them. Some may think this is obsessive on my part but it’s not. Just good habit and I don’t want my house to smell like cats! Plus I love them and want it to be nice and clean for them!
It depends on the type of cat litter their using. If its the baking soda kind that changes when used then change it when the color changes but if not then change it everyday just to be safe