What cleaning tips do you have?

[sugarplumfairy28]

Right we have 9 cats, but atm here, it is very very cold (-9 and snow) and no-one is have interested in going out, maybe I'll have 1 at some point in the day, but mostly none of them are going out.

We have 4 cat trays, and don't generally have any arguments or accidents outside of them. I am decorating at the moment and would have expected the house to start smelling of plaster or paint by now, but instead all I can smell is the trays and general cat odor. The trays get dug out once a day and they get disinfected once a week. I have a frebreeze pet odor spray I use regularly but nothing seems to be taking the edge off.

What are your tips? I'll be so pleased when everyone starts going out again and it's warm enough to have windows open all day, but I need to deal with it now too. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Stormwhale]

I would say with 9 cats and 4 trays you need to be cleaning the whole thing out more often. At least every 3 days due to the amount of urine that would be going in them.

Have you tried the powders you can sprinkle over the litter to freshen it? They sell them in pet stores with the litter. I find that using them after scooping really helps.

[MycatsaPirate]

What cat litter are you using?

We use Oko which is great for not needing to be cleaned out very often. We just scoop daily. It clumps and doesn't seem to leave strong odours of urine either.

We have four cats and 2 trays (one upstairs, one downstairs). The only time we smell anything is when one of them has a poo. But that clears pretty quickly.

[Vinorosso74]

Some litters are better at absorbing smells too. We use Cats Best Oko Plus which is good. Granted we only have the one cat so less to make a smell.

[Littlemissindependent]

6 House cats here and trays are completely emptied and disinfected every day. Use Catsan cat litter and obviously anything they do during the day is scooped immediately.

[sugarplumfairy28]

Evidently after having a massive cleaning spree, it turns out the smell is coming from the sofa and the carpet, so have had them shampooed and steam cleaned. Thanks everyone

[squeak10]

Personally, not being cruel ( some may say I am) but I gently help mine out the door at least twice a day for 10 mins and disinfect the trays three times a week. Steam cleaning and shampooing just makes them go back.

[Trustyourself2]

3 cats & 5 lItter trays. All 5 are cleaned as soon as they're used. Mine will not use trays that have been used & I don't want the smell in the house.

[dementedpixie]

I have 2 cats and 2 trays and clean them out at least twice a week. I don't think you are cleaning yours out often enough or have enough for that many cats. Do they not say one tray for each cat ?

[timtam23]

I found diluted white vinegar to be very good at getting rid of litter tray smells.

[sugarplumfairy28]

We've never had this problem in 7 years. They do say 1 tray per cat and then an extra one, we usually have 3 indoor cats, so 4 trays makes sense, the others all go outside. I have tried chucking them out, but they are being stubborn sitting at the door and not going anywhere. It's meant to warm up as of Monday so I'm hoping we can just get back to normal.

They do get dug out every day, and the litter is replaced, we don't have a great selection here so it's just a mid range clumping litter. I'll give the diluted white vinegar a try.

[RubbishMantra]

Cats don't like disinfectant very much. They like their trays to smell of themselves a bit - not so much that the human nose can smell it. Obviously taking out the clumps of wee and poo ASAP.

Like PPs have suggested, have you tried increasing the number of trays, and are some of them enclosed/lidded? Your cats may also be unsettled by the re-decorating, wrt the pissing in inappropriate places.

[RubbishMantra]

Ooh, forgot to say paint and plaster can smell a bit urine-ey.