Am I being disgusting? Litter tray cleaning!

[QuestionableMouse]

My friend and I both have cats. She uses half a bag of litter per day and empties completely every morning. (so all the litter is dumped and completely new litter added.)

I put a good amount of litter in about once a week and then scoop/top up as needed.

She thinks I'm disgusting and it's unhygienic. I think she's being really wasteful.

Who's right? 😂

No litter tray here.

My house backs onto woodland with deep undergrowth, cats go in there.

Three cats. Four litter trays, crystal litter in all four. Poo scooped as soon as possible after it's been done. All three cats are raw fed and their poo has virtually no smell. The 4th litter tray is automatic and brilliant(it wanders along and scoops the poo into a section at the front which is lidded. We can't afford 4 of those- sigh.)
All four litters trays are completely cleaned each week on a set day (the day our lovely cleaners come) We take great pride in having three indoor cats and being assured that there is no whiff of cat in our home.

I would change the litter tray every day if I had a cat...but I would never have a cat

I clean it out with disinfectant and put clean in about 3 times a week and then every time our messy cat poops scoop it out straight after. What really annoys me is she flicks all the litter out all over the floor so I'm constantly sweeping it up otherwise you end up walking in it

We have an elderly indoor cat so we change it fully every other day. Before he got so old/lazy/slightly incontinent we only changed fully once a week. Litter tray liners are a recent discovery that have made it a lot easier!

YY to the litter going all over the floor. I've never vacuumed/swept as much as I have since I got the Maine Coon. The Bombay kitten is really neat and keeps it all in the tray, but the Maine Coon seems to like rearranging all the litter before he goes, then when he's covering it up, he apparently needs to boot the litter halfway across the living room

Caffeinestream I had to get enclosed trays for mine - 4 Maine coons, two of them 28lb boys and some who seem to be trying to dig to Australia. I eventually found ones big enough which I can link to.

The tigerino baby powder scented litter from zooplus is great. Looking at old orders i think we go through a 30kg economy pack a month, roughly. Which is £19.

I might have to have a look at enclosed ones. Ours is a Maine Coon cross but he's big enough already at 2 years old, though only about half the weight of yours (the vet thinks he has another few years to grow though).

Our kitten is a tiny little thing though - she's a Bombay and really petite even though she's a year old already. I don't know if she'd cope with a covered tray.

m.petplanet.co.uk/p17279/purrshire_anti_bacterial_cat_litter_tray_with_scoop_xlarge.aspx this is the tray I have. It has high sides rather than being enclosed

Mine are a range of sizes; I have a dinky 10 year old maine coon girl (we suspect she might be a cross) who is only about 7lb, an 18 month old girl who I haven't weighed for ages but is at least 14lbs, and the two big boys who are both giants. At 2 your lad probably isn't fully grown yet, the boys don't hit maturity until at least 3, often older. He might be approaching his full length and height at 2, but he's likely to fill out more. They're a bit like gangly teenage boys at that age!

I have two - same type but slightly different sizes (couldn't quite get two of the biggest one one the cupboard!)

this is the biggest one

this is a litttle smaller

If you go for a covered it can be worth removing the door if your cats haven't used one before to make it easier for them initially. Means you still get a little bit of litter scattering, but nothing like the mess when they've got 4 sides to kick it out of!

He's bulky enough as it is! He's around 14lbs at the moment but last time he was at the vet, we were told he still had a fair amount of growing left to do. He's only just turned two.

Thanks for the links - I'll take a look at them. I might get one to start with and see if they use it/show any interest before investing in any more!

Thanks for that always had dogs, have two now and both go outside they hold it at night and bark/scratch at the door to go out during the day. Dont think I could handle clearing litter trays but saying that its dp who does a weekly poo clear up in the garden

My son would love a cat and I have been thinking about it but realise now I know nothing about them. Another question if you never bought a litter tray in the first place, could you train them to go outside or is that just cruel?

You really don't know anything about cats do you Fatty

You can't train a cat to do anything it doesn't want to do. If it wants to go to the toilet outside, it will, if it wants to use a litter tray, it will, if it wants to use your favourite cushions, it will.

Many cats with outside access will naturally go to the toilet outside, our 4 adult cats hardly ever use any of the trays in the house - I can tell by the size of the clumps and the poos whether it's a kitten or a cat that did it. If a cat gets sick, or the weather's bad, they might occasionally use the tray but it's not very often.

My main consideration for outside access is safety - could it get run over or attacked by foxes etc. Obviously you can't really control against foxes and they are present everywhere, but if I lived on a main road, or even a semi busy road like the main road going through a housing estate, I either wouldn't get a cat, look into a cat proof garden - you can get fence toppers so they can't escape, or I would have an indoor only cat, which unless you have a large house, may be impractical - they like their own space. Sometimes older cats or those with disabilities like blindness or deafness are well suited to being indoor only cats, and can still have a good quality of life in the right environment.

Thanks Barbara I really am clueless

I keep putting him off but he is getting older and he does love the dogs and is very good with them.

I have a lot to learn before I make a final decision, sorry to derail the thread but does anyone have cats and dogs and if so do they coexist happily?

Animals can co-exist - I find the cats mostly ignore the dogs until they get fed up of being chased, when they give a firm whack on the head and the dog then ends up scared of the cat! Or, they become best friends and do everything together. It's really dependant on the animals themselves - ages, health, personalities, and how you introduce them to each other.

The right dog and cat can get along very happily! My big cats and my dog love each other. My little cat and my dog hate each other. Depends totally on the animals!

Big cat joined me and dog on a walk too!

I have mahoosive trays as I have 3 cats, two are Maine Coons and my boy coon does poos that are , well , LARGE. Mostly in good weather they go and crap in my gravel (grrrr) but my oldest cat is 17 and uses the litter trays every day although she does like to pee in the shower drain (or sink!!)
I use wood chip litter as it just smells better and you can put a small amount (with the poo) down the loo. I scoop every morning and when I get home from work and change and wash the trays once a week.

They mostly get used at night as I try to get them in.