Question about litter and trays on The Litter Tray. :)

[seeyounearertime]

We're thinking of maybe, possibly, becoming slaves to a feline overlord.
My gf asked a good question earlier in Tesco, looking at cat litter.

Which litter do you buy and how long does it last?
And which litter tray type is best? (Covered, in overed, self cleaning, scoop etc)
How often do you clean it or do you scoop the chunks out daily and change it less often. Iyswim?

We have a covered tray with the flap taken off.

We use cats best litter - it seems expensive at first, but lasts for ages.

Take poo out ASAP ( use dog poo bags).

The wet needs to sit for about 20 minutes and then forms a nice ball that lifts out. I do this regularly as well.

Tesco antibacterial cat litter.

Igloo litter tray. In the understairs cupboard which has a cat flap on the door. Yes, they have their own bathroom.

We had a literal tray for about 5 minutes and soon found a covered one was necessary. We left the swing flap on as our cat didn't mind it, but I understand some don't.

Exactly the same as Elegant, but we carry the tray into the loo and scoop straight into it, Cats Best is flushable, many aren't though.

Cats Best. It seems expensive but buy the giant bag. It lasts ages. It can be flushed.

I have a new kind of litter tray with a flat lid that has small holes to let loose litter through, and a hole on one side for the cat to get into. It works well.

I have linked one.

www.google.co.uk/?ion=1&espv=2#q=top+entry+litter+tray+uk&tbm=shop&spd=11830470017620086500

Sorry I forgot to say, some clay litters give u a dust that is supposed to be a bit dangerous for the cat long term.

If we had a downstairs toilet, I would flush, but we gave up on carrying the tray through the house to the toilet . There's nowhere suitable for our tray upstairs.

We only have a downstairs loo, so the trays are near the bathroom (understairs cupboard). I wouldn't carry them upstairs either.

My dream house has a downstairs toilet

It is also possible to train a cat to use the lavatory. There are special seats to put on in succession to aid the training process. You can see it on You Tube

I use the wood pellets for him. Anything clumping tracks everywhere.

Sawdust is easy to vacuum up. He only uses it sporadically though.

Thanks for all the replies, very much appreciated.

Looks like Cats Best is on Prime so that should do it. We also have a downstairs loo with room for a tray next to the door, I'd never though about flushing waste away before.

Will you be able to leave the loo door open all the time?

I guess we could leave the loo open. There's not as much room in there mind, where i think the tray will be is about arm reach from sat on the toilet.
It's so small I actually think it was coat cupboard that they've adapted, but it does it's job.

Why do you ask?

I assumed you meant the tray would be in there, so the door would need to be open for them to use it. If you meant the tray would be close by but outside the loo then it doesn't matter.

We leave our understairs cupboard door slightly ajar for this reason but it's in a corner of the middle room of the house so not in the way. I was thinking about fitting a catflap to it but it's panelled and fitting would be tricky.

Cats best is by far the most economical & goid quality we have ever used. A bag for £20 lasted well over 6 months.

BUT we have just adopted a 9 year old rescue cat & shes only ever had wood pelletts, so as not to upset her toileting habits we have had to stick with the wood.

The main differences are clumping- just remove poo and wee clumps and top up. Or non clumping, remove poo and change the lot regularly, the first obviously lasts a lot longer.
I used to use cats best but switched to benek from zooplus, pretty much the same, can flush it and a lot mess tracking than cats best.
For litter trays I use a couple of storage boxes under ikea lack tables, the boxes are larger than usual litter trays and so give them plenty of room.
One last tip, I keep the scoop in a jug, I scoop the poop and clumps into the jug then just empty it down the loo, job done and I've somewhere to store the scoop without it touching anything else :D

We don't use a litter tray at all for our 2 and haven't had an accident in years. Obviously not something you could do straight away but you can train them up to it.

Where do they poo MrPony? Do you let them out when they want?

If your overlord is still a kitten don't use clumping. Overlord kittens may like to ...um... eat litter and you don't want that clumping in their stomach. Our ruler was very happy with her covered tray until I dared to hoover when she was in it - she was still a kitten. It freaked her out and she refused to use the tray. I now have one that has a kind of detachable lip/overhang around the edge.

We haven't decided between kitten overlord or older rescue.
I think it'd be nice to have a kitten as DD is 3 and they'd grow up together, I know that's probably a dumb reason though. But a kitten will need litter training, they'll be accidental puddles, they'd need neutering when the time comes, microchipped etc.

An older rescue would be good as they'd likely be litter trained, possibly neutered and microchipped but they may not be as playful for DD.

It's all things we're trying to weigh up. So if there's something else to consider feel free to let me know

The kitten stage lasts an incredibly short time and these days, with good nutrition and health care, you might well have a cat living with you into their late teens. (And I have a vivid memory of removing my own current lad from the top of a door at 16 - I wouldn't worry too much about lack of playfulness. )

A young(ish) cat, with a developed and - hopefully - known personality sounds to me as if it would fit right in with your family.