Cats and litter tray smells!

[BigbreastsBiggerbeard]

I'm looking after a friend's two cats for a couple of weeks. The cats are adorable and I love them, but oh my giddy aunt - the smells!! If you have cats, do you ever get used to how awful the food smells? And how do you cope with the smell from the litter tray, or do you just get used to it? I'm hyper aware of it (it's in the bathroom) and it's really getting me down - I feel like the smell will permeate my entire house and I'll go out smelling of cat poo!

I know that we become immune to smells if we live with them for long enough but I can't imagine getting used to this and if I could, I'm not sure I'd want to.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the smell? All suggestions gratefully received....

What do they eat? When I first got my cat her poo smelled awful. She was used to being fed Whiskas food. Now that she's eating high-quality food her wee smells worse than the poo 99% of the time. I use clumping cat litter and scoop out the wet litter at least twice a day which minimises the lingering smell of cat wee.
As for the food, it does smell but so does plenty of human food. The food that mine has is pretty good quality and generally not too strong smelling. It's just part of having pets, they crap and need feeding.

Scoop the poo out asap and flush it and the smell shouldn't linger. You can buy litter freshening powder too.

Good quality cat litter absorbs smells after a few mins.

Cats who eat shit food, i.e. Whiskas, Felix and that kind of crap will have really smelly poos. My two cats have high quality food with a high percentage of meat and we use wood litter - I find this the most hygienic and least smelly and when one of the cats does a poo I remove it from the tray immediately (I have strange cats who insist on sharing a litter tray).

The best litter I have found for containing smells is this I change my litter every day because I am unlucky enough to have a picky bastard of a cat who won't use it if there is a drip of pee already in it. you probably won't need to do that but do lift poos out as soon as you can because they are the culprits for the smell.

Food wise, my two eat Asda tiger wet cat food in the cans. They gobble it up so there is none sitting around and their dishes are washed straight after.

When we got our newest kitten he was constantly doing these awful farts and the breeder had told me he was raised on Royal Canin (not the best anyway but I very much doubt he was even fed that) after a few days of me having him he wasn't farting any more. So I do think the diet has a lot to do with it.

If they're not your cats it's probably not worth it but you can buy enclosed litter trays so they have a lid and a cat flap to it. They are brilliant - you can't smell what's inside (until you clean it!). Also agree with pp - whip anything out the litter tray fast.
Dried cat food smells less than wet cat food

Raw food diet and i use wood pellets.
My litter tray is a covered boxy one, with a carbon filter sitting in the top. I also spritz a room spray onto the filter and around the area which completely masks anything nasty as it contains an odor eliminateor and smells lush. Anyeay, switch the food to decent stuff and it won't be nearly half as bad.

What is the definition of "decent quality food" please?

In my opinion it's one where the main ingredient is the meat listed on the front of the packet/tin/pouch etc. Mine mainly eats HiLife tempt me or indulge me pouches which are 50% meat/fish or more. For variety she sometimes has some Applaws, Wainwrights, Lily's kitchen or similar wet food. She has a very small amount of dried food (10g) per day too and that is James Wellbeloved.

Good litter is the key. I only change mine once a month and there is no smell even with two poo machines using it.

Mine only have dry food and there is no smell with that either.

Once a month? . My cat poos are little pellets and inoffensive, so much so that I can go without changing the tray for around two weeks and it not be too bad other than the wee smelling musty. But I can't imagine leaving it for another fortnight! The poos I can remove. Its the wee'd on cat pellets that need changing because they expand once wet and turn to fluff/sand/crumbly texture. Its not clean iyswim for the cat to stand on and rake over after doing her business.

I change ours and bleach it at least every 2 days to prevent infection because two of them use it. In terms of what's good quality food - generally I won't feed anything to mine unless it's at least 65% meat and many are even better. One of my cats only likes dry food and will eat very few wet so that can be difficult because cats dehydrate easily. The ones I use are

Applaws dry
There is another very high meat content one from pets at home which I get
Lily's Kitchen
Natures menu (only the boy will eat that)
Our boy also likes Animonda Von Feinstein from Zooplus

I don't find it an expensive way to feed them because they need much less of it. Cats shouldn't be eating foods that contain sugar - they're carnivores and need meat and fish.

NeedATrim- with clumping litter you remove the wees as well as the poos. I use litter liners that get switched with fresh ones every couple of weeks but fill it up with the same litter. With a really good clumping litter there isn't any need to completely change it. You just keep topping it up with fresh stuff as you remove the wee clumps.

Oh so what litter do you use for cats then, fuzzy?

I use Pettex clean paws clumping litter in a covered litter tray. It really keeps smells down, and the litter tray I use has a seived insert so it is easy to clean. I only need to change every 2 weeks or so, although that is partly because the cat is able to go outside with a cat flap. Indoor cats need to be changed much more often. What cat litter are you using? Are you using a covered litter tray with carbon filter?

I use perle gourmet cat food along with felix. I find that royal canin and aims are good dried foods, although I suppose you will have to stick to what they are used to.

this is the sieved litter tray I use

I tried the felight someone mentioned up thread. All I could smell was cat piss as soon as I opened the door.
Tried patimax long lasting. Haha long lasting my arse. That stuff stunk
Sanicat the cats didn't like it. Gave it away to a neighbour.
Tried many brands, some donated from neighbour.
Keep going back to catsan.
Scoop the shit daily and change weekly with the catsan. Some of the others chanced twice a week.

Food they prefer dry. Have a few dishes of water around the place.

Like Toddler, I change once a month or so, but remove crap and pee-balls daily.

Using a covered litter tray is key, with a good quality litter, like World's Best.

And food. Whiskas and the like (to me) actually smells like cat poo when you open the tin. A bit like eating McDonalds or Dominos, both of which give me the squits.

Animonda Carny from Zooplus online is a much better food, similar price to Whiskas etc.

I use world's best. Any litter that forms fairly strong clumps would be the same I imagine though. It needs continuously topping up as the clumps are removed to keep a good depth but I won't do a full change unless it gets whiffy. It just feels really wasteful to throw out clean litter.

Needatrim. I use intersand classic clumping litter. It's amazing. No smell even when leaning over to scoop it. Which I only do once a day. Both of mine share one tray and are indoor, the amount of poo they produce is monumental for two such average sized floofies!

They have a top entry box with no filter

Interesting, thanks toddler.