Question about litter trays

[electricflyzapper]

I have a new kitten. Keeping him separate from my other cats for a while so he is mainly in one room with a litter tray. My other cats have access to the outdoors so I haven't had much experience of a cat using a litter tray.

So, my question. I am using clumping litter. When kitty poos, it is easy enough to scoop up, but when he wees, the litter doesn't clump properly. So, while I can remove a poo and the rest of the litter is uncontaminated, the same cannot be said when he wees. So am I meant to completely empty the tray after each wee? Or is it enough to just remove as much wet litter as I can?

Thanks very much for any advice.

Our litter clumps perfectly - you obtain a little ball or ovoid which can quickly be disposed of. What kind are you using? And how deep is it? (If you just have a thin covering, there may not be enough time for the clump to form before it reaches the bottom of the tray.)

I've bought Catsan clumping litter and I guess the tray is about half full, so maybe about 3cm deep. Is that not enough?

I use regular clay clumping but it's a longish time since I had a real young kitten and I seem to recall that they can't use it. (I'll have to leave it to others to comment on the Catsan suitability.) 3 cm seems a little skimpy though: they often shoogle their backsides around in it a bit ( thus potentially reducing the depth even more) so I think I'd put a bit more in.

Thanks for the advice. It might be a bit more than 3cm. I've not actually stuck a ruler in and measured it! He is not a tiny kitten - about 4 months old. I was worried that too much litter would result in it being flipped over the side, but I will increase the depth a bit.

So how often should the tray be completely emptied and washed? I feel quite a fool not knowing these basic things, as I am an experienced cat owner otherwise.

Frequency of cleaning depends on the litter you use. Mine clumps really well so only needs doing once a month.

And that is with two indoor cats sharing the same tray.

I'm using wood pellet litter for mine. The poop is scooped and the pee turns the wood to sawdust which I scoop out and get rid of.

I empty and clean the tray once a week.

You need to leave the litter a while for it to form a clump. If you try to remove it straight away it will fall apart and make a mess.

I use OKO Nature Gold pellets, they don't track as much as regular OKO Cats Best or anything else I have tried (which is an awful lot).

That's true - I normally give it a good 5 or 10 minutes to 'set' before lifting out the clump. (Despite being yelled at to clean it up. )

One thing I would recommend is not to use those stupid plastic serrated scoops - no use to man nor beast those things. You're far better off using something that is metal with hard edges e.g. I generally use large flour scoops but I guess that a cheap garden trowel would do just as well. (I think that Poundland often have them.)

Ok, well, I am a few days down the line now and yes, I definitely think my problem was I was trying to scoop too soon. Left a while, it clumps quite well, hard to tell between wee and poo in a way.

And I am getting on with my plastic scoop too. It has a kind of mesh which allows you to sieve out the unused litter.

Good luck with it then. (I hate them!)