Getting rid of litter tray?

[showmethegin]

Hi all,

We have a 3 year old boy cat who has access to outside 24 hours a day (cat flap). He doesn't really use the litter tray much anymore, but will occasionally. Is it possible to get rid of it and if so, how?

It takes up a lot of room and don't really like having it at the end of the kitchen!

I don't want to stress him out (or have any puddles anywhere!)

Help!

Personally I think if you have a cat you should always have a litter tray.

I wouldn’t. One cold snap or snow day & you’ll be cleaning up a wet patch. It’s a nightmare to get male cat wee out of fabrics.

You should always have one available. Sometimes when it's pouring with rain, or the ground is frozen, or there is another scary cat/fox outside he really won't want to go out and could well end up urinating in the house and, even if he doesn't, it could cause distress. Also, without a tray, you would miss the signs of a blocked bladder (constantly going to the tray and straining) until it's too late.

We got rid of ours. Well we still have it if we needed it but there was no point having it out as our cat didn’t use it. He’d go out in rain and snow to get some privacy over using it. We did this even though he was locked in overnight.

I do worry we have no idea about his toilet habits but he has made the choice (also now has 24 hour access to the flap).

We put ours outside the back door as soon as he was using the cat flap. It’s been there seven months, unused. Rain, snow, and shine.

Ours use the litter tray so rarely we got rid of it. Two of them have learnt to pee down the plughole which is interesting! In emergencies they use the bath. During bad weather we put a tray down which they appreciate

We've not had one for years for our cats. I didn't realise anyone would choose to have one if their cats toilet outside. We never had any issues at all with them going inside the house until we moved.

I would put it outside the back door/cat flap for a short period and then remove it altogether

May be a dumb question but... When you have the litter tray outside the back door, what happens when it rains? Don't you get "litter soup" where the tray becomes unusable?

May be a dumb question but... When you have the litter tray outside the back door, what happens when it rains? Don't you get "litter soup" where the tray becomes unusable?

We have a covered area outside the back door, so it doesn't get wet.

I chucked ours out as it had gone about a year unused.

Then we had such deep snow that the car wouldn't set foot outside and I had to improvise with a baking tray and some leftover litter

He was not keen to use it but it did teach me that it's best to at least have one in the house for emergencies.

We got rid of ours within a couple of weeks of letting the cats out.
In deep snow/pouring rain etc my cat prefers to go near the house, and if necessary my husband picks it up with a trowel. We have plenty of space in our garden for the cat (started them off with a freshly dug area with cat litter mixed in at the very far end) and I'm not aware our neighbours have ever had a problem with their gardens being used.

Those are all really good tips; thanks everyone! Thinking we'll move it to just outside next to the cat flap then maybe move it back in if the weather gets bad and see how we go!