How to own a cat without the house smelling like a litter tray?

[PaperDoves]

Just that really. We would all love to add a cat to our family but the main thing putting me off is the smell. The Internet has a few suggestions:

1. Scoop the tray at least twice a day
2. Pine pellets and a sifting litter tray may help compared to clay litter

Anything else? Any and all hints and tricks are more than welcome, it's the only thing holding me back!

Will it be an outdoor cat? Mine never ever uses the litter tray - I have it available but she doesn't need to use it as she prefers to go outside

If not, scoop poo as soon as cat does it. Clean out fully regularly including wiping down the tray

Raw food diet. Trust me when I say cats fed on dry food STINK. Raw food = less poo, no wind and no stink.

Can be more expensive though. But worth it imo - we have 2 indoor cats!

Don't have a tray? Have had cats for over 20 years and never had a tray (except when they've had to stay indoors through illness/injury).
Ours have always preferred to go outside, so it's a win win.

You can't 100%. I can always smell when there's an indoor cat (or dog).

We have two cats and our house does not smell like a litter tray despite having two litter trays, because we scoop them frequently and completely change the ĺitter and disinfect the trays once a week. Ours are free to go out as they choose, sometimes they use the tray, sometimes not.

And feliway plug in will keep them happy, which helps stop them getting stressed and developing a sterile uti which causes them to pee all over the show.

Super benek corn cat clumping litter (unscented)

Scoop poo as soon as they do it, scoop wee clumps once a day. Add more litter as the level goes down, full change between once a week and once a fortnight. Doesn't smell of wee at all.

Ours hasn't used their litter tray since they were about 6 months old. They are an outdoor cat, we have a cat flap and also open the back door as and when they want to leave or come in.

When we did have a litter tray it was a covered one and the house did smell a bit catty.

Scoop the litter tray after every use. Not just once or twice if they use it more. Tie it up in nappy bags and bin it. Change indoor bin daily/every other day. Keep the bin clean. Keep the litter tray clean. Clumping litters are fine but you do need them to be at least 7 cm deep in litter and be fast acting, ideally either with a fragrance or charcoal added activation. Sweep up errant cat litter (some always manages to escap even with litter trapping mats). Keep the area around the tray clean - accidents do happen when fat bums don’t get fully inside the tray. hooded/lidded trays are fab. Don’t put them next to a heat source…
(personally I find wood chip absolutely honks after just one use and is impossible to scoop).
keep cat food dishes clean and throw away leftover food.

Don’t have a litter tray in the house. That’s what we did.

3 indoor cats

Orijens dry 85% meat kibble www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk

We often don't smell their poo in an open litter tray since we switched to it.

Sieve tray system with suitable pellets - we use PeeWee brand.

Utterly amazed at the difference since we switched food and litter system.

Some experts say you should have one more litter tray than you you cats, but in our house this isn't do-able, so we just have two for the two cats. Covered ones with filters

We have a lidded tray and scoop the poo asap, I clean it and completely replace the litter every other day. No smell issues.

Here's my plan for you- our house does not smell of cat.

Dry food for the cat. Makes a massive difference to the poop smell.

Wood clumping litter, like the natusan stuff. I like the cardboard litter tray with lid, as instead of needing to wash it out every few weeks you just bin the whole lot- and it's all compostable so no wasted plastic.

Litter scooped every day.

There you go, happy cat and non smelly house.

Oh and yes put the scooped litter in biodegradable nappy bags or dog poop bags, tie up and put in the bin. Wood litter clumps amazingly

Cat flap! My cats never do their business inside, much prefer to go out for that, it could be snowing they still go out

Yes let your cats shit and pee in someone else's garden, risk them being in fights or accidents and killing birds and other small animals rather than deal with litter trays yourself.

I think it's ok if cats go outside to go to the loo providing they're doing it in their own garden.
Sparklingcat sometimes goes at the bottom of the garden, but we have the tray for when she's in overnight and if she doesn't fancy going out in cold weather etc.

Undecided about whether the potential cat will go outside yet, but regardless will have to have a tray during the baby stage. The key message seems to be scooping religiously, which I'm fine with (anything for it not to smell!).

Other problem is finding a place to put the tray in the first place! Our house is small and doesn't have any convenient, out of the way nooks to hide one.

@PaperDoves Could always opt for the halfway measure - catio.
As for litter tray - ours are in the bathroom, but lots of creative ideas to google. Like a plant stand that doubles as a litter tray and others using an empty cupboard.

Same here. Ours used it the other day because we shut them in after they had flea treatment as it says they must get wet....but it was probably new year (fireworks) when they last used it.

Type of food makes a difference to smell, high meat content food is better for the cat and creates less smell than the likes of Whiskas, Felix etc. Read the ingredients list and try to avoid maize, corn, added sugars, potatoes and 'vegetable content' which is usually maize but they don't want you to know.

As a PP said, raw is also good for this but if it isn't convenient get something like Blink. Avoid supplementary foods like Encore or Applaws as they don't have the dietary requirements added.

I have three house cats ! Lots of smelly oil sticks around the house, scoop poop pretty much as soon as they do it and fully clean tray twice a week. Litter tray and cats food is kept in a cupboard with door open just enough for them

I have two indoor cats and keep the litter tray in the kitchen for lack of anywhere else. I have a lidded tray and use clumping cat litter. It's expensive compared to non clumping but lasts way longer. Because I work from the kitchen table I know as soon as they've used the tray and scoop it out. I also have one very fastidious cat who will come and fetch me if I haven't kept the tray to his high standards, so that helps.

I also use a thing from Moodify which is like a white clay pendant that you hang up at nose level. It doesn't have a strong smell - it's supposed to work by confusing your nose or something. It's very effective.

We have three house cats.

There will always be some smell with animals in the house - anyone telling you otherwise is kidding themselves 😉 but it's very easy to avoid litter tray smells.

We use a natural plant based clumping litter and have three trays. The trays are scooped every time they're used (for wees or poos), topped up as needed and changed completely every 10 days or so.

We can't be too picky with diet as one of mine suffers from crystals so needs a specific food, but if you clean the trays regularly you won't really have a problem.

I'd also add that cats won't always approve of high quality diets so you may find you try them all and end up feeding them Whiskas as that's all they'll actually decide they like