Love cats, hate poop. What mitigations can I put in place?

[Dreamwhisper]

I love cats, have always been a cat person. Found a stray kitten as a child who was with me through all my formative years! But we had a large garden and they were free roaming, I never saw or thought about cat poo.

I live in a gardenless house now and constantly ponder getting a cat. Cat will probably kept indoors (if this is ethical?) but either way, whether indoor or outdoor, I'll need some kind of litter tray.

Anyone have any recommendations or experience with these fancy looking litter trays that say "self cleaning" etc. Most have mixed reviews.

The bottom line is I want minimal contact with poop. I want the best, most odour neutralising litter. I want all the gadgets and accessories and mod cons that reduces the presence of cat poop in my house. I'm willing to pay through the nose.

I use cats best or worlds best litter, Both good
Raw or grain free food cuts the smell down too!
Scoop as soon as possible, I use scented dog poo bags and bin as quick as possible outside

Agree with Pelo22
We started ours on Cats Best litter and it is brilliant (though I think for small kittens you need a non clumoing in case they ingest it , Our were adults when we got them)
The pee forms a liftable round ball of litter .

Grain free we changed gradually and either they smelled less or I got used to it !
Biggest tray we could find commercially wasn't big enough, we use an underbed tray (removed wheels) and a XL covered tray so they have choice .

If you are lucky your cat will bury it neatly like our little boy cat . The female leaves it triumphantly on top of the litter <not envy .
And waltzes through after much noise and scraping about to announce that her tray needs emptied !

Haha

Thanks so much this sounds good! I like the idea of using a larger box as I do agree litter boxes I looked at on the PAH website seem pretty small. I hope I get a good burier too!

Good shout on grain free food too - I'll certainly put that on the list.

I'll be really honest here. I am the same with poo and would never get a dog for thy reason. Always grew up with outdoor cats and when I got my own as an adult I had to keep a litter tray for weeks whilst our cat settled. We used a large litter tray and wood pellet litter but I can honestly say I was at breaking point by the end and was so unbelievably relieved when he could finally go out. Wood pellet was definitely much better and didn't smell in between but nothing can actually stop the smell when they initially go and it was horrendous for me. Hopefully you are not as sensitive as I am but I would really think about it because it would be horrible for you and the poor cat if you had to re home after a few months

You cannot 100% avoid contact with pooh , even the best cats sometimes miss .
I woke up to find a neat pile beside the tray this morning ( and DH had cleaned both trays when he got up , so not a Dirty Protest )

They are very clean tidy little animals but the occasional "oops" (and both looked equally judgey'n'blamey so don't know who the cultrit was )

culprit

so I can’t help with the poo but if you want a cat to be indoors and are concerned about whether it’s fair, I’d recommend getting a breed like a Birman. Ours is a real homebody, not interested in going further than a little sit in our back yard for 10 minutes then back inside to bed. If we kept her only indoors I don’t think she’d be bothered at all. I don’t think they are as ‘streetwise’ as ‘regular’ cats so it’s probably better she doesn’t roam anywhere.

We have a hidden litter tray for our cat. It's like a little hut, they're £50 on Amazon. They look really stylish and you'd never know there's a litter tray inside. I live in a bit of a wilderness though, next to a huge field with horses, foxes and the like, so my cat goes outside I'm sure but never in my garden.

Also I'd recommend odor control catsan. Or if you wanted something cheaper then wood pellet litter from pets at home, not great for odor but definitely cleaner.

Decent food and greenwoods clumping wood based litter. Scoop into nappy bags and into the outside bin!

We use Van Cat litter which has lots of different nice scents, and bought a cat litter bin from Amazon with a deodorising pad at the top. Like a pp we also have a hidden litter tray inside a cupboard type thing - check out Lords & Labradors. I still have to have some contact with poo but even my mother who detests cats has to admit that our house doesn’t smell.

Oh and we use scented biodegradable dog poo bags to put the used clumps of litter in.

I’ve had cats and I like them, but no matter what you do their poop stinks, I have friends who have all sorts of fancy trays and I can always smell it even if it’s in a different room. They can’t because they get used to it.

Mine doesn't BUT I scoop it immediately as I WFH. As in 30 seconds after he's been, it's scooped and out the door in the outside bin
I think if it's sitting about and not cleaned that's when it starts to smell

I have no idea if it works but you can buy a kit that teaches them to use an actual toilet. Obv they can't flush but it still sounds good.

We got kittens around a month ago, we started with clumping clay and now we have found that catsan mixed with wood pellets works the best for us.

Our boys have a lidded box so poo has only ever gone where it's meant to.

You can get litter boxes with lids so you can't see it, or furniture where you can hid the litter tray. I haven't used any fancy gadgets but found wood pellets to be the best type of litter as it doesn't get dragged around the house like clay litter does. It's also much easier to clean as well as being more environmentally friendly.

It's completely ethical to have an indoor cat and is much safer for them. Just look at getting a cat tree and other things in your home to keep them entertained

We have top loaders and use paper litter so it's changed as soon as used. One still has nuclear shits four years after giardia so we need to change immediately!

I would go for an older cat and ask for one who is good at covering their poop.

We've got a large, covered, top-entry litter box. It's definitely much better at containing the smell than the open one we had previously. For some reason my cat never buries his poo when we buy the wood chip type of litter, but then again they're all different so you might have to experiment a bit.

Mine is an outdoor cat with free access to a garden and all the neighbours' gardens but always comes inside to poo for some reason!

Thanks for all the replies, this is really useful information!

@lauraccccc Unfortunately I am quite similar. I actually earlier in the year got a rabbit instead of a cat and the sole deciding factor was the poop issue. She is an AMAZING pet but is a solo rabbit as this is all the pet shop had. I've been looking into companion pets and as well as learning how to introduce another bun I've come across quite a few articles saying cats and rabbits can live together and I still have that urge for a kitty.

@Anothernamechange3 That's good advice thank you, I was looking at rag dolls because it's important we have quite a placid breed due to the rabbit!

I am definitely of the mind set that if those litter robot type things don't really work, I would scoop immediately. I WFH so I'll be around all day.

@Neilsfavouritechilli that sounds amazing that would solve some problems 😂

@cookielove your kitten is sooo cute!

brit-pet.com/

we have a sieve litter tray (link above) recommended by the breeder used with wood pellets. There is a smell when a poo is done but I don’t see how that could be avoided. We bag up and put in a bin outside and the smell doesn’t linger.

the cat eats Royal Canin dry food and one pouch of wet food per day.

Rescues very often have cats that have to be inside cats, for health reasons. Eg a virus (FIV) or injury. I have a cat who is blind in 1 eye and has poor balance, so is really bad at judging distance, and he'd probably die on the road. So he was homed to us as an inside cat.

We used to take him out on a lead a bit, but he's not that fussed. He does like windows but tbh would rather sit on a lap or bed.

And yes,moving the shite straight away has the biggest impact. We hear 0urs raking in the litter box and we're up like Jack in the boxes to investigate!