House always smells bad

[TScarv]

One of my cats doesn’t like to go outside so he always uses his litter tray. He only poos during the night so I can’t pick it up until the morning, by that point the whole of the downstairs stinks. I scoop out his tray every day and do a full clean once a week. But I feel like the house always smells of dirty litter.

his tray is under the stairs so there is a door with a cat flap, however he will not use the cat flap at all so unfortunately I have to leave the door slightly open so that he can get in. I also changed litter to a clumping one, I used to get the stone type litter but now this one has a texture like sand and clumps really well. But my house always stinks. What can I do? Does anyone have any suggestions?

You need to change the litter more than once a week. Every 2-3 days if he’s not going outside at all as it will be urine as well as poop that’s stinking. Use litter tray liners as these make it easier to clean - just lift the whole thing out like a bin bag - the metal or plastic of the trays can start to harbour smells after a while.

We use these ones -

https://amzn.eu/d/004JOZQv

Yes, clean more often. I feel like I spend a fortune on Catsan but it’s necessary. I also steam clean the litter tray and surrounding floor every other day.

Yep same here. Catsan is cheaper to buy on Amazon than anywhere else. We buy 2/3 bags at a time we go through so much.

I was a huge catsan fan but swapped to fitlitter at the start of the month and will never go back. The litter tray always had a smell and in the heat it was awful, but this last week has been totally different. I really rate it.
not sure if I’m allowed to share a code here but if I am I have a 50% off code if you wanted to try it OP?

i genuinely can’t praise it enough and I was so sceptical 🙃 also means I don’t have white catsan stones everywhere

I think Catsan is useless. I use the wood pellet litter from Tesco and rarely experience odour issues.

Wood pellets I found to be much less smelly than clumping but you do need to change it more more often than you are to get rid of the urine smells.

I used to line the tray with a bin bag then newspaper then litter. Made it easier to chuck out wholesale. A Sunday Times lasts a long time 😁.

I’ve found cats best wood pellets to be very good, seems to absorb odour well.

Yy to wood pellets and changing more often. You also need to wash the floor and tray regularly even if using liners.

I have an automatic cat tray, it's brilliant with smells. The litter gets emptied into a bag in a sealed compartment as soon as the cat leaves the tray. A deodorizer gets released. I then empty the bag a few times a week.

Another vote for catsan. I changed the litter every day or two. Good thing is if you're changing it that regularly you don't need to fill the tray all the way up so you can stretch the bag a bit.

I used to clean it more often when I didn’t have clumping but because this clumps so well, the rest of the litter is clean so it feels like a waste. I will try it though for sure and see if it makes a difference, thank you. I also tried the litter liners but he was shredding them and also using them to cover his litter. He has done it with clothes and even his bed, he will take things and drag them to cover his poo 🤦🏻‍♀️

Whattttt I've never heard of such a thing! Genius!

immediately looks on amazon

I will change the litter again to the wooden pellets, this sounds like a good idea. I usually cover the whole of the cupboard with puppy pads and change these as soon as anything is on them, so the floor never gets anything on it. But I will try anything because it’s really awful and embarrassing knowing that your house smells like cat mess 😕

In addition to litter you can consider diet - it really makes a big difference to the smell. I've gone through several different kinds of food for my cat (untamed, katkin, true raw chicken from a farm shop, and various dry foods) and they all have different smells. I currently do 50/50 catkin and dry - if I do dry for a few days the poos are much smellier.

I don't find I need to throw away loads of litter btw - I only very rarely do a 'full change' but am religious with daily litter tray care to filter off used stuff and top up. I use wood pellets that disintegrate to like sawdust when wet and make the poos go hard. I have two trays, and I use a scoop with small slats to filter off the wet stuff from the main tray into the second tray, leaving the 'real' tray with just the pellets. I put a handful of new pellets in to top up. Then I just discard the sawdust stuff in the second tray leaving full pellets only in the main tray. Poo is picked off easily (gloves on, obvs). I give both trays a good disinfect occasionally but I think keeping on top of the sawdust pellets basically keeps it all in pretty good order. I think cat litter people have us all conned that we need to replace it all so often!

Cat poo shouldn't smell awful unless it's fresh. What are you feeding him?

It does smell so awful that because I can’t clean it up straight away, it lingers all throughout the night so when I come downstairs in the morning, it just stinks! He eats royal canin gastrointestinal dry food. He will only eat dry food, I’ve tried on lots of high quality meat diets such as untamed but he would rather starve himself than eat anything other than biscuits

It really shouldn't smell like that. Mine often come in to use their trays in the night and I can't smell their poos at all when I come downstairs.

Royal Canin is awful quality and full of all kinds of fillers that he doesn't need.

As already recommended, I use Cat's Best Wood litter. I also feed raw - it makes SUCH a difference to the smell of their poo, it basically doesn't smell at all. I know you said your cat is picky, but a lot of the raw food delivery companies do trial packs - might be worth a shot.

There are lots of different types, this is mine

When our boy was on cage rest we used wood pellets. The tray was emptied and cleaned every day. It’s a pain in the neck but you can’t let the wee build up. It smells terrible.

This really is the best. Use enough that the urine doesnt make it to the tray, it clumps before it gets there.

The problem is, it’s the only food that doesn’t upset his stomach. He is 8 years old and we adopted him when he was 1, and from the start he has always had very runny poos. He’s been to the vets countless times for it and over the years I have tried lots of different food and this is the only one that doesn’t upset his stomach. That’s why I also don’t understand why it smells so bad, because it’s not as if it’s diarrhoea

I did trial him with this already a few years ago. His tummy troubles have been a real issue over the years and we have had advice from the vets and the gastrointestinal is the only thing he will eat that does not upset his stomach. I do wish he would eat raw but he wasn’t interested at all

another vote for Cat's Best- it is the best one I've used- and with over 35 yrs of cat wrangling I've tried a few