Hi!
So curious if anyone has any tips regarding this. We have our cat litter in the washroom of the house. The current cat sand we use has a distinct smell. While we are experimenting with different types of sand, they all, so far, have some sort of smell to them. Obviously it will also smell extra bad whenever the cats use the litter box. While we do remove the litter as soon as possible, we are curious if there are ways to at least mask the smell of the sand with something else… Anyone got any tips?
Honestly, look into the Breeze litter boxes. They’re not automatic or anything crazy expensive, but it really does make a HUGE difference. I’ve been told by multiple strangers “I thought you had a cat?” after being in my house a while because she hides and the box generally cannot be smelled. If you change the pads regularly (i.e. before they are full), replace the pellets 2-3 times a year, and clean the box itself when replacing the pellets, the only smell you will have is from poop. I personally buy the bioplastic dog poop bags in bulk, and just use those to quickly grab and dispose of it.
When we used regular litter the cats tracked it everywhere, flung it out of the box, and it always had a smell, even when cleaned daily. I have none of those things with the Breeze boxes. We were using two when we had 3 cats and I had to replace the pads every 3 days. Now with one cat I replace the pads every week to two weeks depending on whether she divides her usage or fixates on one. We pick up the poop as soon as we notice it, which is usually very quickly because they can’t really bury it as well. I will never go back to traditional litter.
Use unscented, clumping, cat litter. Good unscented cat litter doesn’t really smell like much of anything.
Run your bathroom fan, it will suck clean air from your house into the bathroom and flush it out so that even as you approach the bathroom youl be smelling air from the rest of the house and bad odours won’t build up.
Scoop the soiled, clumped litter into a green bin, and then tie the bag closed between scoopings.
Avoid “light weight” litter, that just means it’s lots of fine particles that are more likely to fly around.
Also, you have cat. You will never get rid of the smell completely. In fact, you are discovering why the U-trap pipe was invented. It traps a small amount of clean water in the U which prevents sewer gas from coming up out of the toilet. Anyway this person’s got a pretty good handle on the situation. Just remember to wash your hands when you’re done.
From wikipedia
It was invented by Alexander Cumming in 1775 but became known as the U-bend following the introduction of the U-shaped trap by Thomas Crapper in 1880
Are you shitting me?
This is what’s wrong with America, we used to have good names, strong manly names like these
18th century America:
My name’s Alex Cumming, and I’m here to stop that pipe smell.
🫤
My name’s Tom Crapper and I’m here to stop that pipe smell.
😍
The quicker the poo dries out, the quicker it stops smelling. This is one of the benefits of crystals, but I prefer wood pellets for the same reason.
Apparently the Crystals can be a bit sharp sometimes and lead to cuts, I’ve not seen it happen personally but switched to wood pellets that have some baking soda or something in it too since I heard that.
Yeah I find that the pellets dry everything out after about an hour. You just gotta be on top of emptying the sawdust as it piles up and things stay pretty odour free
If you clean the litter tray regularly, replace the litter once per week, and keep the house well ventilated then there should not be a bad smell. If there is it may be worth taking your cat to the vet if their poo smells worse than usual.
It doesn’t eliminate the smell, but air purifiers can reduce it significantly. We have a decent one in the room where the litters are that turns on on a schedule. It’s a bit annoying that if the cats use the litter just when it’s turning off then it’s kinda no use.
My long term plan if I ever get around to it is to build a cupboard type thing to put their litter in with an extractor fan to the outside.
Litter robots could help, but all the people I know who have them said they just replace some issues and chores with other issues and chores in the end.
This definitely isn’t the best solution, but when I got one of those litter robots that automatically dump into a sealed compartment, I haven’t noticed the litter smell.
I use plain Arm & Hammer clumping clay litter.
Dis you try wood pellets?
Wood pellets have been a big revelation in the cat department of my life
Hmm…I"m a woodworker, I have access to barrels of sawdust…do cats like to go in sawdust?
Might be bad for thier lungs if it goes in the air when they dig. The wood pellets look like some sort of compressed sawdust, so maybe there’s a way to make the sawdust a bit less… dusty?
Pause for a moment to be a woodworking nerd: Not all “sawdust” is alike. There’s an entire science behind chip formation , and in a wood shop the type, shape and size of chips varies widely depending on the cutter and operation. Wood shops produce shavings of all sizes from hand plane shavings which resemble paper tape to sanding swarf which is microscopic powder. If I were to choose from my own various production of wood chips to use as cat litter, I think I’d go for planer/jointer shavings which are confetti-like and similar to what they used to sell as rodent bedding, like the cedar chips you’re warned not to use for hamsters anymore. I would also try to choose a wood that is less aromatic than a softwood, maybe something like ash, maple or oak.
Apparently those wood pellets (often manufactured as a surprisingly efficient stove fuel but other uses abound) are made first by putting wood through a hammer mill which produces a homogeneous dough-like substance, which is then extruded through a die which has the effect of plasticizing the lignin turning it into basically tree hamburger. Same chemical makeup as wood but none of the original structure. I imagine this could be made of practically any size of shavings, chips or swarf.
Not seen that as an option in the close-by shops, but I could perhaps widen my search for this!
You’re best off going to tractor supply or something similar for wood pellets. You want horse bedding. It is much cheaper.
My neighbor uses crushed walnut shell litter and I can never smell anything. I was thinking of getting it too.
Put the litter box in the garage with a cat door if that’s an option.
Try fresh step crystals. It lasts a month and doesn’t smell. I’ve had up to 9 cats before, I tried so many solutions. Scoop the poop every couple of days, no problem
