Litter Box Question

A little background. We have 3 male cats. Two are brothers from the same litter. The third, we picked up off the street - vet said he was about 8 months old. They all use the boxes with no issue. I know the recommendation is to have one for each cat, plus an extra. We actually only have 3, all located in the same spot.
Here's the problem. They kick litter everywhere. I've seen a lot of people suggest using tupperware containers with higher lids. So my husband and I want to try that. How important is it to have the multiple litter boxes? All the tupperware container we're finding are significantly larger than the litter boxes we have and we have limited space. My husband is in the process of ordering 2 containers right now.
The cats get along very well - especially Connor and Murphy. They were inseparable from birth. Sometimes they cuddle with Mickey - or Mickey cuddles with them - but not as often as they cuddle together. Currently, they all use all 3 boxes so they're already sharing.

Hi!
It's up to the cats
If it were me, I'd hang on to the original boxes while you try out the new ones. Then if somebody's unhappy you can immediately go back to the old ones before a bad habit (of peeing or pooping elsewhere) starts.

The main thing with fewer litter boxes is keeping them clean. You may have to scoop two or three times a day instead of just once. I have 9 cats with 6 litter boxes and it works out just fine.

Furballsmom said:

Hi!
It's up to the cats
If it were me, I'd hang on to the original boxes while you try out the new ones. Then if somebody's unhappy you can immediately go back to the old ones before a bad habit (of peeing or pooping elsewhere) starts.

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Yeah, I'll wash them out and shove them in a closet somewhere.

GoldyCat said:

The main thing with fewer litter boxes is keeping them clean. You may have to scoop two or three times a day instead of just once. I have 9 cats with 6 litter boxes and it works out just fine.

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Ok, we'll watch them and see if they need scooped more often. Right now, we do them daily.

Best of luck! Let us know how things go .

Thanks. They were ordered from Amazon, so they should be here in 2 days.

.....Just as a thought, you could keep a bit of the old/used litter and transfer that to the new boxes, just to help ensure that your kitties are comfortable with the new setup

Ok, we'll dump the old in the new boxes and just use new to finish filling them. Thanks for the tip.

You're very welcome

Think of someway to make 'stairs' into the new boxes since the sides are higher than in the current box.

I thought I was following, but now I'm not sure. I thought you were going to put the litter boxes in the larger containers so the containers could catch the kicked litter. I thought the container would be a couple of feet tall.

Now it sounds as though you are putting the litter directly in the containers. If that works, great, but keep the other possibility in mind in case it doesn't.

Will be looking forward to hearing how it goes.

If the boxes are bigger, it could work, since all of the cats are friends. Just be prepared to put another one out if it doesn't work.

I would transition the new boxes in rather than cold turkey replacement. If you have three of the old boxes, leave one out rather than packing them all up and swapping them out for the two new ones at once. I would not remove the old box until they are all using the new boxes. You might have to keep tabs on their bathroom habits for a few days to be sure each are accepting the new ones. If any cat is rejecting the new boxes, you could try letting the old box get a little dirtier than that cat would prefer, or try a litter attractant in the new boxes. They could and they might all take to the new boxes without any issue. But cats being cats, they could very well reject them outright.

I'll keep all these suggestions in mind. The new boxes are about a foot tall. All 3 cats will be 3 years old this spring, so they're still young enough to easily jump into the boxes. They make it over the 3 foot tall baby gate 973 times a day with no issue.

It's real nice of you do set up an obstacle course playground for them.

Yes, it's totally for them. Has nothing to do with my desire for the baby to NOT eat cat poop. Haha

Alicia, if for some reason the 2 new containers you ordered don't work out, I HIGHLY recommend a top entry litter box. I was skeptical at first since our male cat used to track litter everywhere it seemed except the ceiling, but it worked like MAGIC!

We bought the IRIS Top Entry box-- it's $20 or under (Chewy, Wayfair, Amazon), it looks aesthetically nice (you know as much as a litter box can--comes in 6+colors), the cats figured it out right away (just make sure to put their old regular litter in it at first), and most importantly 99% of the litter stays inside- GAME CHANGER!!! [note: That leftover 1% is good so that I don't get lazy about vaccuuming. Ha!]

Bonus-- we take the top entry litter box on long car rides/trips because there's no open litter to be spilled.

P.S. The IRIS Litter Box Company did not pay me to say this, but if you're listening IRIS, I might know of a cat family in Maryland that would definitely appreciate another one......just sayin'...

Thanks; we'll try definitely try a couple of those if the tupperware doesn't work out.

Delivery was delayed, but we got the boxes and set them up yesterday. So far so good. They're using them.