How Often Do You Do A Full Litter Change?

Hi everyone

I read online that with daily removal of waste you should be ok to go 2 to 3 weeks before doing a complete change? It's been 2 weeks so far for my new kittens tray and so far it seems pretty fresh still so I'm thinking to stretch it one more week but it does seem like a long time!

What does everyone else do? X

Forgot to add that I use clumping litter.

I usually just add litter when it gets too low. I'll wipe down the sides of the litter pans if there's pee or poop on them, but otherwise do a complete cleaning and litter change every 2-3 months.

About once a month. That's with one cat using the box and scooping at least a couple of times per day. Also, keeping the litter topped off.

I scoop the pee clumps and clean my boy’s litter box and wipe the sides everyday and scoop away the poop immediately and top up with fresh litter if it gets a little low.

He has 4 litter boxes not including 2 when he was a kitten and now he has extra large boxes and it’s filled up 4” high with clumping litter all round and litter is dumped and change every 3 months. I just interchange the litter boxes when one is being washed.

Just remember if you use clumping litter, the more you scoop the more fine the remaining litter will be and at the bottom up will have fine sandy litter.
If you have at least 4” of litter, the pee will not stick to the bottom that makes cleaning harder as you have to scrub the bottom of the litter box to get the stuck clumps.

Soak the litter box with warm water and mild detergent and scrub clean and rinse well and dry.

If you diligently keep the litter clean, you can get away with a longer break before changing litter and also there will be no pee or poop smell.

I do a complete change about once a month, or whenever the quality of the litter degrades. I also top off the litter about two weeks in, which freshens it up. My cats get kind of disturbed every time I give them brand new litter -- Ares tries to dig it all out of the box! (Hence my investment in covered boxes.)

GoldyCat said:

I usually just add litter when it gets too low. I'll wipe down the sides of the litter pans if there's pee or poop on them, but otherwise do a complete cleaning and litter change every 2-3 months.

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I do the same.

I scoop out the waste daily. I add more as needed and change it after 2 weeks to a month depending on how it looks. The pine pellets break down into sawdust so I try to scoop that out daily as well. I have no smell issues.

tabbytom said:

I scoop the pee clumps and clean my boy’s litter box and wipe the sides everyday and scoop away the poop immediately and top up with fresh litter if it gets a little low.

He has 4 litter boxes not including 2 when he was a kitten and now he has extra large boxes and it’s filled up 4” high with clumping litter all round and litter is dumped and change every 3 months. I just interchange the litter boxes when one is being washed.

Just remember if you use clumping litter, the more you scoop the more fine the remaining litter will be and at the bottom up will have fine sandy litter.
If you have at least 4” of litter, the pee will not stick to the bottom that makes cleaning harder as you have to scrub the bottom of the litter box to get the stuck clumps.

Soak the litter box with warm water and mild detergent and scrub clean and rinse well and dry.

If you diligently keep the litter clean, you can get away with a longer break before changing litter and also there will be no pee or poop smell.

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vinegar works really well for cleaning litter boxes. When I change litter i pour enough vinegar in the box to just cover the bottom and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. It loosens the stuck on stuff so I can just spray it out then I wash it with soap and water. The box comes out really clean and odor free. I also just tried the Tidy Cat free and clean litter and it works great for controlling odors.

With Clumping, once a month on the 1st, throw away the old litter, clean the boxes with dish soap and hot water, put new litter in.

Non-clumping I dump once a week.

I scoop daily and change every couple of weeks. I use wood pellets and I think they're the best.

mightyboosh said:

I scoop daily and change every couple of weeks. I use wood pellets and I think they're the best.

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Those pellets last two weeks, even though they don't clump?

The contaminated ones turn to dust so that's what I scoop out. They always pee in the same spot so there's always pellets around the peed on stuff.