Going Away 3 Nights - Sitter Won’t Change Litter

[Erinlinkcappy]

Hi all,

I’m going away for 3 nights at Christmas and have someone coming to the house to feed and play with my 2 cats. He is not experienced with indoor cats and does not want to change litter.
I realize this is not ideal but it is last minute and I have to go.
I will leave Sunday afternoon and be back by Wednesday afternoon so they will potentially have dirty litter on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
I’ve bought 5 large litter trays and filled them in preparation.
Is there any potential health issues people can see?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Good that you have so many litter boxes, bad that your 'friend' will not clean the litter. It's not really a big deal - did you show him how easy it is? All he has to do is scoop the 'stuff' out - if he leaves debris and you have to replace all the litter when you get home, so be it. I mean, if he can't handle that, what is he going to do if he has some other issue with the cats?

Well, it is what it is. At least you have someone to watch them while you are gone. And, it is only 3 nights. Just please make sure that if he has any other 'issues' he can easily reach you while you are gone. Just in case...

The only health problem will be that your cats hate dirty litter boxes and they pee/poop outside of them, and either he or you will feel some anxiety when you have to clean up.

 

[Furballsmom]

You could even pick up some extra disposable litter boxes for additional help for your cats, and in addition get your squeamish friend some latex gloves, and tell him to get after it. If he doesn't and it begins to have an odor, will he like that better? Hopefully he sends you LOTS of pictures and videos while you're gone.

 

[amethyst]

Unless the cats are not healthy to begin with I don't think a dirty box for a few days is going to cause any major issue. As others have said the best thing to do is put out extra litter boxes so they have more then just a couple to go in, which it sounds like you are doing. It's happened to me before where my husband wasn't home and I was really sick and unable to scoop the boxes for a couple days (and I had 8 cats at that point). It's not nice, and the cats weren't happy about it, but they were fine, so long as it's not something that happens often.

 

[GoldyCat]

AS others have said, it the kitties are healthy to begin with it shouldn't be a problem. You're more likely to have behavioral issues with the kitties going outside the boxes if they get too dirty. 5 boxes for 2 cats shouldn't end up too horrible. You could put down some puppy pads around the litter pans just in case. (Adult underpads are larger and cheaper).

It sounds like you're as well prepared as you can be, so enjoy your Christmas and try not to worry too much.

 

[Jem]

My sister had to care for my cats for a week when I went away, she is VERY squeamish about cat litter and has a very sensitive sense of smell. She is also allergic.
I made sure to leave a mask and rubber gloves for her along with a few of her favorite drinks. She giggled when she saw her care package. Maybe if you leave that out for your sitter, he will make the effort to clean the boxes for you.
If not, there is no health issues you need to concern yourself with. (except for a bump on the head from walking into the wall of litter smell when you get home! ) Although they may use the floor/carpets, so putting the extra boxes out will hopefully help.
And as someone else mentioned, put pee pads on the floor outside of the boxes. They will want to use their box, and because they don't have litter box behavior issues, but it's just that it might get too dirty for them, many cats in that situation will go next to the box, (hey mom, sorry I tried, but the box was full!!!) so the pee pads will protect your floors.
One thing to point out to your sitter though, if the cats decide they don't want to use the new boxes and choose to use the floor instead, will he simply leave it for you for when you get home? I would think scooping a litter box is much easier and less gross than having to clean pee or poop up from the floor, carpet, bed....Even if he only does it ONCE halfway thru, would be better than nothing.

 

[Noirele]

With 5 litter boxes for 2 cats you could just change the WHOLE box. I mean, if the catsitter doesn't want to remove the dirty sand, she can just pick up the whole used box and put it in another room, and take out the clean ones.

 

[Kflowers]

My ex SO preferred feeding the gang fish food first thing in the morning to cleaning the litter boxes. Realizing that sharing chores didn't seem to include his cleaning the litter boxes I did it. I don't know whether it was cleaning the litter, or an unwillingness or inability to bend/knee down to reach them. Since he was tall he probably had bad knees.