Is there any cure for a stinky litter box?

Lisannez

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We live in a three floor home, with two female cats. We have one litterbox in the living room, we use clumping litter and when we are home we clean the litter box immediately when they use the toilet. But it smells SO BAD. It makes me want to gag. It's not that the smell has increased or gotten worse, I guess that before when we lived in a one bedroom condo I figured that was why it smelled so bad, but now I can literally smell it three floors up in the bedroom within minutes of them going. We have central air, I run ceiling fans in every room, I have tried diffusers, citrus sprays, pretty much everything I can think of and nothing works. The smell lingers too forever! We live in a climate where we will freeze now if we leave open the doors and in the summer it's too hot. Is there anything anyone can suggest? Thanks.
 

chickpea616

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We use the Arm & Hammer cat litter deodorizer. I fill the box to almost where I would normally, sprinkle the powder, then add a small layer of litter on top of that. Seems to work well for us! (Also 2 female cats here)
 
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Lisannez

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We use the Arm & Hammer cat litter deodorizer. I fill the box to almost where I would normally, sprinkle the powder, then add a small layer of litter on top of that. Seems to work well for us! (Also 2 female cats here)
Thanks I am going to try that.
 
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Lisannez

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We have been feeding them earthborn wet food and dry food (a mix half and half) for over a year now. They may have an occasional greenie treat. One of the cats has an issue with gluten so we have to be careful on the foods. But we have tried many others foods it does not matter. Open to suggestions. One of the cats will eat whatever we give her, the gluten free one is a bit pickier. It is quite pricey but it has made such huge changes for the gluten free cat, she used to always be sick.
 

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What litter are you using? Some have better odor control than others.

What are you feeding? Food can also make a huge difference in the smell.
 
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Lisannez

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We have been feeding them earthborn wet food and dry food (a mix half and half) for over a year now. They may have an occasional greenie treat. But we have tried many others. We use fresh step clumping litter for multi cat homes.
 

Azazel

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The smell is a direct result of the food or GI issues. Healthy cat poop shouldn’t have a strong odor. The culprit is usually too many carbs in the food. Cats are obligate carnivores and cannot process carbs properly. It ends up giving them stinky bulky poop. Dry foods are high in carbs so usually cats fed dry food have stinkier poop. You can try increasing wet food and decreasing dry. Look for wet foods with meat as the primary ingredients and little to no legumes, grains, or veggies. Cats fed biologically appropriate diets (i.e., raw meat) have virtually odorless poops. I have 3 cats on a homemade raw meat diet and their litter boxes are in my office - I smell nothing. The closer you can get to their natural diet the better (i.e., lots of animal protein, very little carbs, lots of moisture in the food). If you're able to do it, switching to an all canned diet will surely result in a noticeable decrease in the amount of poop and the smell. The strong smell is often an indication that something is not right, either in the diet or in the digestive system.

No cat should be eating gluten anyway so the change you made is good for both your cats. :)
 
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tbroox

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I have 4 cats and the best litter I've found for keeping the smell down is Everclean. The downside is that they sell it in a 42-lb package and it's a backbreaker to get it in the cart and out of the store!
 
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Lisannez

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The smell is a direct result of the food or GI issues. Healthy cat poop shouldn’t have a strong odor. The culprit is usually too many carbs in the food. Cats are obligate carnivores and cannot process carbs properly. It ends up giving them stinky bulky poop. Dry foods are high in carbs so usually cats fed dry food have stinkier poop. You can try increasing wet food and decreasing dry. Look for wet foods with meat as the primary ingredients and little to no legumes, grains, or veggies. Cats fed biologically appropriate diets (i.e., raw meat) have virtually odorless poops. I have 3 cats on a homemade raw meat diet and their litter boxes are in my office - I smell nothing. The closer you can get to their natural diet the better (i.e., lots of animal protein, very little carbs, lots of moisture in the food). If you're able to do it, switching to an all canned diet will surely result in a noticeable decrease in the amount of poop and the smell. The strong smell is often an indication that something is not right, either in the diet or in the digestive system.

No cat should be eating gluten anyway so the change you made is good for both your cats. :)
The wet food we feed them has meat as the primary ingredient I will post below the ingredients. We did feed them wet food (all canned) only for a year and then were told that by the vet that we needed to give them more dry food, so we did that, the dry version of the food we were already giving them in the wet version. It did not matter, nothing changed when they ate only canned food. There was no noticeable decrease in the smell or the amount. If something is not right it has been for 13 years. I guess I was looking more so for something that helped mask the smell. While I am certainly open to switching foods, the Earthborn is very high quality and more expensive per day than what we eat.

Fish Broth, Skipjack Tuna, Grilled Mackerel, Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, Tricalcium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Zinc Oxide, Niacin, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Potassium Iodide, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K).
 
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Lisannez

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I have 4 cats and the best litter I've found for keeping the smell down is Everclean. The downside is that they sell it in a 42-lb package and it's a backbreaker to get it in the cart and out of the store!
Thanks I will try that. I will make my fiance do the heavy lifting though :).
 

Azazel

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The wet food we feed them has meat as the primary ingredient I will post below the ingredients. We did feed them wet food (all canned) only for a year and then were told that by the vet that we needed to give them more dry food, so we did that, the dry version of the food we were already giving them in the wet version. It did not matter, nothing changed when they ate only canned food. There was no noticeable decrease in the smell or the amount. If something is not right it has been for 13 years. I guess I was looking more so for something that helped mask the smell. While I am certainly open to switching foods, the Earthborn is very high quality and more expensive per day than what we eat.

Fish Broth, Skipjack Tuna, Grilled Mackerel, Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, Tricalcium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Zinc Oxide, Niacin, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Potassium Iodide, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K).
If I had a penny for every time a vet erroneously told someone they needed to give dry food to their cat... well.. you get the point.

Cats do not need dry food for any reason whatsoever. The only benefit of dry food is the convenience it gives to owners. It is ultimately up to you whether you continue to feed dry but please know that there is no reason to do so at all and the decrease in water intake and increase in carbs that result from dry food are not healthy for cats.

Hmm, this food is very fish heavy. Fish is a known irritant for cats. I would not be feeding a fish-based food on a regular basis. This may be your culprit. Unfortunately the price of pet feed doesn't equate to the quality of the feed. :(

Edit: Since this has been going on for so long, I wonder if adding some prebiotics and probiotics to their food would help. Sometimes cats fed certain foods for a period of time end up with an imbalance in healthy gut bacteria. It's worth a shot.
 
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Lisannez

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If I had a penny for every time a vet erroneously told someone they needed to give dry food to their cat... well.. you get the point.

Cats do not need dry food for any reason whatsoever. The only benefit of dry food is the convenience it gives to owners. It is ultimately up to you whether you continue to feed dry but please know that there is no reason to do so at all and the decrease in water intake and increase in carbs that result from dry food are not healthy for cats.

Hmm, this food is very fish heavy. Fish is a known irritant for cats. I would not be feeding a fish-based food on a regular basis. This may be your culprit. Unfortunately the price of pet feed doesn't equate to the quality of the feed. :(

Edit: Since this has been going on for so long, I wonder if adding some prebiotics and probiotics to their food would help. Sometimes cats fed certain foods for a period of time end up with an imbalance in healthy gut bacteria. It's worth a shot.
I agree I have learned that vets do not know a lot about food in general. I mean our poor rag doll cat was sick for years and my fiance kept taking her to the vet saying she was throwing up and having diarrhea and would not eat for a week and they would run tests give her prescription food, etc and a few weeks later he'd be back again. Never once did the vet say hey maybe it's the gluten try cutting that out? Until I did and wow it literally like I said changed her life. We used to have to force her to eat. She would not even chew the food that's how much she hated it. But that was because she knew it would make her sick, poor thing. My fiance is more . . . shall I say respectful of the vet's advice. Me if I don't like it I do my own research. I feel like the cats do enjoy the variety of the dry food/wet food variety which is why we kept it up. If I put both down they will eat from both bowls. I am fine with switching back to wet food only, no issue with that. I truly think that investing in a good food for your cat even though it costs more money upfront is an investment in the cat's long term health, and thankfully we are able to afford to get that the best. I am not saying the sky is the limit, but if there is a better food that costs more we are open to trying that. We have also tried switching to the chicken versus the fish no such luck it does not make a difference. I had not though of the pro biotics I am going to try that thank you. In the scheme of things the cats are healthy and happy and I can deal with the smell. But when we have guests its really bad, and awkward and sometimes it does make me nauseous.
 

LannyLC

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I noticed my recent rescue drops smelly poops sometimes. Reading this thread has been very helpful and I'm likely going to give him way more grain free wet food high in protein and only a little bit of dry left in his bowl while I'm at work.
I also use Arm n Hammer and like it for odor control
 

Jewely

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Fish is very high in sulphur so that’s probably why it’s so smelly. Look into probiotics to help their flora. You can ask your vet or do some research or even get some opinions on here as to what is a good probiotic for a cat and at a decent price. It will help with the smell and is good for them.

We use Dr Elsey’s Ultra litter and I love it. My boy was on a prescription dry formula ( he refused ANY wet for all those years) for crystals for 6 years and his poop or pee never stank. You could put it right up to your nose and you’d know what it is, but not offensive, like his brother’s was, lol. I think it depends on their natural flora. Now that I can get him to eat canned, it does have a bit of an odor but only sometimes and the litter covers it. And no one can ever tell we have a litter box right in our living room. People are shocked when they find out and it’s his only box.

I do not give him food with fish but if I did I would use a probiotic to balance the odor. Have they ever been dewormed? It’s most likely the fish, but just trying to cover all bases.

Another thing I’ve seen is bamboo charcoal being used to absorb odors. I had been researching it for another issue and read a lot of people buying it to place near litter boxes to absorb odors.

I hope you find something to help!

ETA Sorry if this a repeat, I didn’t see those other replies. It’s been one of those days. Even if their other food didn’t have fish as a main ingredient, it still might have had it in there somewhere. Plus, everyone and that includes cats has a unique flora. I wish you the best.
 
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Srwheeler

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I have 4 cats and the best litter I've found for keeping the smell down is Everclean. The downside is that they sell it in a 42-lb package and it's a backbreaker to get it in the cart and out of the store!
And super expensive. It’s my favorite litter, but I can’t afford it anymore with 7 cats 😭
 

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We use the Arm & Hammer cat litter deodorizer. I fill the box to almost where I would normally, sprinkle the powder, then add a small layer of litter on top of that. Seems to work well for us! (Also 2 female cats here)
Seconding this! I use it with a green tea-scented tofu-based litter (don’t think it’s available outside Korea or I’d recommend it) and I rarely smell the litter box. And I’m with two cats in a studio apartment!
 

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I'll echo what A Azazel suggested, get rid of the dry food. The only reason it exists is it is easy and convenient for us humans, it is literally the worst thing you can feed a Cat.

I'd also switch to something that doesn't have so much fish in it, also avoid exotic proteins if you can (emu, bison, kangaroo, etc.) as those are a good way for a vet to diagnose protein sensitivity vs. an actual stomach condition. Stick to common sources like chicken, turkey, and duck.
 

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I've been using Tidy Cats Free and Clean for years. It is unscented and using charcoal for odor control. I do not notice any smells unless one of the cats just pooped and hadn't covered it up yet. For the past four months I upgraded to 3 cats, and no smells still. I keep 3 litter boxes, spot clean morning and night. I replace litter every 2 weeks. I highly recommend. Hope you find something that helps!
 
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