Kitten prefers completely clean litter tray for every use

[alic23]

Hello, my 7 month kitten Tinkerbell has over the months developed a strong preference for only using a completely clean litter tray for every use. Now we scoop no. 2s immediately when we are in the house, and will sift out the litter after a wee. We use the non clumping wood litter.

She would go to her tray and sniff or paw it and if it wasn't completely clean i.e. new litter she would walk away, but return and do the same thing a few minutes later but still not go. So i guessed she wanted to go but felt it wasn't clean enough. And as soon as i clean it out and replace with all fresh litter she would jump straight in and go!

Now i don't mind doing this at all but we are going through a 30 litre bag of litter maybe every 10 days or so, although we re-use the sifted litter for our other cat who doesn't care about completely fresh litter.

I am just wondering whether other forum members have experienced the same thing?
I have tried searching for this and found no posts on the web about this. It makes me smile as the lady who owned Tinkerbell's mother did say she was a little princess, and i do get why she would want a fresh clean loo every time - what are your views, are we spoiling her?

 

[eck1kaylie]

I'm not sure if self-cleaning boxes work with your type of litter or not, but that might be worth looking into if she's that picky.
Mine is pretty finicky about her box, but thank goodness she's not that picky. I'd go nuts!

 

[margd]

How many litter boxes do you have? The rule of thumb is one for each cat plus one. That isn't always necessary, but if your little girl is so fastidious, it might be a solution. Some cats want to use separate litter boxes for peeing and pooping. Some don't like sharing at all with another cat.

I hear what you're saying that Tinkerbell doesn't want any thing at all in the box but wanted to suggest the extra boxes as that would increase the chances of having a clean one ready to go.

The self-cleaning litter box that eck1kaylie suggested is a good idea. This could very well fix your problem.

 

[alic23]

Thanks both for suggestions, i will look into the self cleaning litter trays, but maybe when they are at least a year old, as all self cleaning boxes use clumping litter which i won't change to until they are older. However self cleaning boxes do mostly just sift used litter, which she probably will think is still smelly for her! We tried giving her the sifted litter in a cleaned tray and apparently that still wasn't good enough!

We have 3 boxes for 2 cats. I might get another one though.

My partner thinks i am spoiling her by giving her completely fresh litter with freshly washed tray every time, to the point where if we're out at work or something she will hold it in which isn't good for her.

 

[grrr cat]

Mine cat is like this. She was worse and a nightmare as a kitten. She is better now but will refuse to enter the box if its dirty.

I have two boxes next two each other. I use paper pellets and only just cover the bottom of the box about 1-2cm. The beauty of paper is you can see what is dirty. I scoop all dirty out twice a day. I garbage the whole boxes if she create a mix of clean and dirty litter. I tried two inch deep litter when she was younger and she refused to enter the box after 2-3 days.

I tried pine litter  with the trays and  it wasn't economical because she could smell wee on litter and refuse to enter the box, so i would have to change the whole box. She also refused to poo in the pine litter box.

She still storms off if the box isn't clean enough.

 

[jcat]

How old is your other cat? At 7 months, Tinkerbell is plenty old enough for clumping litter, which would cut down on the amount you're using. You'll probably still have to scoop #2 "immediately" (our last cat demanded that, too), but clumping generally controls urine odors better.

 

[alic23]

Hi jcat, other cat is 6 months. Does it make a difference if they also sometimes randomly try and eat litter? They don't do it often but when there is a stray piece of wood pellet outside the box they will chomp on it.

 

[kittens mom]

Hello, my 7 month kitten Tinkerbell has over the months developed a strong preference for only using a completely clean litter tray for every use. Now we scoop no. 2s immediately when we are in the house, and will sift out the litter after a wee. We use the non clumping wood litter.

She would go to her tray and sniff or paw it and if it wasn't completely clean i.e. new litter she would walk away, but return and do the same thing a few minutes later but still not go. So i guessed she wanted to go but felt it wasn't clean enough. And as soon as i clean it out and replace with all fresh litter she would jump straight in and go!

Now i don't mind doing this at all but we are going through a 30 litre bag of litter maybe every 10 days or so, although we re-use the sifted litter for our other cat who doesn't care about completely fresh litter.

I am just wondering whether other forum members have experienced the same thing?
I have tried searching for this and found no posts on the web about this. It makes me smile as the lady who owned Tinkerbell's mother did say she was a little princess, and i do get why she would want a fresh clean loo every time - what are your views, are we spoiling her?

Mercy our 6 month old started this a few weeks ago. She went from one to the other. I scoop once a day. We have four litter boxes and 2 cats. Honestly it was pretty bad to watch but she finally went in and used a different corner. So now she will go from one to the other but is able to find a corner that is acceptable to use. I seen it a prelude to litter box issues. Nipped it in the bud.

 

[alic23]

Mine cat is like this. She was worse and a nightmare as a kitten. She is better now but will refuse to enter the box if its dirty.

I have two boxes next two each other. I use paper pellets and only just cover the bottom of the box about 1-2cm. The beauty of paper is you can see what is dirty. I scoop all dirty out twice a day. I garbage the whole boxes if she create a mix of clean and dirty litter. I tried two inch deep litter when she was younger and she refused to enter the box after 2-3 days.

I tried pine litter  with the trays and  it wasn't economical because she could smell wee on litter and refuse to enter the box, so i would have to change the whole box. She also refused to poo in the pine litter box.

She still storms off if the box isn't clean enough.

Thanks for sharing, sounds like you have a fussy lady cat too! I don't blame them though we all want a clean loo. I tried paper litter once, not too sure about it but may try again if u say the odour control is better.

 

[alic23]

Mercy our 6 month old started this a few weeks ago. She went from one to the other. I scoop once a day. We have four litter boxes and 2 cats. Honestly it was pretty bad to watch but she finally went in and used a different corner. So now she will go from one to the other but is able to find a corner that is acceptable to use. I seen it a prelude to litter box issues. Nipped it in the bud.

Now this reminds me i've seen them go in a tray that's not completely clean and have only one back foot in the tray in a corner and the rest of the legs gingerly perching on the litter tray sides!

 

[molly92]

Maybe it's technically spoiling her, but I think it's much better to clean her litter that much than for her to develop a habit of going outside the litter box! Once they start doing that, it can get very difficult to get them out of the habit.

The worry about using clumping litter is that the clay swells up with moisture, making it good at clumping, but the fear is it could cause blockages if swallowed. Plant based, flushable clumping litters do not have this ingredient, and while they don't clump quite as well, they disintegrate in water as opposed to swelling up. It's probably not good if they snack on it all the time, but if they swallow some now and then I don't think it would cause any harm, especially at their age.

 

[alic23]

Maybe it's technically spoiling her, but I think it's much better to clean her litter that much than for her to develop a habit of going outside the litter box! Once they start doing that, it can get very difficult to get them out of the habit.

The worry about using clumping litter is that the clay swells up with moisture, making it good at clumping, but the fear is it could cause blockages if swallowed. Plant based, flushable clumping litters do not have this ingredient, and while they don't clump quite as well, they disintegrate in water as opposed to swelling up. It's probably not good if they snack on it all the time, but if they swallow some now and then I don't think it would cause any harm, especially at their age.

Thanks for that i like the idea of the clumping but not expanding flushable litter. I've read somewhere that a recyclable/compostable litter product does not exist yet though!

 

[molly92]

Thanks for that i like the idea of the clumping but not expanding flushable litter. I've read somewhere that a recyclable/compostable litter product does not exist yet though!

Yep! They say not to flush even flushable litter because toxoplasmosis can harm aquatic life, but if your cat is completely indoors and has been for more than a month or two there's really no risk that they could have it anymore. I think it's unlikely a compostable cat litter will be approved for similar worries about diseases in cat feces getting in the soil and environment. But, even if it has to go to a landfill, at least the plant based litters will biodegrade.