smell problem with wood pellet litter

[coontamer]

We have two juvenile Main Coon cats with fully tufted paws.  We use Dry Den Animal Bedding wood pellets as recommended by Breeder.  Two litter boxes for two cats are cleaned of solids at least once daily, and remaining mostly sawdust is dumped and refilled weekly.  However, the smell throughout our house after the big business is done is just uncomfortable.  We have an air freshener in the small laundry room where we keep the boxes.  Is there anything we can add to the boxes to remove odors or do we just need to remove solids more often?  Is there a different litter we should try that will improve the foul odors?  We feed Lifes Abundance grain free dry and TJ's Turkey Chicken Rice only.

Thanks

 

[red top rescue]

If your cats are not yet neutered, the male skunky smell starts early and grows stronger and stronger with age.  Even with the best of litter, your house will develop an aura of Eau de Skunk.  I use the equivalent of Feline Pine (Tractor Supply's Equine pelleted pine bedding, under $6 for a 40 lb. bag) and there is rarely any odor.  I dig out solids and sawdust at least once daily and have multiple boxes for multiple cats.  Recently I rescued a young adult male who was not neutered, and even with dumping the entire litter box daily and having an active Glade Automatic Spray going in the same room as the box, the odor was inescapably wafting through the house, not just the rescue area where he was living.  As soon as the mobile vets came back into this area, which was about 10 days after I rescued him, he was neutered.  Within three days of getting him neutered, the odor was fading, and within a week it was no longer noticeable.  So if your boys are not yet neutered, it's time to get that done as the odor will only grow stronger as they mature.

If they ARE neutered, it may be that the wood chips don't have as much natural odor control as the pine does.  I would suggest trying either Feline Pine or one of the other pelletized pine litters and seeing if that helps.