Feline love comes with poop. You might have been doing the cleaning job wrong all the time and their consequences are bad for your cat and you as well. If you cannot bear the pungent smell, rest assured, your cat won’t like it too and the box will need to be cleaned properly.
In this article, I am going to show you how to clean a litter box properly so that you’ll be able to take one step towards solving cat litter problems.
A Little Bit About Cat Litter Problems and Litter Box
Cats are peculiar about their surroundings. Once you know how your kitty wants her things to be and fix the things up, you can finally say ‘good bye’ to cat litter problems. One of them is a dirty litter box. Yes, cats like to stay clean and want their things to be the same, neat and clean. Hence, cats dislike a dirty litter box and its odor.
Two things all the pet owners never like to see happening: one, their house smelling like cat poop, and second, ill kitty. A dirty cat litter box is home of pathogens and parasites which can make a cat fall extremely sick.
Now that you have pretty good reasons why to clean the litter boxes properly, let’s move to the discussion part of cleaning her poop boxes properly.
Step 1: Put on Gloves and a Mask
Pathogens and parasites in a dirty litter box are also harmful to you. Gloves will save you from getting directly in contact with germs whereas mask will protect you from inhaling the pathogens and ammonia present in the cat litter.
The microorganisms residing inside can attack you and your cat, and If you’ve been doing it wrong all the time, stop risking yourself anymore.
Step: 2 Scoop Regularly
Scoop and scoop, do it as frequently as you can. You might be wondering how many times a day it’s ideal to clean the clumps. The answer is once and this is pretty easy for you unless you have 12 cats to look after and 13 litter boxes to scoop.
Your kitty will forgive you if you miss scooping for a day. An important thing to learn about cats is they are finicky and won’t poop in a dirty litter box. This might trigger many other health issues.
Make sure you use the paper or plastic bag which has a wide enough opening so that not a single tiny bit falls out of the scoop. Also, pregnant ladies are not allowed to do this and should have someone to get this job done as there are chances they can contract germs harmful to the fetus.
Step 3: Replenish the Litter Box
Scooping time to time will make your kitty’s poop box running low on litter. A cat needs to hide her poop beneath the sand but when there’s not enough litter, she will refuse to do her business inside it.
But importantly, can you stand a sight of pop sausages in the box? When the thickness of the litter layer reduces to somewhat 1 cm above the clumps, replenish it with the fresh litter. If you have multiple cats and each kitty uses her own, then you will need to refill the box every two to three days. But anyway, don’t forget the general rule of 1cm thickness.
Step 4: Wash Litter Box Every Week
Weekends are the only couple of days when you can chill out, play with your pets, and take some rest. But cleaning is also an important thing and weekends is the best time to wash the litter box.
Empty the litter box and wash it using a rag or a sponge with non-scented detergent or dish soap. You shouldn’t wash it in your kitchen sink as it can shed pathogens in your kitchen. Make sure you have worn your rubber gloves.
Once you wash it properly and let it dry, it is ready to be used. Use a new liner and fill fresh litter in. Do not ever use deodorizer or scents afterward as it can make your cat sick. In some cases, a dirty litter box and scents also lead to feline asthma in cats.
Do You Have an Automatic Self-cleaning Litter Box?
This was the general steps for cleaning your kitty’s litter box properly. If you have a self-cleaning litter box, that’s good, and if an automatic one, that’s great.
A self cleaning cat litter box would save a lot of time and efforts but there’s a caveat here. No automatic and self-cleaning litter box does the cleaning job without human intervention. They will definitely reduce the human efforts but there is a job to be done by you.
Relate these cleaning tips and keep your automatic litter box clean and fresh for your kitty. If you have any questions or want to share your methods to clean the litter box with other people, please comment below in the comment section. Thanks for reading 🙂
Author Bio:
Clara Lou is Co-founder and the Head of Marketing at petlovesbest. Pet Loves Best is a one-stop solution for all your pet supplies shopping and pet-related queries.
