Hi!
So curious if anyone has any tips regarding this. We have our cat litter in the washroom of the house. The current cat sand we use has a distinct smell. While we are experimenting with different types of sand, they all, so far, have some sort of smell to them. Obviously it will also smell extra bad whenever the cats use the litter box. While we do remove the litter as soon as possible, we are curious if there are ways to at least mask the smell of the sand with something else⦠Anyone got any tips?
Use unscented, clumping, cat litter. Good unscented cat litter doesnβt really smell like much of anything.
Run your bathroom fan, it will suck clean air from your house into the bathroom and flush it out so that even as you approach the bathroom youl be smelling air from the rest of the house and bad odours wonβt build up.
Scoop the soiled, clumped litter into a green bin, and then tie the bag closed between scoopings.
Avoid βlight weightβ litter, that just means itβs lots of fine particles that are more likely to fly around.
Also, you have cat. You will never get rid of the smell completely. In fact, you are discovering why the U-trap pipe was invented. It traps a small amount of clean water in the U which prevents sewer gas from coming up out of the toilet. Anyway this personβs got a pretty good handle on the situation. Just remember to wash your hands when youβre done.
From wikipedia
It was invented by Alexander Cumming in 1775 but became known as the U-bend following the introduction of the U-shaped trap by Thomas Crapper in 1880
Are you shitting me?
This is whatβs wrong with America, we used to have good names, strong manly names like these
Dis you try wood pellets?
Hmmβ¦I"m a woodworker, I have access to barrels of sawdustβ¦do cats like to go in sawdust?
Might be bad for thier lungs if it goes in the air when they dig. The wood pellets look like some sort of compressed sawdust, so maybe thereβs a way to make the sawdust a bit lessβ¦ dusty?
Pause for a moment to be a woodworking nerd: Not all βsawdustβ is alike. Thereβs an entire science behind chip formation , and in a wood shop the type, shape and size of chips varies widely depending on the cutter and operation. Wood shops produce shavings of all sizes from hand plane shavings which resemble paper tape to sanding swarf which is microscopic powder. If I were to choose from my own various production of wood chips to use as cat litter, I think Iβd go for planer/jointer shavings which are confetti-like and similar to what they used to sell as rodent bedding, like the cedar chips youβre warned not to use for hamsters anymore. I would also try to choose a wood that is less aromatic than a softwood, maybe something like ash, maple or oak.
Apparently those wood pellets (often manufactured as a surprisingly efficient stove fuel but other uses abound) are made first by putting wood through a hammer mill which produces a homogeneous dough-like substance, which is then extruded through a die which has the effect of plasticizing the lignin turning it into basically tree hamburger. Same chemical makeup as wood but none of the original structure. I imagine this could be made of practically any size of shavings, chips or swarf.
Not seen that as an option in the close-by shops, but I could perhaps widen my search for this!
We use a βflushableβ clumping corn-based litter. We donβt actually flush the clumps of litter, thatβs a recipe for disaster. But it does mean I can scoop poops directly into the toilet and flush them. (My cat never got the memo on burying poops, but she does warn us when sheβs going to go, so I can get them right away.) I scoop the clumps into those little green dogpoop bags, and put those in a lidded can with a liner. Itβs not perfect but itβs not bad. We also discovered our bathroom vent fan just went into the walls, so we had a contractor run a proper vent duct to the outside, made showering in there much better as well.
This definitely isnβt the best solution, but when I got one of those litter robots that automatically dump into a sealed compartment, I havenβt noticed the litter smell.
I use plain Arm & Hammer clumping clay litter.
Yeah I saw these ones, while they certainly look good - they are a little outside my budget right now.
Itβs 100% worth it, though, as soon as you can afford it. I would recommend trying the Neakasa M1. I have never owned one, but I have had a Litter Robot 2 for several years, and while I love what it does, the quality kinda sucks. Iβve replaced numerous parts, had to debug, disassemble, and tighten parts, and itβs still pretty twitchy.
Three M1 is quite a bit cheaper, and the design is fabulous - the enclosed design of Litter Robots can be off-putting to some cats; we currently have one cat who absolutely refuses to get in it (we think itβs because it reminds him of cat carriers and vet visits).
Iβd still recommend it to anyone who could put it on a charge card, because when it works (which is most of the time) it utterly eliminates odor, leaves an essentially fresh litterbox for the next cat, requires no scooping, and requires emptying once a week.
I hate the QC on the Litter Robot; love the product. Iβm excited to replace our LR with the Neakasa M1
Iβve personally had better luck with the Litter Robot 4. We started with the 3 and had some issues with the bonnet getting βunseatedβ, among other things. The 4 has been more stable over the year weβve had it. The base being narrower but taller lets us get away with an extra day of not emptying.
It doesnβt eliminate the smell, but air purifiers can reduce it significantly. We have a decent one in the room where the litters are that turns on on a schedule. Itβs a bit annoying that if the cats use the litter just when itβs turning off then itβs kinda no use.
My long term plan if I ever get around to it is to build a cupboard type thing to put their litter in with an extractor fan to the outside.
Litter robots could help, but all the people I know who have them said they just replace some issues and chores with other issues and chores in the end.
