How Often do you Sanitize the Litter Box?

[Marcia]

Because my 15 year old Winnie was so sick we had to euthanize her yesterday, I sanitized everything she was exposed to. (I had kept her isolated from the other cats when she first became ill). This got me to thinking, how often do others sanitize their litter boxes?. I use scoopable litter and normally just top it off, but looking at the other yucky 3 boxes compared to the nice clean one I just scrubbed out got me to thinking maybe I should do this much more often. My 5 cats almost never got sick so I really didn't give this subject much thought until Winnie got so sick. How often do YOU sanitize (totally clean out, disinfect, etc.) YOUR litter boxes?

[britishvixen21]

Boo and Bee share a littler box so daily scooping is necessary, but Fiance totally changes litter and sanitizes the box once a week.

I have nothing to do with this process as I have a terrible gag reflex LOL so bless him he does it for me. we decided when we got the girls that I deal with all things going in and he deals with all things coming out. LOL

[Marcia]

You totally change out the litter, too? Even with using scoopable litter? What a great guy!!

[October]

Originally Posted by britishvixen21

we decided when we got the girls that I deal with all things going in and he deals with all things coming out. LOL

That's funny!

I used to completely clean it out and put in new litter once a week. After a while that seemed excessive, so I switched to once every 3 weeks or so. I actually read somewhere that there's such a thing as doing it too often . . . that cats think of leaving their waste somewhere as establishing it as their territory, and they need that to make them feel comfortable. And from a cost perspective, litter sure gets expensive when you're changing it out every week.

[britishvixen21]

Yeah it adds up! its like $40 a month! I guess thats just what we thought we had to do. Maybe il tell him what I read here and we can ease up a little bit.

Thats why i love this forum!

I guess the reason we were doing it so often too is that Boo has had a pretty bad tummy on and off since we got her and she can leave some real sloppy stinkers in the box. we were afraid that if we didnt change it often that Bee would get annoyed and do it somewhere else in protest.

[snowy]

I dump out the wood pellet every 2 weeks, so to make it easier for me to remember, I dump out the litter on the 15th and 1st of each month, sanitizing once a month on the 1st. Its costing me less than S$3 a month for just the litter.

[hoofmaiden]

I almost NEVER dump and "sanitize" the boxes. I use a really great litter that clumps hard (Precious Cat), so I'm removing all the waste when I scoop (daily, 4 boxes for 4 cats). I replace with fresh litter what used litter I remove. The boxes do not smell at all.

[MowMow]

Each box gets soaked in bleach water and rinsed well before I dry it out and set it back up. I do that once a month. I have two boxes so every two weeks I do one of them.

I use clumping litter but after a while the boxes themselves start to stink in my little apartment.

[3furbabies]

I almost never do that either. Maybe once every 6 months I will scrub and wash the boxes. I scoop 2-3 times a day and it never gets yucky or smells. I always get compliments that if I didn't have a massive cat tree in the living room they wouldn't be able to tell we have any cats. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

[rightsaidfed]

Scoop 1-2 times per day
Top off as needed

Totally empty and sanitize around once every 6 weeks.

It's really not that dirty when I do it, I just like the idea of a fresh start every so often.


Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App