How often should you completely swap the kitty litter?

Question

I clean the solid stuff out at least 2 times a day, but was wondering what the recommendation is when it comes to dumping out the whole thing and starting fresh.

Answer 1

1. Depends on the number of cats that you have. More cats, more often. They tend to be much more messy when they share.

2. Depends on type of litter. For scoopable, once a month seems reasonable based on conversations I've have with my friends and a couple of vets.

3. Rarely if you have an automatic cat litter box. These can be extremely handy and they tend to stay quite clean.

Good luck!

p.s. Good food means *less* cat poop. And, in turn, that means less of a mess to clean. Which of course means that general cleaning is required less often. Good food and good litter are excellent investments...

Answer 2

I have 3 black cats, what I do with the litter is I clean the box every day regularly,depending on how often the are outside. Once a week no matter how ofter I clean it during the week, I dump the box and scrape it ,then I take it to the bathroom and spray it down and let it soak it hot water for about 1-2hrs. Then I clean it with my toilet brush and rinse it with hot water. I also clean the cleaning tool I use in the box. Then just dry the box and add fresh litter, a little baking soda never hurt either.

Answer 3

It depends on what kind of litter you use. The heavy duty clumping stuff would have to be completely changed less frequently then the non clumping stuff because when it clumps you have taking the mess with the litter.

Also judge by smell. If you notice you clean the box and it still smells it is probably a good time to change the whole box.

Although the good litter is expensive in the long run it makes things so much easier/smelling better.

Answer 4

You should completely clean it out all together once a week. But you should remove the soil at least every day to every two days because cats are very clean animals. When you leave their waste in too long they look for cleaner places to use the bathroom.
Think of it like your toilet..if you kept having to use the bathroom while walking in your waste, you'd want to find somewhere else to use too.
Also, I read online that once a week you should take a solution of water and a little bleach and wipe the litter box out.

Answer 5

depends what kind of litter
depends what kind of food
depends how many boxes and how many cats

If you feed a good quality food your cats will eat less... get more nutrition.. and poop WAY less than if you feed any of the grocery store or Wal Mart foods... I never scoop that often..
when you decide to dump and start fresh will be when the litter can no longer support scooping - clumping lasts longer on a whole, clay lasts least longest

Answer 6

Depends on the grunginess of your litter. If you are using scoopable litter like I am, you should be able to go a month before fully cleaning out the box. If you are using stinky regular clay litter, you need to empty it like once a week or your house will smell like a litter box.

My cat has two boxes. I completely emptied one of them a week or two ago, since then she hasn't used the "dirty" litter box. Perhaps I should empty the other box as well sometime soon. Not sure if she thinks its dirty or if she prefers to use the one that doesn't have a hood on it.

Answer 7

I have two cats that divide their time between the outside and inside. I have two litter boxes that I clean about every other day. I fully change the litter about once a month unless my Maggie eats a field mouse and excretes it in her box. That tends to leave a smell of rotting carcass (and you all thought plain cat litter was bad!). That requires a couple days of soaking in bleach and anti-bacterial soap.

Answer 8

I usually scoop it every other day and on the third scoop I go ahead and dump the litter, and after the second dump I spray it out really well with the hose and if it still smells funky I spray it with a little bleach and scrub it down.

Answer 9

You are going to think this is extremely weird but I let the cat tell me. When she seems to be extremely fussy about the litter and starts bothering me when I scoop it, I think she is telling me she wants fresh. This happens every few weeks.
I either have a very smart cat, or I am very in tune with my cat or I am nuts.
In my own defense, usually when I think Lucy is telling me she wants new litter, the box smells funky to me too.

Answer 10

do you include the urine clumps with the solid stuff? i too scoop 2 times a day. i have a back-up box and on sundays i put all new fresh in the back up box, empty the used one and fill it with hot water and laundry or dish soap. anything with anti-bacterial ingredients. i let it soak for a couple of days and do it again. on fridays i spray the empty box with lysol and rinse it again on sat with hot water. ready for sunday.
unless they make an appearance, no one even knows i've got 2 cats.