Do you have more than 5 cats? How troublesome is it to deal with litter boxes, and dietary habits?

Question

Also, do you have a litter box for every cat? I have 8 cats. 3 of them already spayed. I-m on a budget.

Answer 1

I have 11 cats and 5 cat litterboxes. All of my cats are litter-trained however all love clean litterboxes, if they are dirty they will do their business outside of the litterbox. I clean all litterboxes twice per day, I remove the stool and wet litter to prevent the house from smelling, place the waste in a plastic trash bag and throw it in the garbage can. The only time it becomes troublesome is when one of my cat suffers from diarrhea and decides to do it outside the litterbox, it becomes quite messy but luckily they do it on tile floor and not on the carpet, so its easier to clean up. In regards to dietary habits, I have 7 dishes and 4 deep drinking bowls. The feeding schedule is as follows: early AM (breakfast) Wet and dry food (some cats like dry food, some wet, so I put both out to accomodate the picky eaters), then I leave a dish or two of dry food out for the cats that missed breakfast or prefer to eat brunch, then 5-6 pm dinner time I bring out wet food and more dry food if necessary. Some cats like their dry food snack which is around 10-11pm. So before I go to bed, I leave a dish or two out with dry food for the late night eaters. I do this on a daily basis. I do go to bed tire, but they are worth it!

Answer 2

First off, glad you have some of the cats spayed. Keep at it - one at a time is worth it until all the cats are fixed. As for litter boxes, no you do not need 8 boxes for the 8 cats. What I suggest is about 4 boxes and put them all over the house, so that the cat can get to them wherever they are. This is especially good if your cats are elderly. You can now hide litter boxes in specially made furniture, but since you are on a budget, I suggest you put each litter box in a corner of a room on a rubber mat so it doesn't get the floor wet (in case of accidents) and if you use the scented cat litter, it helps a lot. Also keep the litter boxes extremely clean. Cats do not like using dirty litter boxes and if you don't keep them clean, they will find other places to do their business. To help save costs on litter, you can put plastic bags under the litter (just cut them in half to open the bag) and lay in under the litter.
If you don't want to collect all the litter, use a pet scooper and add baking soda as you remove the "waste" and it will keep the box smelling fresh. Do not over use the baking soda.
You should have no "smell" around the home this way.
I've done this and it works great.
Good Luck.

Answer 3

I noticed that there was a HUGE differnce in the litter box once we got cat #4.

We only have one box and five cats. It gets cleaned of poop and pee first thing when I get up in the morning, last thing at night, when I get home from work and in between those--any time I see the surface disturbed.

By doing this, our house doesn't smell, the cats all use the same box without balking, and it seems to work really well. I save the empty cat food bags and use those to put the used litter in, taking the bag out to be emptied once an evening so it won't smell up the kitchen. Do NOT put the used litter into the kitchen garbage, that only encourages smells.

We use the cheapest clay litter, I get it in 25 pound bags for $2.50 a bag. With the five cats, we go through 4 bags a month so I understand about budgeting. If you have a pet supplies store near you, make sure to check their 'damaged bin', sometimes big bags with taped up tears on them are completely full yet are marked down to $1 a bag. I snap those up any time I see them.

Answer 4

We have 6, with 7 litter boxes. We have 3 of those fountain-type waterers, each hold a gallon of water. We also free-feed them three types of dry food. If you feed a quality food (I use mostly Innova EVO) they will need to eat less, and poop less. I scoop the boxes twice a day (scoopable litter) and keep about 3-4 inches of litter in them at all times. A "Litter Locker" holds all of the scoopings and keeps them odor free for a couple days, and I take it all out at once. It is not troublesome at all. You can buy vaccinations on-line (except rabies, which myst be administered by a licensed veterinarian) and save a lot of money. Good luck, having the cats is worth it, I think.

Answer 5

well I had four cats, and I bought some rubber maid containers from wal mart, and lined them with a trash bag. They are deeper containers, so there is not an issue with litter getting all over the place.

The diet was a bit more difficult. One of the males needed c/d to prevent urinary tract infections. I eventually just started feeding three of the cats c/d becasue it was too dificult to sort it out. The fourth cat needs a special diet becasue she is prone to intestinal problems. I started to put her in a different room during feeding time. Then one of the cats developed a thyriod problem and I had to seperate her, and monitor the amount of feed she ate. Basically I had to resort to feeding twice a day, instead of leaving food out. The cats bugged me at first, but they got used to it after about a week, and now its fine.

Answer 6

I had 3 but 2 died :( You dont need a litter box for each. try having like 3-4 for ur 8 cats. It can get expensive with the food and litter. Besides that it's ok. Unless u have sickly cats and need to bring them to the vet alot. good job! more cats need more homes!

Answer 7

I've had a lot of animals,
there not too troublesome.
you just have to make sure they actually know how to use the litter box.
and if they know how it shouldn't be a problem,
but if u want to know about the dietary habits, u should just go to the vet to make sure they r healthy, and to see what kind of shuff they should be eating.

Answer 8

i am 67 year old i have 37 cats, whats a litter box? they usually just go on the floor and after awhile it turns into dust, and dietary habbits my cats usually eat alot of birds and small rodents and bugs

Answer 9

properly, be careful approximately moving the muddle boxes too plenty, because of the fact that in the adventure that your cats at the instant are not satisfied with the area, you already understand what they do. regrettably, some canines particularly love the consume the "tootsie roll" promises interior the muddle container. in case you could placed some form of gate in front of the muddle boxes that your cats can surely struggle with the aid of, yet no longer your canine, that is your in basic terms answer. canines do no longer hop over, yet cats do.

Answer 10

you would need about 4 boxes at least