Cat Question September 3, 2005 Lauren The boyfriend requests some assistance: You have two cats in a 600 sq. ft. apartment. They poop a lot. What kinds of food and litter would you use to reduce the smell of excretia?
I have 2 cats (was 3 for several years) in a 750sq ft place, which is sorta close to 2-in-600… My place doesn’t smell like poo, or litter. You wouldn’t know I had cats were it not for the hair and the fact that you can’t set down any open container of liquid unless you want it to be pawed at…but I digress. My completely non-scientific findings is that the colorful food produces smellier poo, as does most non-fancyfeast wet food. My cats eat predominantly science diet or iams dry food (chicken or turkey variations), and occasionally fancy feast but only the diced or flaky kind, not the stuff that looks like vomit. As for litter, I have really good results with the Arm & Hammer Super Scoop clumping litter.
Do note, one of these cats has made it her life’s mission to turn food into poop at the fastest rate possible.
A Fremen Feline Stillsuit, which recycles all waste internally and emits a pleasing pine-scented odor.
I find that Avo Derm cat food(dry) and feline pine litter work best for me. The litter is flushable and supresses odor better than most. Most tinned cat food is unhealthy for them and simply produces reeking feces.
When we lived in an apartment (about 700 sq. ft) we had 3 cats and a dog. We used Purina Cat Chow and Tidy Cats multiple cat litter (the kind that clumps – this seemed to make a difference). Other than that, I scooped every day.
We have two cats who are full of it. We use a covered litterbox, dry food (Hill’s Science Diet Light) and clumping litter (Scoop Away Fresh Scent, from Costco). On the odd occasion it gets too stinky, we use Arm & Hammer Litter Deodorizer. I suppose that’s ecologically incorrect, but it works well and our cats don’t seem to care. If your SO has a vet he trusts, he might want to ask her/him for ideas…
Cats have less stinky poo — and fewer farts — if you use more expensive cat food. I’ve not found it makes a huge difference which one, as long as you choose not a cheap one, so just any one your cats prefer.
Yet another vote for different food. I use Iams dry food; it’s available at better grocery stores. I use Tidy Cats clumping litter scooped daily — remember that the whole litter box has to be dumped out and refilled every 3 weeks or so.
We always had good results from any dry Purina cat food, and using Fresh Step(tm) clumpable litter. I’m a bit religious on the subject of Fresh Step(tm), actually. An occasional sprinkle of baking soda to cover acute odor can help, too. We’ve lived in very, very small apartments, with two cats, and have been reasonably stink-free.
Putting in another vote for Purina dry food (I use Purina One for cats with sensitive systems, as one of mine is a serial puker). Standard Tidy Cat litter seems to work well in my tiny apartment; the Crystal Blend stuff, while more expensive, is even more effective at odor control. And as Brooke says, baking soda works just as well as litter deodorizer and will save you some money along the way.
If they’re young enough, you can potty train them (it’s really not that hard to do). Mangy-cat was potty trained for a number of years, until he reached that geriatric stage where his aim was piss-poor and he decided to start peeing in the shower (probably b/c I got snippy when I had to wash the floor daily). I wish he still used the toilet – aside from not having to worry about the litter box, I got to avoid the occasional game of poo-hockey.
Feline Pine. We were in your situation and this was the best solution. My partner has a sensitive nose and she swears by the product. It’s made of pine pellets that naturally dissolve and are safe to flush. We used the product for several years until we got a cat who got a Urinary Tract Infection and then associated the Feline Pine with the pain of the infection. Since then we’ve switched to Tidy Cat for Multiple cats. As usual, we scoop every day, but it doesn’t work as well.
Two cats. Started off in a 800-sq ft house, now in a slightly larger apt. Room for only one litterbox. In our experience, the Science Diet motto: “More nutrition stays with your cat.” is a bowlderized version of the truth: “Eat more, crap less.” Our cat pan has significantly smaller turdlets in it than the pan of our friend with a smaller cat who eats Purina Cat Chow. We don’t use scoopable – when we brought the cats home back in 1994 the word on the street was that scoopable didn’t work as well for multiple cat homes because the cats step on each others little clump-cakes and break them up. I don’t know if that’s true, but we’ve found that either Jonny Cat Antibacterial or Fresh Step with Crystals does a fine job of keeping the smell down. And I just learned another tip – with dry litter, you should actually stir up the urine patches because that way they dry and the smell is less. Summary: Premium DRY food and clay litter. Works for us, most of the time. Until we get lazy.
http://citikitty.com/ “Throw your litter box away! Thousands of cats have been trained to use the toilet and yours can too. ” have you ever considered trying this?? i’m not a cat person, but i want to know if it works. i thought it was a joke, and then i met someone whose cat started using a child’s training toilet all on its own, so in theory, it should be possible. i was so entertained by this, i wouldn’t be able to resist it if i had a cat – i would have to try, if only for my own selacious amusement. my 4 pound dog uses a litterbox, but i doubt she’s agile enough for this toilet nonsense. (and actually, a bit too small even for that).
i use iams dry food and arm and hammer flushable litter. i agree with everyone on frequent scooping. when i was using non-flushable litter i didn’t do it as often because it was a hassle to get the bag and walk it to the outdoor trashcan, but with the flushable i am much better about scooping daily, since the litter box is right next to the toilet. i think covered boxes and enclosing the litter box in small spaces, like a closet, is a bad idea because the scent becomes concentrated.
My local mom&pop pet store is big on organic cat food/litter, so right now I’m feeding her something called EVO and using this scoopable/flushable litter called Swheat Scoop, and once a week she gets a wet food called Wellness (which she INHALES). The oder is pretty much under control as long as I put arm&hammer in the litter box, a nice layer of it on the bottom, lots in the corners (my cat is a big corner pee-er), and some sprinkled on top every other day or so. I have no complaints.
Ours are on a diet of Hill’s Science Diet “Nature’s Best” and their box is filled with World’s Best Cat Litter (clumps and is totally scoopable, and much, much more healthy for your feline companions than clay or, even worse, silica. Plus, he can save it all and bring it over to your compost since it’s biodegradable.), which he can purchase at SunSpot for about $10 a bag. With our two, one bag lasts about 3 weeks. Tell him to scoop every single day of his (or the cat’s) life. It the odor is still bugging him, tell him to go to Von’s and purchase some delicious Nag Champa incense. It covers everything.
I have two cats, and have found that the best two brands are Arm&Hammer and Tidy Cats (multiple cats formula). The flushable litter I tried– Feline Pine– didn’t eliminate odors as well.
We use organic cat food, right now something from Royal Canin, although we have used different types in the past. The cats just seem to get tired of their food after more than a year. We use the scoopable litter from PetCo, it seems to control odor the best. In the end, I think having two litter boxes makes a huge difference as well.
I only have one cat, but for what it’s worth Purina Indoor Cat Formula food doesn’t seem to produce very stinky cat poop. Defininitely no wet cat food though. Tidy Cat litter and frequent scooping.
Oreo lets out little tiny poops that are like sarin bombs. They can kill you. Her poop stinks so bad the OTHER cats cover it. It doesn’t matter what she eats. She poops gas bombs. The only thing I’d recommend is that you clean the litterbox frequently. Use the cat litter designed for multiple cats.
Husband insisted on trying toilet-training when we got a pair of kittens (littermates) in ’93. Alas, the male of the pair was the World’s Dumbest Cat, and just couldn’t get it. His sister caught on, but then observed her brother NOT getting it and got confused. Back to the litter box, though neither of them was particularly stinky, and it really wasn’t a big deal. A couple of years ago (World’s Dumbest Cat having passed on, being too dumb to avoid the neighbor’s dog) we were adopted by a stray kitten. He is the World’s Stinkiest Cat. We’ve tried different foods, different litters (clumpable for multiple cats works marginally better than others); NOTHING helps. His _pee_ stinks. His poop is hideously stinky. The vet says there’s nothing wrong with him. We have multiple litter boxes, since his stepsister won’t enter one within an hour or so of him using it. The boxes are scooped daily and changed frequently. But he’s a very sweet kitty, and we wouldn’t dream of getting rid of him. So we live with it.
Nilodor, added to the litter. I think most janitorial supply stores have it (pet stores, might, too). Bottom of this page has it also: http://www.cleanreport.com/catlist.cfm?subid=53 And yes, dry food.
Having not read any of the above posts… I’ll go with this suggestion: Find an all vegetarian, non fish, non wet, kibble style feed for the cat. SKATOLE, a compound in feces and flatulence is the stinky stuff, which is created in the digestion of things like meat, fish, eggs, and certain legums and cruciferous veggies. I know there is a dogfood calld Hundzenfleischen or something. As a result of going with an all natural feed, it’s got less fillers, and the cat’s waste would be more compact and less stenchy.
— Find an all vegetarian, non fish, non wet, kibble style feed for the cat. Oh, no! No, no, no, and NO! I’m sorry for reacting so hard, but PLEASE don’t do that to your kitty!!!! As I understand it (I am not a vet, but have read a great deal AND checked this with my vet), cats, unlike dogs, canNOT be switched to a totally vegitarian diet. There is a substance, taurine, found in meat and meat products which cats MUST ingest to be healthy. Otherwise, they tend to go blind. Seriously — a friend of mine who used to show her cat ran into people this happened to. This is NOT a joke or an urban legend.** This is feline physiology, which is different from canine, even though they are both carnivores. Other than that, I second most of what I’ve read above. Better cat food *does* produce less fecal material and generally less stink, but it still depends on the cat. And whether or not they are effecient at covering the nuclear poop or try to cover it with the wall next to the litter box. *sigh* (That would be my boy cat, Pixel. Heinlein geeks take a point if you thought “Cat Who Walks Through Walls” instead of “computer nerd”.) We feed ours a combination of California Natural and a prescription food since the girl cat tends towards urinary crystals. And it really, really does help to scoop every day, replace what you’ve taken out if you use the clumping stuff, and change the whole box every 3 -4 weeks. Well scented candles can help mask the odor, too. I recommend vanilla. And just opening the place up and airing it out once in a while when you have good, brisk breeze outside. ** I did try to just check this fact, but my internet access seems to be wierd right now. My apologies for posting blindly — I DID try to double check this one before sounding like a wild-eyed doom spreader.