Dealing With Pet & Litterbox Odours

I love our cats and wouldn’t trade them for anything, but I would happily trade up the smells they make.  Having multiple cats means multiple litterboxes and multiple smells!

Scoop regularly

It goes without saying that the more you scoop – getting rid of what is smelling – the less odour is left.  Leaving it in there for less time means less is absorbed into the litter too.  We are not that diligent that we are standing there scooping the second they are done but we scoop morning and night.  Clean boxes means less litterbox issues from the fussier cat too.   If you don’t want to scoop as often, add an extra litterbox.  Try different boxes, while domed or self scooping boxes can cut down on the odour – many cats won’t use them so they may be a waste of money.

Look at what you are feeding them

A high quality food and lots of water helps too.  With a high quality wet food, there is less waste and increasing water helps water down that nasty ammonia smell.  If you feed dry, look for one with less fillers which are unused and bulk up waste leaving more of it to smell.

Litterbox & Odour Additives

After trying many litterbox additives, we found most did not work or the scent was so strong, it caused the cats to not use the box or we hated it.  Citrus Magic was a lucky find.  I found it on clearance for under $2 at Rexall a while back and it works for us and them.  Citrus Magic is made with Sodium Borate, Limonene, Lauryl Methacrylate, and fragrance.  It has a clean citrus scent that mixes in to be almost unnoticeable but it absorbs the litterbox odours really well.

We were a little worried when first using it as citrus is used as a deterrent for cats but this had no impact on them using the box (it is important to mix it well with the litter, it states right on the bottle to not just pour it on top of the litter).

Try different cat litters

I find cheap litters stink and they do not save me money as I do a full change of the litterbox more often.  We use World’s Best Cat Litter (the regular clumping, they wouldn’t touch the multicat scented one and the lavender scent was awful to me).  It is quite a bit more expensive per bag but lasts,even with multiple cats.  It is corn based so doesn’t take on that clay/ammonia odour too.

We also find that a clumping litter, as well as being easier to clean, helps cut down on the smell of cat urine.  I think because it sits in the ball of litter rather than soaking into a larger area of non clumping litter.  It also means less waste when you scoop as more non clumping litter needs to be removed.

Freshen The Air

As much as we would prefer not to use air fresheners, occasionally you just need to cover up that offensive Odour.  I think most products labelled for pet use are just gimmicks to sell items at a higher price but one that has worked really well for us is Febreze Pet Odour Eliminator spray.  It eliminates pet odours and leaves a light, fresh scent that lasts.

We also have a plugin charcoal filter near the litterboxes which helps clean the air and remove odours before they can spread into other rooms.  We tried charcoal liners for the box but they just dug down to find them and ripped them to shreds, a waste of money – they do work if your cat will tolerate them though.