How to Clean A Litter Box
Cat litter boxes need to be cleaned on a daily basis. A small scooper will work for collecting the hard fecal matters left behind in the cat litter. Each week the cat litter needs to be tossed and 2-3 inches of new cat litter needs to be poured in. Cats do not like digging in their own waste and they will become upset if they step on their waste, not to mention the mess it will make in your home when they walk around.
Litter purposefully clumps to help you easily remove the urine and feces from the box. The scooper needs sink deeply into the cat litter in order to collect all the waste. Cat litter should be around 2-3 inches deep, just deep enough for the scooper to reach the bottom of the litter box. Cat litter should not get stuck to the bottom of the litter box, if you are having trouble with cat litter sticking to the box; you are not keeping the litter deep enough.
Un-hooded litter boxes should have a newspaper or a rug placed around it to capture the excess litter that the cat may kick up when they are digging around. The newspaper needs to be tossed and replaced often. If you struggle to keep the around outside of the litter box free from excess cat litter, you may need to consider a deeper litter box.
Cats do not like strong odors and will avoid a litter box that smells like bleach or other chemicals. If the litter box is pretty dirty and has urine stuck to the walls, scrub the box with a dilute bleach solution and a paper towel. Scrubbing pads, like SOS Pads, can also help to remove stuck waste from the sides and bottom of the litter box.
The best cat litter will clump well and will not stick to the bottom of the litter box. Most cat litter companies recommend that the cat litter be replaced every week or every other week. The scooper needs to be cleaned on a daily basis, using a diluted bleach or disinfectant spray. If the scooper is not cleaned each day, it will start collecting bacteria and excess soil, and it will place it into a clean litter box the next time you scoop with it. When you scoop the litter box, do so after a careful manner so that you keep the urine balls in tact. If you can properly scoop out the urine balls without breaking them, you will be able to keep the same cat litter in the box a little longer.
If you have multiple cats, you need to have more than one litter box, and you need to wipe them clean on a daily basis. Multiple cats will cause you to go through cat litter much faster, so it is important to try and keep the box as clean as possible to make the cat litter last longer.
Some cat's urine may leak out of the litter box, or it can be sprayed out of the litter box. If you have cleaned the litter box and you worry that there may be urine on the carpet, purchase a fluorescent black light. Urine stains will glow under a fluorescent black light and will be easily spotted. Cats also have a higher sense of smell and may avoid the area if they know it is dirty. In order to remove the urine from the carpet, you will need to purchase an enzymatic cleaner. Once the area has been thoroughly cleaned, you can steam clean the carpet. Steam cleaning the carpet before removing the odor will cause the smell to become stuck in the fibers of the carpet.
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