The Basics on Litter Mats
Cats are normally clean animals, but their litter box may say a different story. The litter box is the area where the cat will go to eliminate waste. One of the common problems several people have with the litter box is the excess cat litter that escapes from the inside of the box. After a cat has eliminated waste, they will bury it in the cat litter. A cat litter mat can save you from cleaning up the excess mess around the litter box.
Every time the cat uses the litter box, extra cat litter will spill off their feet or get kicked out when they are exiting the box. Cats that like to dig in their litter box often kick the cat litter outside of the box, leaving a mess for the owner to clean up. The cat litter mat can be placed outside the door of a hooded litter box, or you can order one that covers all sides of an un-hooded litter box. The excess cat litter can easily be swept or vacuumed up.
Some people use newspapers, towels, and rugs as their home-made cat litter mats. While they work relatively the same way as the cat litter mat, they have to be thrown away or scrubbed. The plastic cat litter mat can be swept or sprayed with a diluted bleach cleaner if it becomes dirty.
Most cat litter mats have deep ridges to gather all the excess cat litter and keep it from being tracked all over the house. The cat litter mat needs to be large enough to span across the area where your cat leaves the litter box. There are plastic "grass" mats available at pet stores, but they do not always do an effective job at containing the excess litter and some cats refuse to step on the mat in order to get into the litter box.
Some unique cat litter mats have special trays underneath a liner. The cat litter will pass through the liner and fall into the tray. The owner simply has to toss the excess cat litter from the tray and they don't have to worry about vacuuming or sweeping the cat litter.
There are self-cleaning litter boxes that include litter mats. The self-cleaning litter boxes sound nice, but a lot of times they do not work well and still require regular cleaning from the cat owner. Self-cleaning litter boxes will have a plastic liner in the bottom where the owner can simply take out the tray and toss the urine and feces. Cats with sharp nails tend to poke through the liner, or they can rip it with their nails. If the liner is ripped, it will not work when the owner goes to pick it up and throw it away. The cat litter will actually fall into the bottom tray and leave a bigger mess for the cat owner.
One way to help reduce the amount of cat litter that is tracked outside the litter box is to purchase low track cat litter. The low track cat litter does a better job at clumping the waste and preventing it from sticking to the bottom and sides of the litter box, making it easier for you to clean. When the litter box remains fresh and clean, the cat will be able to eliminate waste and won't have to dig as much to bury it. There are several low track cat litter brands available, most come with fine crystals that change color to indicate that the cat litter needs to be replaced. Another benefit to low track cat litter is that it has more absorbency from regular cat litter, helping households that have more than one cat.
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