Servicing the litterbox.

On 2006-09-06, Cheryl penned:
I bought my house from my brother and his wife, and they have 3
daughters. This house has only two bathrooms, so I have no idea how
they did it for 15 years!

Yeah, no kidding!

My brother's bathroom was the downstairs one. I am not at all
surprised that just 6 months after buying the house, my first spring
here, I noticed termite swarmers in "his" bathroom*. I can't imagine
that they just found their way in after I bought the house, and I
can't imagine how he never noticed little bugs with wings in his
tub. *boggle*

*He's not very observant. LOL

Eek. Well, *maybe* they weren't there yet. Does he wear glasses?
Before my eye surgery, I could easily have missed something like that
in the bathtub.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Christina Websell wrote:

I need some advice. Is this normal? Can a tiny cat pee up nearly the
whole box in less than 48 hours?
If so, how do you who have a lot of cats cope with litterbox duties? It
must be your life's work :-)

I scoop the two litterboxes twice a day. When you scoop that often, the
'deposists' don't build up - there's usually one clump of pee in each
(or two clumps in one box and nothing in the other) + two poos once a
day (usually in the morning). If Kitty is peeing a lot, it should mean
that she is drinking a lot, and that should be good for her kidneys.
When Frank started having kidney problems, he did drink a lot more than
before.


--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

Christina Websell wrote:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
On 2006-09-05, Christina Websell penned:

I bought a 12kg bag of coarser clumping litter for the same price to
try on Monday. Completely cleaned the box out and filled it right
up Monday night with absolute pristine litter. Tonight found me on
my knees again sieving out huge quantities of pee clumps, almost
half the litter was peed up. Plus a couple of the other, which was
definitely from Kitty, white from the bones of the collared dove.


Sounds excessive to me. Unless your definition of "peed up" is
different than mine, which may very well be.

My definition of "peed up" is when most of the litter looks darker in
colour and when I investigate with the scoop a lot is clumped and
stuck to the bottom of the box and the clean litter is only on top.

I clean the litter box about once a week. Granted, most folks here
would probably accuse me of cat abuse for this kind of neglect, but
Oscar's okay with it.


It's entirely up to you how often you clean Oscar's litterbox. None
of my business, oh, excuse the unintentional pun..
Maybe I might get more relaxed about a dirty litterbox at the side of
my toilet but I doubt it. I get visitors, who sometimes ask to use
my toilet. No problem with a cat lover, but some are not. Big
problem with non-cat lovers who notice something big deposited in the
last five minutes. Kitty does not bury.

Tweed

So if they ask to use the toilet, say "only if you like cats". ;-)
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy and Bagheera)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart.
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

I need some advice. Is this normal? Can a tiny cat pee up nearly the
whole box in less than 48 hours?
If so, how do you who have a lot of cats cope with litterbox duties? It
must be your life's work :-)

Yes, it can be perfectly normal. My sister's tiny little Topaz peed
almost her weight every day. At least it seemed that way. She and her
brother drank a lot, and peed a LOT. My Fin never was much of a
drinker, and peed accordingly. Same with the Princess.

Jane
- owned and operated by Princess Rita

"Debbie Wilson" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

I need some advice. Is this normal? Can a tiny cat pee up nearly the
whole box in less than 48 hours?
If so, how do you who have a lot of cats cope with litterbox duties? It
must be your life's work :-)

I wouldn't be worried - at least she is using it.


Well, mainly!

Each one of my cats
produces varying amounts of pee. Willow can pee for England, the two
boys much more modest amounts. Cocoa is usually OK except if she gets
cystitis (rarely) then it's tiny amounts and off to TED.

It's interesting that they vary. It's good to know as before Kitty's CRF
they both insisted on using the great outdoors so I don't have a clue what's
normal or not.

Willow could easily pee up a box in 48 hrs or less. If all my cats are
in, there would be 2 boxes changed twice daily, to give you an idea.
I hate the gravel-type litter. As you found, it turns into sticky clay
when wet and quickly ruins a plastic litter tray, and is nasty to clean
out.

I'm going to have to experiment a bit I suppose.


Pine pellets are OK but they track easily and will stain
light-coloured floors.

I don't want to use wood based litter anyway. My main winter heating is a
woodburner and I bring in enough wood to last the evening (a surprising
amount..) and store it near the fire on top of a couple of plastic sacks.
It generates bark/sawdust and Kitty was peeing in this woodlitter last
winter. I don't want her to learn that.

Mine are all happy with 'Yesterday's News', a
recycled newspaper pellet litter, which doesn't track, doesn't smell and
easily tips out of the box without sticking when cleaned up. I keep a
small plastic dustbin (child's toy bin) next to the tray, with a bin
liner in, which the used litter gets tipped into, and the tray given a
quick wipe with kitchen roll and Trigene (cat-safe disinfectant) before
refilling with about 4-5 mugfulls of the litter. This makes it quick and
easy to change the tray and the lidded bin keeps the used litter from
smelling until it is emptied.

A 10 kg bag of Yesterday's News will last me about 2 weeks (4 cats, 2
trays) under these circumstances, and it costs about £11 at my local
shop.

I'm ambivalent about newspaper litter too! Sorry, you're trying to help
and I keep saying it might not work! Kitty will also pee on a newspaper
that I've just been reading if I put it down on the floor while I do
something else. she soaked my TV mag when I went into the kitchen to make a
cuppa, so newspaper is probably out too. Although I've heard of this brand,
I've never seen it available around here.

May or may not be a useful comparison, anyway-

HTH

It all helps, Deb. Thanks. I'd like to find a solution that suits us both
(me and Kitty.) If this coarser clumping litter doesn't work, I might try
the crystals I have seen in the supermarket.

Tweed

"Dan M" wrote in message
news
I need some advice. Is this normal? Can a tiny cat pee up nearly the
whole box in less than 48 hours?
If so, how do you who have a lot of cats cope with litterbox duties? It
must be your life's work :-)

We've got 6 cats in the house. We also have 7 litter boxes, and the
kitties also use the back yard for their litter some of the time. Even so,
I have to scoop the litter boxes at least once a day, sometimes twice.
They seem to prefer two of the boxes specially; those boxes need to be
scooped twice most days.


Seems reasonable for 6 cats kept in a lot of the time, I suppose? What do
you do with the used litter? I've wrapped what I have up to now and put it
in the dustbin (garbage can) for unrecyclable waste but I'm not sure if this
is okay or not here in UK. Is it in USA?
I have a black wheelybin for unrecycs. I am not expected to fill it too
much. I have a green bag to put my (washed) cans and plastic bottles in. I
have a red bag for paper and cardboard. I have a small plastic box for
glass bottles and jars. One week the men come and empty the black bin and
the next week the rest. Woe betide you if your black bin is so full that
the lid isn't shut. They refuse to empty it then! That means another
fortnight before your black bin is emptied so you must find a way of getting
rid of some of what is inside otherwise it will be a month old. Ewwww.

It doesn't apply to me, really. Before I had the job I have now I worked
for an environmental charity. All I was taught there still remains in my
mind. Turn off unnecessary lights! Recycle, recycle, recycle. Save water.
Stop using disposable nappies. If you need a car use the smallest that will
meet your needs. Etc.
I have to put my black bin on the edge of the property to be emptied. My
next door neighbour (whose bin was full) came and asked when the bins were
out, if she could put some of her waste in my bin. I asked why her own bin
was already full as mine just had a tiny amount in the bottom of it.

Disposable nappies! I said, yes, on this one occasion, but as your child is
now 3 and a half, either potty train him or use terry nappies and wash them.
I explained about landfill use and disposable nappies. How much dn's
contribute to landfill which we are pretty short of here in Britain.
She said "But it's much more convenient for me to use a disposable nappy."
That fell on deaf ears, then ;-)

I've been concerned for a little while about how this child never has a
bedtime. He is up at 10.30 pm all the time and if a neighbour BBQ is in the
offing, he's up until 2-3 a.m.
I have stopped them putting his nappies in my bin. They need to tt him or
use terry towelling. He is way too old to be in nappies, and no, he has no
special needs.
I am probably old fashioned.
When I was a baby there were no disposable nappies. My mother had to wash
out lots of towelling nappies every day, which probably explained why I was
toilet trained on potty at 10 months old and never wet/soiled a nappy after
that (according to my mother.)
Seems unusual to me, but mom said "definitely." Can't argue with that.

Tweed

Seems reasonable for 6 cats kept in a lot of the time, I suppose? What do
you do with the used litter? I've wrapped what I have up to now and put it
in the dustbin (garbage can) for unrecyclable waste but I'm not sure if this
is okay or not here in UK. Is it in USA?

Yep. I bag it and toss it in the trashcan. I suppose if one used pine or
paper litter it might be possible to compost the used litter, but I'm not
sure about that.

In ,
Christina Websell purred:
"Dan M" wrote in message
news
I need some advice. Is this normal? Can a tiny cat pee up nearly
the whole box in less than 48 hours?
If so, how do you who have a lot of cats cope with litterbox
duties? It must be your life's work :-)

We've got 6 cats in the house. We also have 7 litter boxes, and the
kitties also use the back yard for their litter some of the time.
Even so, I have to scoop the litter boxes at least once a day,
sometimes twice. They seem to prefer two of the boxes specially;
those boxes need to be scooped twice most days.


Seems reasonable for 6 cats kept in a lot of the time, I suppose? What do
you do with the used litter? I've wrapped what I have up to
now and put it in the dustbin (garbage can) for unrecyclable waste
but I'm not sure if this is okay or not here in UK. Is it in USA?
I have a black wheelybin for unrecycs. I am not expected to fill it
too much. I have a green bag to put my (washed) cans and plastic
bottles in. I have a red bag for paper and cardboard. I have a
small plastic box for glass bottles and jars. One week the men come
and empty the black bin and the next week the rest. Woe betide you
if your black bin is so full that the lid isn't shut. They refuse to
empty it then! That means another fortnight before your black bin is
emptied so you must find a way of getting rid of some of what is
inside otherwise it will be a month old. Ewwww.
It doesn't apply to me, really. Before I had the job I have now I
worked for an environmental charity. All I was taught there still
remains in my mind. Turn off unnecessary lights! Recycle, recycle,
recycle. Save water. Stop using disposable nappies. If you need a
car use the smallest that will meet your needs. Etc.
I have to put my black bin on the edge of the property to be emptied.
My next door neighbour (whose bin was full) came and asked when the
bins were out, if she could put some of her waste in my bin. I asked
why her own bin was already full as mine just had a tiny amount in
the bottom of it.
Disposable nappies! I said, yes, on this one occasion, but as your
child is now 3 and a half, either potty train him or use terry
nappies and wash them. I explained about landfill use and disposable
nappies. How much dn's contribute to landfill which we are pretty
short of here in Britain. She said "But it's much more convenient for me
to use a disposable
nappy." That fell on deaf ears, then ;-)

I've been concerned for a little while about how this child never has
a bedtime. He is up at 10.30 pm all the time and if a neighbour BBQ
is in the offing, he's up until 2-3 a.m.
I have stopped them putting his nappies in my bin. They need to tt
him or use terry towelling. He is way too old to be in nappies, and
no, he has no special needs.
I am probably old fashioned.
When I was a baby there were no disposable nappies. My mother had to
wash out lots of towelling nappies every day, which probably
explained why I was toilet trained on potty at 10 months old and
never wet/soiled a nappy after that (according to my mother.)
Seems unusual to me, but mom said "definitely." Can't argue with
that.
Tweed

I'm with you. These parents are *LAZY*, no ifs ands or buts about it (no
pun intended... or is it?). It sickens me to see any child with the ability
to walk still be in diapers (barring learning disabilities... but then
again, if they can learn to walk, they can learn to flush). This child will
probably still be in diapers when it starts school, and then be crying every
day because the other kids torment him - and then the *other* parents and
the school system will be blamed, because the lazy parents want no
responsibility.

Christina Websell wrote:

Seems reasonable for 6 cats kept in a lot of the time, I suppose? What do
you do with the used litter? I've wrapped what I have up to now and put it
in the dustbin (garbage can) for unrecyclable waste but I'm not sure if this
is okay or not here in UK. Is it in USA?

Some cities say not to put pet waste in the trash. I always wonder if
anyone follows that?

We use Feline Pine, which I love because it covers the scent. The poo
that is scooped out can be flushed. The rest of it, the wet saw dust,
composts very nicely. We have a huge compost bin, actually 2 bins, and
dump it in there. It doesn't take long to compost at all.

If we would have put the litter in the trash instead -- we'd have HEAVY
trash. I feel a little more eco-friendly this way and we get good compost.

We used to use a recycled paper pellet (similar to Yesterday's News,)
but it took forever to compost. Those little paper pellets were like bricks.

Rhonda

On 2006-09-06, Rhonda penned:
Some cities say not to put pet waste in the trash. I always wonder
if anyone follows that?


I've been wondering about this too. I know that you're not supposed
to put fecal matter in the trash (urine is typically not a problem
however it's disposed), but I never see anything really making a point
of this or suggesting alternatives.

A book I read in preparation for hiking, literally entitled "How to
**** in the Woods", goes to great lengths describing how careful you
need to be about not getting fecal matter into the local garbage
systems, even in trace amounts, like diapers. But if this is such a
big deal, I would think there would be laws or at least advisories.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca