Litter stops spraying

Well, mostly, anyway.

I have been waiting for a few months before posting this report.

We have five cats, all rescues, living in our two-story farmhouse. They
have a total of five litter boxes, spread strategically throughout the
house, upstairs and down. These litter boxes are contained in larger,
water tight enclosures that I had specially made to contain "accidents".

These white plastic enclosures are capacious and airy with open tops,
allowing for plenty of ventilation. Access and egress are easy for us
and the cats. Litter boxes and their enclosures are kept meticulously--
if not compulsively-- clean.

Even with all these measures, the cats still sprayed inside the
enclosures (thank god for small mercies, that's the only place they
spray). It was very unpleasant. These undesirable behaviors probably
stem from the fact that we feed barn cats outside the house. Few of
those are fixed, so the ambient air must be alive with smells to a kitty
nose.

Anyway, according to expert advice, we have been using unscented litter
bought in those 40-pound buckets from PetSmart. "Exquisite", I think is
the brand name.

However, at one point, due to poor scheduling and a very busy month, we
found ourselves in dire need of fresh litter at a time when our choices
were limited. We wound up buying a 20-pound box of Arm and Hammer
multi-cat formula baking soda litter.

I filled the empty litter box with it. I was trepidatious, because it
was a new kind of litter *and* it was scented. What if it offended our
housecats and they stopped using the box? This particular box is the
most heavily-used one in the house. But it needed the litter, so I
surrendered to the inevitable and just used the stuff.

Long story short, to my utter amazement, the cats stopped spraying this
box for almost a month and a half. The general feline use of this box
has, if anything, *increased* (they have stopped using two of the
upstairs boxes in favor of this one). The boxes still using the
Exquisite brand litter continued to be sprayed.

What the heck is up with that?

One night, the cats had a lively living room disagreement with a lot of
running and yowling and hissing going on. Somebody sprayed the box that
night.

But not since. Two more months have gone by and nobody has sprayed the
Arm & Hammer litter box.

This is incredible. We plan to switch all the boxes over to this brand
and see what happens.

In article ,
lid wrote:

- Well, mostly, anyway.
-
- I have been waiting for a few months before posting this report.
-
- We have five cats, all rescues, living in our two-story farmhouse. They
- have a total of five litter boxes, spread strategically throughout the
- house, upstairs and down. These litter boxes are contained in larger,
- water tight enclosures that I had specially made to contain "accidents".
-
- These white plastic enclosures are capacious and airy with open tops,
- allowing for plenty of ventilation. Access and egress are easy for us
- and the cats. Litter boxes and their enclosures are kept meticulously--
- if not compulsively-- clean.
-
- Even with all these measures, the cats still sprayed inside the
- enclosures (thank god for small mercies, that's the only place they
- spray). It was very unpleasant. These undesirable behaviors probably
- stem from the fact that we feed barn cats outside the house. Few of
- those are fixed, so the ambient air must be alive with smells to a kitty
- nose.
-
- Anyway, according to expert advice, we have been using unscented litter
- bought in those 40-pound buckets from PetSmart. "Exquisite", I think is
- the brand name.
-
- However, at one point, due to poor scheduling and a very busy month, we
- found ourselves in dire need of fresh litter at a time when our choices
- were limited. We wound up buying a 20-pound box of Arm and Hammer
- multi-cat formula baking soda litter.
-
- I filled the empty litter box with it. I was trepidatious, because it
- was a new kind of litter *and* it was scented. What if it offended our
- housecats and they stopped using the box? This particular box is the
- most heavily-used one in the house. But it needed the litter, so I
- surrendered to the inevitable and just used the stuff.
-
- Long story short, to my utter amazement, the cats stopped spraying this
- box for almost a month and a half. The general feline use of this box
- has, if anything, *increased* (they have stopped using two of the
- upstairs boxes in favor of this one). The boxes still using the
- Exquisite brand litter continued to be sprayed.
-
- What the heck is up with that?
-
- One night, the cats had a lively living room disagreement with a lot of
- running and yowling and hissing going on. Somebody sprayed the box that
- night.
-
- But not since. Two more months have gone by and nobody has sprayed the
- Arm & Hammer litter box.
-
- This is incredible. We plan to switch all the boxes over to this brand
- and see what happens.


Please keep us posted!!!!
--
8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~
"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

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