Cleaning the litter box isn’t rocket science… or is it? Believe it or not, there are correct and incorrect ways to clean the box. You might think weekly deep sanitizing cleanings are needed but is that what our cats want or is it good for them?
Back in Illinois I used to pet sit. I had this one client that was extremely clean. She had 4 cats and a bunny! All had free range of the house including the bunny and her house was spotless! I remember going over there to meet the crew and get all my instructions for their upcoming vacation. The client took me downstairs to an empty and again very clean basement. All that was down there was a line of litter boxes with very little litter in them and a utility sink. She took me over to the utility sink where she had MANY bottles of bleach. She proceeded to show me how she wanted the litter boxes completely emptied daily and scrubbed out with bleach, YES, I did say DAILY!
Tip for Cleaning the Litter Box
A year later she wanted me to come over before their yearly vacation just to go over things again and show me what had changed. Can you guess what started to happen? One or two of her cats decided they were going to find a new place to “go” but why did this happen?
Did you know that keeping your cat’s box TOO CLEAN is not a good thing? Cats do like litter boxes that are scooped daily but there is no need to use harsh chemicals on a regular basis to sanitize them.
“Cats have more than 200 million odor sensors in their noses; humans have just 5 million. Their sense of smell is 14 times better than that of humans.” Think about that for a second, so if we smell something like bleach which is very powerful, imagine what our precious kitties are smelling. Not only that but those toxic chemicals get absorbed through the cats paws and can wreak havoc on their health.
When it comes to cleaning the litter box, I suggest scooping daily or even twice a day but only do a complete litter change when needed and instead of using harsh chemicals to wash the litter box just use a simple solution of vinegar and water. Your kitties will appreciate it!
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