Your hacks for eliminating cat litter “spray”

[Kris]

Okay, this has nothing to do with mustachianism, but you people are pretty smart. So...

Please give me your best solutions for stopping our cats from tracking/kicking/throwing cat litter all over the GD house.

Our litter boxes are in the laundry room. We have clumping litter, and a mat that is supposed to trap it, but... nope.

[oldladystache]

A throw rug that you can take outside and shake?

[OtherJen]

Posting to follow. We too have one of those litter-catching mats, and it is a big joke. The cat jumps over it.

[Kris]

Posting to follow. We too have one of those litter-catching mats, and it is a big joke. The cat jumps over it.

Yep. And I guess the mustachian part of this question is that I am tired of spending money on supposed “solutions” that do not freaking work.

[ender]

Can you get a taller litter box?

[rdaneel0]

My cat is a monster about this. We have a litter box with little steps on the inside and a top, it looks like a giant grey igloo. It helps, but he still tracks it out so I sweep and vacuum the area daily.

[seemsright]

When I had cats in the house...this was a issue that drove me nuts.

I found a cheap Ikea door mat worked great. It took a few try to try figure out the right one...I found this one for $9 worked really well. And we just took it outside and beat it against a post and it was clean.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30308994/

depending on how you have your boxes positioned you may need more than one.I had mine in the corner and the cat only had one way in and out so it worked very well. 

[RWD]

I set up some old unfolded cardboard boxes as walls so that our cat cannot leave the litter box in a straight line. This seems to help most of the litter shake off earlier rather than later. I line the whole floor area within the walls with newspaper. It's not perfect but it helps some.

Example with ASCII art:

---------------
| L              |
| L              |
--------        |
           ------|

[secondcor521]

I recently switched from a regular litter box to a high walled corner box.  It improved the problem of litter tracking about by about 90%.  I got mine at Petco, but it's similar to this one:

https://www.chewy.com/natures-miracle-just-cats-advanced/dp/47577

(Mine just has a more square cutout on the front center for the cat to enter/leave.)

[red_pill]

Instead of clumping cat litter we use the wood pellets that we buy from a feed store. Way cheaper and cleaner than the clumping.

[reeshau]

Sam's Club sells commercial entry mats.  We figured, if they work to keep humans from tracking things in, should work for cats.  You may not have enough room to unfurl one, though.  Not as cheap as the Ikea example, but under $30, and like people have said--shake them out.  These are ridged, but they are soft, so our cats did walk on them.

Bonus:  they are rubber backed, so if your cats go through a spraying / peeing period, they are impermeable.

In Ireland, with nowhere near the room, we switched from clumping to crystals.  They do still track somewhat, but it is greatly reduced, and it is greatly reduced odor, particularly immediately after use.

[Shrinkydink8]

My husband finally had enough of our cats kicking litter everywhere.  We had to sweep every day.   He made a litter box out of a storage tub, the kind that you get at Target and pack away seasonal decorations or clothes, with the snapping lids.  He snapped the lid on the top, and cut a large square hole on the top.  They jump through the hole on top and use the litter below.  When they jump up to leave, the litter sticks to the top lid, coming off their paws, and they can't kick it out of the box anymore.  Total cost = $6. 

My cats are pretty chill and had no problem adapting to this new box.  Cats are finicky creatures and some may balk at this offending structure.

[Rural]

 Dollar tree sells some little cheapo doormats that I found really took a lot of litter off paws. Had to get a couple of them to put around the litter box, but they were a dollar apiece.

[Kris]

My husband finally had enough of our cats kicking litter everywhere.  We had to sweep every day.   He made a litter box out of a storage tub, the kind that you get at Target and pack away seasonal decorations or clothes, with the snapping lids.  He snapped the lid on the top, and cut a large square hole on the top.  They jump through the hole on top and use the litter below.  When they jump up to leave, the litter sticks to the top lid, coming off their paws, and they can't kick it out of the box anymore.  Total cost = $6. 

My cats are pretty chill and had no problem adapting to this new box.  Cats are finicky creatures and some may balk at this offending structure.

Hmm. THat seems like a really good idea, but one of our cats is an a-hole and probably won't be okay with this.

[JLee]

Large top-entry boxes and non-dusty litter (I use this stuff) works pretty well.

[Shrinkydink8]

My husband finally had enough of our cats kicking litter everywhere.  We had to sweep every day.   He made a litter box out of a storage tub, the kind that you get at Target and pack away seasonal decorations or clothes, with the snapping lids.  He snapped the lid on the top, and cut a large square hole on the top.  They jump through the hole on top and use the litter below.  When they jump up to leave, the litter sticks to the top lid, coming off their paws, and they can't kick it out of the box anymore.  Total cost = $6. 

My cats are pretty chill and had no problem adapting to this new box.  Cats are finicky creatures and some may balk at this offending structure.

Hmm. THat seems like a really good idea, but one of our cats is an a-hole and probably won't be okay with this.

Yeah, cats can be quite the jerks.  I did help a friend who used a similar litter box.  I trained him to jump into it by giving him little bits of juice from a tuna can when he jumped into it.  It's painstakingly slow, but can work.  You could also try using the box without the lid at first until they get used to it.  It's best to remove the regular litterbox, so they're forced to use the new one, but be prepared for some revenge peeing on the floor.

[JLee]

My husband finally had enough of our cats kicking litter everywhere.  We had to sweep every day.   He made a litter box out of a storage tub, the kind that you get at Target and pack away seasonal decorations or clothes, with the snapping lids.  He snapped the lid on the top, and cut a large square hole on the top.  They jump through the hole on top and use the litter below.  When they jump up to leave, the litter sticks to the top lid, coming off their paws, and they can't kick it out of the box anymore.  Total cost = $6. 

My cats are pretty chill and had no problem adapting to this new box.  Cats are finicky creatures and some may balk at this offending structure.

Hmm. THat seems like a really good idea, but one of our cats is an a-hole and probably won't be okay with this.

Yeah, cats can be quite the jerks.  I did help a friend who used a similar litter box.  I trained him to jump into it by giving him little bits of juice from a tuna can when he jumped into it.  It's painstakingly slow, but can work.  You could also try using the box without the lid at first until they get used to it.  It's best to remove the regular litterbox, so they're forced to use the new one, but be prepared for some revenge peeing on the floor.

For what it's worth, both of my cats adjusted to top-entry boxes without any problem.  I replaced their old box with two top entries and just put them inside once or twice so they knew what it was. 100% fine from there.

[fdubz]

We are a multi-cat household and I've been on this quest for many years. 
Here's what works for us.
I have tried every litter mat under the sun and this is the only one that made a difference: https://www.chewy.com/imperial-cat-heavy-duty-cat-litter/dp/153008  It is pricey, but it works GREAT. 
Here is the type of litter I use, clumps hard, very low dust: https://www.chewy.com/frisco-unscented-odor-defense/dp/169772
I use these giant high sided boxes: https://www.chewy.com/frisco-high-sided-cat-litter-box-navy/dp/168284
I also put a large kennel tray (ex: https://www.chewy.com/frisco-dog-crate-replacement-pan-42/dp/117384 ) under each box which keeps the litter thrown out from being kicked all over.
I do still vacuum the litter box area every couple days.
Hope this helps!

[Sibley]

My husband finally had enough of our cats kicking litter everywhere.  We had to sweep every day.   He made a litter box out of a storage tub, the kind that you get at Target and pack away seasonal decorations or clothes, with the snapping lids.  He snapped the lid on the top, and cut a large square hole on the top.  They jump through the hole on top and use the litter below.  When they jump up to leave, the litter sticks to the top lid, coming off their paws, and they can't kick it out of the box anymore.  Total cost = $6. 

My cats are pretty chill and had no problem adapting to this new box.  Cats are finicky creatures and some may balk at this offending structure.

Hmm. THat seems like a really good idea, but one of our cats is an a-hole and probably won't be okay with this.

Yeah, cats can be quite the jerks.  I did help a friend who used a similar litter box.  I trained him to jump into it by giving him little bits of juice from a tuna can when he jumped into it.  It's painstakingly slow, but can work.  You could also try using the box without the lid at first until they get used to it.  It's best to remove the regular litterbox, so they're forced to use the new one, but be prepared for some revenge peeing on the floor.

For what it's worth, both of my cats adjusted to top-entry boxes without any problem.  I replaced their old box with two top entries and just put them inside once or twice so they knew what it was. 100% fine from there.

Just be aware that medical problems like arthritis can make it very painful to use the litterbox, and then the cat associates litterboxes with pain and won't use them at all. Very difficult to solve when this happens. ANY litterbox can be a problem in this regard, but the top entry are probably going to show it first.

Yes, getting old sucks.

[Slow&Steady]

My husband finally had enough of our cats kicking litter everywhere.  We had to sweep every day.   He made a litter box out of a storage tub, the kind that you get at Target and pack away seasonal decorations or clothes, with the snapping lids.  He snapped the lid on the top, and cut a large square hole on the top.  They jump through the hole on top and use the litter below.  When they jump up to leave, the litter sticks to the top lid, coming off their paws, and they can't kick it out of the box anymore.  Total cost = $6. 

My cats are pretty chill and had no problem adapting to this new box.  Cats are finicky creatures and some may balk at this offending structure.

We also use a large storage tote/tub.  We do not use the lid though, instead we cut a small-ish hole in the side (high enough to still have plenty of litter inside) the the cat to go in and out.  The tote/tub sits under a shelf that is high enough for the cat to not hit his head but low enough that he can't jump over the top... basically he has to go in and out the way we want him to.

That said we still have a litter everywhere problem.  We tried the welcome mat and it just became an extended litter box, I would love to find a solution to this problem!

[Sibley]

I have a broom and dust pan that lives by the litterbox. They get used frequently. My remaining cat has a long standing habit of deliberately missing the box when she's mad about something, so all boxes must either be on non-porous surfaces, or have something under them. I use a chair floor mat. Then litter collects under the mat too.

And given that there's about 5 things currently bugging my cat... at least she's been confining her ire to the concrete floor in the utility room.