Are you cleaning your cat litter box correctly?

Throughout history, people have revered cats. Ancient Egyptians worshipped feline deities. In Norse mythology, the Viking goddess Freya rode around in a sled pulled by two cats. And my father regularly takes his cat on walks around town in a little bubble backpack so she can see the sights.

As anyone who has lived with a cat knows, we serve them and not the other way around. This includes the messy and malodorous task of tending their litter box.

According to experts, there is often room for improvement. “The most common mistake people make when it comes to their cat’s litter is creating a setup that works for them instead of for the cat,” says Samantha Bell, cat expert and content strategist for the non-profit rescue Best Friends Animal Society. “But we bring our cats into our homes, so we need to do our best to ensure they are as comfortable as possible, and a litter box is a huge part of their comfort.”

Below, what you need to know to ensure your feline overlord’s bathroom satisfaction.

How many litter boxes should you have?

On TikTok, I once saw someone claim cat owners should have a litter box in every room. I imagined my small apartment crammed with litter boxes and despaired. “Is that what you want?” I desperately asked my cat, who doesn’t speak English and doesn’t respect me enough to answer me even if she did.

Fortunately, like much TikTok content, this wasn’t true. But more than one litter box is often a good idea, especially if you have multiple cats.

“It is recommended that there be one litter box for each cat in the household, plus an extra,” says Dr Lori Bierbrier, Ssenior medical director of community medicine, east coast, for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). For instance, if you have two cats, three is the ideal number. If you live in a multilevel home, “there should be one litter box on each floor,” she adds; this ensures cats don’t need to travel too far when the need strikes.

Cats can share litter boxes, says Dr Marci Koski, certified feline behavior and training consultant and owner of Feline Behavior Solutions. “It can be a good way for them to get to know each other,” she says.

But some cats don’t like to share, “especially if there’s a contentious relationship between cats”, Koski says. “That’s all the more reason to have more litter box locations than cats.”

What is the ideal litter box setup?

“There are quite a few elements that go into creating a good litter box setup for one cat, but it doesn’t need to be complicated or difficult,” says Koski.

• Make sure the box is big enough. “Most boxes that you find in the pet store are too small,” says Bell. According to experts, a litter box should be 1.5 times the length of your cat, measuring from their nose to the base of their tail. “That should give them enough room to dig, bury and turn around without touching the walls,” says Koski.

• Use an open box. Though humans may prefer closed boxes that hide the waste, most cats prefer open boxes “because that gives them a wider field of view and helps them feel safe”, says Koski. “Plus, it doesn’t trap unpleasant scents all in one place.” The entrance should also be “low enough for them to get in easily”, says Bell.

• Choose the right location. “Cats prefer that their litter boxes be located in a quiet but not ‘cornered’ location,” says Bierbrier. This means that they want to be able to see other people and animals approaching, and have multiple escape routes in case they want to leave their boxes quickly. Keep boxes away from “busy, loud or intimidating places”, like next to the washer and dryer, or areas with a lot of foot traffic, says Bierbrier. Additionally, keep the box away from the cat’s food and water, suggests Bell, explaining that cats are extremely clean and don’t want their food too close to their toilet.

• Use the right litter. Our house cats’ ancestors were wild desert cats, says Bell, and some of those instincts remain. “So when you’re thinking about what kind of litter to use, think about the closest thing to sand,” she says. Most cats prefer unscented, clumping litter with a medium to fine texture, says Bierbrier. As for how much to use, Bell says the litter depth should be “deep enough to be able to cover their waste comfortably” – usually between 2-3in.

How often should you clean the litter box?

Experts agree that litter should be scooped at least once per day, and maybe more depending on how heavily the litter box is used (if it is used by multiple cats, for example) or if your cat is particularly picky.

The litter also needs to be fully replaced from time to time. Depending on the type of litter you use, Koski says, this could be as frequently as every 2-3 days for some pine or paper litters, or once every month for clumping clay litters.

The litter box itself should also be replaced every year or two, says Bell – “especially if you see scratches in it”, because these scratches can harbor bacteria and odor.

What are signs a cat is not happy with its litter box?

Bierbrier says signs that the cat’s litter box is not being cleaned correctly include:

• Foul odors coming from the box.

• The cat exhibits strange behaviors around the box, like excessive meowing or crying.

• The cat perches on the edges of the box “to avoid touching dirty litter with their paws”.

• The cat rushes in and out of the box as quickly as possible, and does little digging.

• The cat scratches at areas around the box, like walls or floors, instead of digging in the litter.

One of the biggest red flags is if the cat starts avoiding the litter box altogether. This may be a sign of poor litter hygiene, but it could also be a sign of something more serious.

“There are many reasons a cat may eliminate outside of a litter box, and none of them are because they are bad, spiteful, jealous or just ‘being a jerk’,” says Ball. When a cat eliminates outside their box, it is because they are trying to communicate that something is wrong. “They don’t want to do it,” she explains. “They’re clean creatures.”

If your cat has accidents outside the litter box, don’t punish it, Ball says. Instead, make an appointment with the vet as soon as possible. Ball’s own cat peed on her one night. The next day, she took him to the vet and discovered that he had diabetes, which causes him to drink more water. “Since he is a senior, he may not have been able to control it while he was asleep.”

Not cleaning a litter box properly can also lead to health problems for a cat, says Koski. “Cats can get urinary tract infections from unclean litter boxes, and those can be immensely painful,” she says.