How often does your kitty use the litterbox?

Hi all,

Sorry for not contributing much around here lately, I've been swamped with a new work project and haven't had much time for fun and relaxation on the net.

I hope you won't mind giving some input on something that's worrying me. I switched kitty litters a couple of months ago, from regular clumping litter to S'wheat Scoop, and Luna didn't seem to mind the change.

Lately, she's gotten into a pattern where she will only use the litterbox once per day. She goes in, pees and poops during the same session, and then that's it until the same time the next day. She used to sometimes pee twice a day, but she hasn't done that lately.

She is eating and seems to be drinking normally, although I wish she would drink more often. She has one of those fountains, which is supposed to encourage her to drink more often, and another regular water dish that is near her food dish. I see her drink at least once, and often twice, a day. She may also be drinking when I'm not watching.

She gets around 1/3 can of moist food per day, in addition to all the dry kibble she wants. She's getting a little extra moisture from that at least.

Should I be concerned that she's only urinating once per day? Is that unusual for cats? She's our first cat, so I have nothing to compare it to. She's also an indoor-only cat, so there's no possibility that she's doing it outside or anything.

Does this sound like a symptom of something? Should I make an appointment for her with the vet? I know that if she isn't drinking enough, that it could lead to problems later on. Maybe I should give her more moist food, and less dry kibble?

How often does your cat use the litterbox?

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

I'm not sure exactly how many times mine use the boxes daily but its definately more than once. I'd guess 3-4. Once per day does'nt seem normal to me.
Canned food should incease her urine volume and frequency so giving her more canned, less dry should help get her to go more often as long as there is'nt anything medically wrong.

 

Besides, adding more canned foods, I'd also have another litter box of clumping litter and compare. If she's going a lot more in the clumping litter than you know it's the new litter that she doesn't like. If she's still going 1x then a vet check is in order. My cats go multiple times per day. although one or 2 of the kitties will get comfy in bed and not want to use the litter for a long time. I agree with Nern. They probably go 3-4 times per day if not more. When did she start using the litter box only 1x a day?

 

I'm not sure exactly what normal is supposed to be, but i'm sure it has something to do with their diet and feeding schedule too, even if there are no medical issues. I just recently started switching Vianne's diet to raw last week and I have noticed a change in her habits. When I was free feeding her dry food and giving her a bit of canned at night was when she would go the most often. She had to use her box up to 5 or 6 times a day.

Then I quit free feeding and started only giving her a bit of dry food in a regular bowl in the morning with her vitamin and then at night, she'd get some canned cat food mixed with chunks of cooked chicked, green beans, cottage cheese...whatever leftovers I had that were kitty approved. When she was done eating that, I'd let her have more dry 'til she was full. I was doing this for a couple weeks before I started the raw food. She did start using the box less when I took her dry food feeder away. Oddly enough became even more affectionate too, hmm....weird :wink:

Now that I've been adding the raw food to her evening dinner(not fully switched yet), It seems she's been going even less. Maybe 2-3 times a day. Oh, and no change in her poo status from the raw in case anyone is wondering :mrgreen:

I also changed her litter a couple weeks ago too tho, not sure if that matters. She used to be on just the Yesterday's News, low-tracking was great, but odor control leaved a bit to be desired. Now she gets a layer of the Arm & Hammer scoopable litter on the bottom and a layer of YN on top. EXCELLENT combo, by the way. Low tracking AND great odor control! Also, don't know if Luna is like this, but whenever i clean the litter box, Vianne must immediately check it out and go potty in it...and if i go potty in HER bathroom, then she suddenly gets the urge to go too. If this works for Luna, then maybe you could watch her go and see if she is having any trouble in there. Constipated, painful, etc. Once a day to go pee does seem kinda low to me.

 

Thanks everyone. I guess once a day *is* pretty unusual then. Vene, I started noticing this about 3 weeks ago. She never used the litterbox more than twice a day anyway, but a few weeks ago I started to notice that she would only make one trip a day into it, and then do everything all at once. It's almost as if she's trying to minimize her time in there, which may mean that she doesn't like the smell of the wheat litter.

I'm going to get another litter box and fill it with the old stuff, which unfortunately contained sodium bentonite, the ingredient that makes the litter clump, and which supposedly isn't good for cats or humans to breathe in. The sodium bentonite was why I switched to the wheat litter, which, btw, does an amazing job with clumping and controlling odor for us. Although, maybe it's not doing as good of a job with the odor for Luna, which may be why she's avoiding using it. She never pees anywhere else in the house or anything, which means that she is probably holding it for as long as she can. She appears to be urinating a good amount in the box when she does go, ie. she leaves a rather large clump, bigger than my fist usually.

Let me give you a little background on Luna and the litterbox. She never used a litterbox for the first 4 years of her life, as she was always an indoor-outdoor cat who did all her business outside. She only became an indoor-only cat about 6 months ago, and that's when she had to adapt to using the litterbox. At first, we tried regular non-clumping litter and plastic liners, and never scooped out the liquids, only replaced all the litter once per week. We didn't have a problem with that, although she started breaking through the liners and it would start to smell bad, so I started hearing about how great clumping litter was and gave that a try about 4 months ago. That's when we started using the regular clumping litter with the sodium bentonite, which seemed to affect my allergies and the more I read about it, the more I didn't want Luna breathing it in either. Enter the S'wheat Scoop, which she seemed to adapt to without a problem.

And it works great, if you keep the box filled high enough. I actually haven't even changed the litter in the past 7 weeks because all the clumps clumped hard and efficiently and I was able to remove them without any mess or breaking apart, and I kept adding new litter on top. Maybe that's the problem though, that even though it looks and smells fine to me, maybe Luna doesn't agree? Maybe I do need to throw all the litter out once a month and start from scratch? That was my initial instict, but after reading some posts about how often people change clumping litter, I realized I may have been too overzealous in throwing out all the litter, especially since S'wheat Scoop is so expensive ($22 for 40 lbs.). I'm going to change it all right now and fill it with new Swheat Scoop, and then get a new litterbox and fill it with the regular clumping litter tonight, and put them each in her room. I'm also going to increase the amount of moist food that she gets. If I don't see an increase in use within the next few days, I am making an appointment with her at the vet.

Thanks so much for the input! I will keep you posted on how we make out. If this turns out to be my fault for not changing all the litter often enough, I'm going to feel like a real idiot.

 

I was originally thinking along the same lines that you were about switching from clumping litter to all natural litter. But I changed my mind when I asked my vet about the controversy with sodium bentonite. She said she never had cats that came down with lung diseases due to breathing in clumping litter over the years. She also said that cats and people could just as easily be allergic to wheat or whatever natural litter they have on the market. She has many cats over the years and they are all fine with clumping or non-clumping litters. So I was fine with that. All my cats use the clumping type Arm and Hammer. The smell isn't bad, and neither is the dust problem. It's a little more expensive than some, but well worth the price and definitely much cheaper than the S'wheat Scoop.

I'm inclined to think she doesn't like the smell and texture of her new litter. I hope all works out with Luna. Keep us updated and good luck.

 

Kyrre hasn't used his litter box in a long time, he only goes when he is outdoors. So today I actually had to refresh his memory on how to use it :mrgreen: I didn't want to let him out since we had a vet appointment within an hour, and I wasn't sure if he'd be in by then. So Kyrre was sitting by the front door, crying from the top of his lungs, wanting to go outside. I used the scooping spade (?) to dig in the litter, and he came running right away! So he peed, got out and went right back to the front door :| So I digged a little more in the box, and then he came again, pooing this time. Like he forgot he actually could do both in the litter box :mrgreen:

 

LOL's Bente. Good luck on Kyrre's vet appointment! :mrgreen:

 

Vene, thanks for the info about the bentonite and the vet's comments, along with the good wishes. That made me feel better about switching back to the regular clumping litter. Here's what I ended up doing. First I emptied out her box, cleaned it thoroughly, and filled it with fresh wheat litter. After a couple of days, there was no change in frequency of use.

I bought a second box, and filled it with Dr. Elsey's Ultra Precious Cat clumping litter, which I decided to try for the first time after an employee recommended it as being very low dust. She instantly began using it 2 or 3 times a day! I left her other box filled with wheat litter on the other side of the room, and she never used it even once since the other litter appeared in the other box 2 weeks ago. It was obvious, she just didn't like the smell and feel of the stuff. The poor thing must have really been "holding it in" quite a bit, because instead of finding "fist size" (a man's fist, too) clumps once a day, I'm finding smaller clumps a few times a day.

I also started adding some extra water to her moist food, which surprisingly, she really loves. It makes sort of a broth. I also bought a couple of additional little water dishes that I have strategically placed near her "high traffic areas" and it seems to have stimulated her urge to drink. So between the increased water intake, and the new litter, she's back to normal with her frequency of use.

Luna and I both thank you all for the input!

 

I'm so happy Luna is happy with her new litter and food and drinks. Where do you buy the Dr. Elsey's Ultra Precious Cat clumping litter? Sounds like good stuff!

 

Thanks vene. I got it at PetSmart, it's $11.99 for 40 lbs. The last clumping clay litter we got was their ExquisiCat brand, and it was much dustier in comparison. It was supposedly 99% dust free, and Dr. Elsey's is 99.9% dust free, so I guess that 0.9% difference must really make all the difference. :wink: