kitty litter box - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Travelin Duo · RV-Dreams Family Member

kitty litter box

Roz · RV-Dreams Family Member

Greetings, Larry & Arlene!

We have seemingly tried just about all of the litter available, and for the last few years have settled on Pearls. There simply is not odor when you remove the solids once a day, and it does as they say - "lasts for thirty days".

phyllen · RV-Dreams Family Member

We use any good clumping litter. At this time we have a very small litter pan as our guy was just a kitten when I found him and brought him home. (yes, we kept him even after he gave me Cat Scratch Fever and put me in hospital for 5 days, causing us to delay fulltime traveling by three weeks.)

At this time the pan squeezes in between toilet and wall. BARELY. It is time to get something larger. There is no room in the bathroom for anything larger than what we now have. I don't want it in the main living area. That leaves the bedroom. I suppose we will put it between wall and bed. (ON LEN'S SIDE).

On this topic, this is the first cat I've ever had that does not cover it's mess. EEEWWW! Is this usual?

Phyllis

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We use S'Wheat Scoop, which is made of wheat. It clumps and if the cat licks it off her paws at least we know it is edible (ew!). We find it at Target and some pet stores.

I see you have a motorhome so I can say that we keep the litter box under the steering wheel when camped. We have a covered litter box, the largest one we could fit. When traveling the litter box goes between the wall and the bed.

We got the idea from some friends, but in their motorhome everything lined up right to put a drape around the litter box so no one knew it was under the steering wheel. That didn't work for us or later for our friends when they changed motorhomes. But it might work for you.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 29th of January 2010 07:19:13 AM

-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 29th of January 2010 07:22:30 AM

Mallo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Question answered in the quote....

Travelin Duo wrote:

Hi,
This has been touched on before, but we are asking.....
please for cat owners to tell us where they keep the litter box in their RV ? We're lucky I like to us the laundry facilities in the camp grounds lets me talk to folks. So we use the closet that was ment for the washer / dryer for the litter box and litter supplies. It's a two door closet and we just open one door for the cats to go in and out and then close it up when we're traveling.

Also a good natural kitty litter without chemicals ? We use Tidy Cat multi cat as we have the two. The wife is saying there is a corn product called Worlds Best Cat Litter which is a clumping natural cat litter.

Had two cats...brothers for over 15 years, and they passed away within a year of one another almost 2 years ago.

Now we are ready to have another little guy join our family traveling fulltime with us, and any of your suggestiions will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Arlene

Our two have both taken to the fiver very well.

Mallo

Mallo · RV-Dreams Family Member

phyllen wrote:

We use any good clumping litter. At this time we have a very small litter pan as our guy was just a kitten when I found him and brought him home. (yes, we kept him even after he gave me Cat Scratch Fever and put me in hospital for 5 days, causing us to delay fulltime traveling by three weeks.)

At this time the pan squeezes in between toilet and wall. BARELY. It is time to get something larger. There is no room in the bathroom for anything larger than what we now have. I don't want it in the main living area. That leaves the bedroom. I suppose we will put it between wall and bed. (ON LEN'S SIDE).

On this topic, this is the first cat I've ever had that does not cover it's mess. EEEWWW! Is this usual?

Phyllis

We've seen this with rescue cats that are not born around litter boxes it appears to be a somewhat learned behavior. If your kitty will let you manipulate her paws without freaking out (the cat we have now that has issues with covering poo freaks if you try to restrain her) then put her back in the litter box and swipe the paw over the litter in a covering motion just in front of the mess try that four or five times and see if she gets the idea.

Our Mercedes has learned to cover from the cat we had but she's bad at it she misses as much as she covers but she does try.

Mallo

contra · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are not fulltiming yet (hopefully within a few months), but a location to place the litter box was critical in our search for a 5er. We didn't want the box anywhere near the kitchen, nor did we really want it in the living room. So one of our must haves was a separate washer-dryer closet. We have a very large cat (21 lbs!) and have the largest covered litter box they make, so we needed a "real" closet. We plan to utilize the remaining space in the closet to store cleaning supplies and other non-clothing items. It was a trade-off for us because closet space is generally limited so giving up an entire closet for the cat was not ideal. But hopefully we can find a way to make use of the entire space by adding additional shelving above the box.

I am very interested to hear more about the litters that don't smell. We have yet to find one, but haven't tried Pearls. That was the prime reason for insisting on a closet separated by a wall - we didn't want the smell permeating our clothes!

Kerri · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Arlene... I am not on the road yet, so I can only tell you what I "hope" to do... I know - some of you are rolling your eyes and saying "you don't have a clue" and you'd be right! smile

Anyway... I read this on one of my many searches for info in the FTing world and truly hope I get to try it...

A couple had a small MH and 2 cats. No place for the kitty-potty. They also had a rather small, fully self-contained outside storage area which happened to be next to a small area of inside wall. By cutting a small opening (I know - many of you are cringing right now wink

) in the top of the outside storage and an opening in the available wall, they installed a very nice-looking, lockable, framed pet door. It was wood-toned and blended right in with their paneling.

When it was time to clean, they could open the outside compartment door, change out the litter and clean the box with no smell or mess in the house. They also had a bag of litter, a scooper, wet wipes, plastic bags, and an extra bag of food (unopened in a small plastic bin) - all bungeed to small hooks (so things wouldn't slide around and scare the kitties) in the wall of the storage compartment.

It was a really cool setup - the kitties had their privacy, which we all know they like. There was no mess, no smell. Clean up was easy. And they didn't miss the storage compartment because it hadn't held much before! The area above the compartment (behind the wall) was one of those empty spots (no wiring or anything), so the kitties also had a little hideout - they could just jump over the small opening to their "basement bathroom" and relax in their "kitty den" when their humans were misbehaving!

I also saw where a couple used one of the storage areas under the bench of the dinette - put a kitty door there. Same concept...

Now I realize that not all rigs have an extra space in exactly the right spot, but it really got me thinking about possible solutions... I also know that many of you would rather sell your wives than cut a hole in your rig biggrin

, but in these cases, it was done really well! The kitty-doors were not even noticeable.

I thought I had saved the links to the pictures they posted but I cannot find them. I googled it and nothing came up, so you will just have to take my word for it! I am usually trustworthy.... smile

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

We know a few people that have put the litter box in the basement with a passage door into the rig. I works well.

We keep the covered box next to my chair in the LR. We know some who keep it in the shower stall.

Everyone finds a place,
Fred

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are going to keep the litterbox in our garage, GMOD

Travelin Duo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to everyone for all your great ideas on where to put the kitty box, and all the kitty litter suggestions.

We will be getting our new little guy by the end of February or early March.
Will let you all know when we do. Can't wait !

Thanks again
Arlene

Mallo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Something Else to remember

Travelin Duo · RV-Dreams Family Member

RE: kitty litter box

Roz · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our favorite Litter Box of all times comes from Petsmart. It looks like a grey tote with a 10 or 11 inch hole in the top positioned at one end. Monsieur Bumpier (just Bumper to his friends) enters from the top makes his deposit and exists.

Very little litter is brough out. We use Pearls that lasts a month with the solids emptied daily and the litter stirred well. No odor at all.

The Bumpster is pleased with his accomodations.

Traveling Light 2 · RV-Dreams Community Member

Great Ideas, thanks. The Russian Blue that we have came to us by default. We had never really had a cat before, always dogs. Now we can't imagine life without her and all the animals are a big part of our plans, so at the top of concerns to solve before hitting the road list was where to find put the litter box. Now we will include some of these ideas when we are looking for "the right rig".

Queen and I are convinced we have found the right group of folks after spending last week at Long's Rally.

Great Ideas everybody, Thanks

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

Great ideas. We were wondering the same thing. We're going with converting one of our basement compartments into a cat haven. There's a door that will be under our bed frame, when it's installed, that we'll leave open for them. They will have the run of the entire area under the bed as well, and be able to go through the door into the basement storage area. Much easier cleaning access from outside the trailer this way also, and MUCH less stink inside the trailer. Great help here. Luv it. biggrin

tc · RV-Dreams Community Member

We travel with 3 small dogs and a 23lb cat he is so large and long he barely fits the box so we use a little taller tote box for him. What really works for us is we USA the feline pine clumping litter. It's light weight and is the best we have ever found. Anyhow, the ideal spot for us is in this shower, we fold up a towel to hold the door open 6"and a shoe lase with a loop in it to hook it to hold it shut to 6" and in the event he should over shoot the box it goes nowhere but into the shower pan. We clean it twice a day and the shower wand can rinse it out very well. It takes about 2seconds to remove it to shower.

Tim & Robyn · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm curious about this because I haven't seen any comments about it here, but I did see a blurb about interesting cat facts on my ISP home page a few days ago.

Cats can be taught to use the commode, especially if you start when they are young and have the proper equipment (some kind of ring with litter in it that fits over the bowl to be used when beginning the training).

One of the funnier things in the blurb was about a cat that not only had learned to use the commode, but also learned to flush the toilet! The owners couldn't figure out why their water bills were so high until they discovered their cat was flushing the toilet all day watching the water swirl down the drain while they were at work - I have a couple cats that like to do that (watch, not flush).

They get plenty of chances to do that because now that our idiots in Congress have mandated low-flow toilets I just flush two or three times now, probably using more water than I did before as a result. Seems to me that it should have been obvious that that's what people would do. I also remember seeing a news blurb in the last few months about how San Francisco is having problems with sewer odors.... seems low-flow toilets don't generate enough flow to push all that waste to water treatment centers. Ah, the unintended consequences of what Congress does with the best of intentions.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has tried this with their cats and had any success. If it can be done it sure would beat the heck out having to scoop out litter boxes and figuring out where to put them in small spaces.

SueMac · RV-Dreams Family Member

So Pearls work well? I switched from the clay based scooping litter to Wheat Scoop. Less dust to drive my allergies nuts. It clumps well if you let the liquid sit a while, but it does nothing for odor. I've been looking for a litter that isn't dusty, easy to clean and has some odor control. I'll have to check that out next time I'm at PetsMart.

We travel with 2 kitties and keep the box in the shower with the opening towards the back so they have to walk over the non-stick stuff which catches a lot of the tracking. It is a pain tho' when it is shower time. Remove box, clean floor etc. If I found a non tracking, non dusty litter that has some odor control I might try the closet floor for the box.

Travelin Duo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi, We use, and have used WORLDS BEST Multiple Cat Litter. We only have one Ragdoll furry kid, but we find the multiple cat works best for us. We never have an odor. We just scoop it twice a day and for us this works fine. We have a cabinet under our TV area that is situated on an angle in a corner in the motor home, and we keep his box in there with the door just cracked open. He pulls it open and does his business. When he's out we just re-close it to a crack. Larry partitioned inside to seperate the litter box area and made one side for the bag of Litter, scooper and our plastic grocery bags that we use to put the clumps into to throw away. He also covered the floor with plywood so we could vacumn it out. Hope this helps some. Seems everyone finds a good spot that works for them.

dream reachers · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have one cat and position the litter box in the bedroom basically in front of the rear lavatory but far enough away that we can still use the lav. It can't be seen from the other areas of the MH and is located on the tile area of the floor. The litterbox has a manufactured cloth cover. We use Tidy Cat that is readily avaiable at Walmart and clean at least twice a day and have no problems with odor. We previously had a fifth wheel and kept the litterbox in the shower with the door propped open. We had to move the box out when we showered and clean the shower floor. It took a little effort but it worked for us. We just preferred not having the box in the main living area.

RanCar · RV-Dreams Community Member

We have three cats and use a non-perfumed clumping multi-cat litter and scoop twice a day. We use totes instead of litterpans. One is in the bath tub and the second one between the bed and the wall. There are no odors in our RV. In the second RV, an old Class-C we recently bought, one tote will go in the bedroom just like in the TT and the second under the seat of one of the dinette seats rather than in the shower stall.

Ravenlotus · RV-Dreams Family Member

Because it's a small Class C and for now we staying put for a few months we the box behind the passenger chair. We use Worlds Best Cat Litter. It's made with corn I think. There really is no odor only when my cat does number 2 because he doesn't bury them. So if I just go behind him and bury it a bit. Smell is usually gone with in a few mins.

wildbill2673 · RV-Dreams Family Member

My wife had seven cats when we started full timing and now down to two large cats (20+ lbs) and two smaller cats( around 10lbs) and we have two litter boxes and we put them in the living room. We use the good walmart brand litter and it works for us. We also travel with a rabbit , a border collie, and a heeler puppy. Yep a vartiable petting zoo. We used to travel with seven cats three dogs and the rabbit and we were in a 30 foot 5er and no slides. Not sure how we managed but we did.

Rockin EZ · RV-Dreams Community Member

I have used chicken feed as kitty litter for years. It is light, clumps well and does not smell.

I use laying scratch. It costs $14 for 50lb and lasts a lot longer than clay if you clean the box daily.

It is also a lot lighter to carry to the trash.

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Luvglass wrote:
We know a few people that have put the litter box in the basement with a passage door into the rig.

How is that possible?

I really didn't want to take my 3 cats along for the ride (they are 14 yrs, 7 and 7) but I am having an impossibly hard time finding a new loving home for them and putting them in a shelter where they have to live in cages until they get adopted -- IF they got adopted... I just don't have the heart to do that. I don't want to share the small space with the cats or their litter box, but I guess that would be selfish if I don't.

So, trying to figure out the best way to deal with the lack of space. I've seen this response a few times and having a hard time visualizing how they get from the main living area to the basement area.

Travelin Duo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi, We use, and have used WORLDS BEST Multiple Cat Litter. We only have one Ragdoll furry kid, but we find the multiple cat works best for us. We never have an odor. We just scoop it twice a day and for us this works fine. We have a cabinet under our TV area that is situated on an angle in a corner in the motor home, and we keep his box in there with the door just cracked open. He pulls it open and does his business. When he's out we just re-close it to a crack. Larry partitioned inside to seperate the litter box area and made one side for the bag of Litter, scooper and our plastic grocery bags that we use to put the clumps into to throw away. He also covered the floor with plywood so we could vacumn it out. Hope this helps some. Seems everyone finds a good spot that works for them.

WE POSTED ABOVE INFO A WHILE AGO, But it still stands. We LOVE the WORLDS BEST MULTI CAT -cat Litter ! It's EZ to scoop out when he goes, and it doesn't smell. Change it every few weeks and wash out the box outside with soap and water And refill it. We buy a new litter box twice a year. Being in a motor home demands being more cautious and aware due to such a small area. BUT our choice to have a fur kid is well worth the extra effort. He's our responsibility for sure. He depends on us and he's sooooo worth it. He's a love 🐱

I'm sure you don't ever want to leave your fur kids behind. You will find a place for the litter box. We gave up a big storage area to put Cian's Box, but that was our choice. He brings so much joy to us. Look around... Then think out of the box. something will come to mind.

Folks on here have so many good ideas. Wishing you luck and hope it all works out for you and your fur babies too.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

we did leave our pets behind when we first started out, and now they are so well adapted to their new home that they will live out their lives with my friend.
(we didn't intend to abandon them, but I needed to move to boston for medical treatment for three months and my amazing friend took them all into her home---she and her husband love them and they love the two of them in return so there you have it).
this is the first time in my entire 54 years I've been without cats and dogs, and it's weird!
we intend to adopt again someday, and I will be looking for a Siamese cross I can teach to use the toilet.
I know other breeds are smart too, but I've already had a Siamese who taught herself to use the toilet so that's my ultimate solution.
dh says if that doesn't work he will cut a cat door into the step up into the bedroom, that cat door will open into the basement below so we can access it to clean it.
someday...!

suzagoes · RV-Dreams Community Member

we've given up some storage space, but given our cat quite the lounge area under the booth seat...

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

At the 2014 Spring Rally, one wonderful lady told us she had done extensive research on cat litter boxes for their RV. She wrote down the name for us of her top choice. It's called the Tidy Cat Breeze System! We ordered it immediately as we were tired of cleaning the tracked litter, especially when the cat got on our bed to clean between her toes.

Jesse keeps asking me if I "thanked her" but I'm not sure who it was. THANK YOU! We love this System, which has a pad below pellets for the liquid and solids are scooped up and flushed. Pads are changed once a week and pellets once a month. Absolutely no odor & no tracked litter! We just followed the instructions that came with it and Paris transitioned smoothly.

We hadn't thought thru having this open system with our dog who seems to think the solids are Bon bons but we quickly figured out that we can leave the bathroom pocket doors parted just enough for the cat to get thru but not the dog.

We highly recommend this system, but know its a little pricy as are the replacement pads and pellets. It's worth it to us. THANKS AGAIN!

Sherry & Jesse

Loretta · RV-Dreams Family Member

We travel with 3 cats. We have a large plastic bin that they use and we use Arm and Hammer Clump and Seal. It's new in a black and silver box. We don't have any odor and we keep the box in the hall across from the bathroom.