Cat question.

[Joyfull_music]

My husband is more or less “The Cat Wisperer” so it is not often we come up with a problem he can’t solve.

We have 5 cats (darn rescues) 4 short-hair and one long, and have had the same cats for a couple years now. Recently we have been having an issue with kitty litter being tracked all over the house. Again, same cat’s nothing has changed. This only started happening a couple weeks ago. We are sweeping and vaccuuming daily, sometimes more than once. Then the floors in almost every room are covered like someone just took a light handful and sprinkled it everywhere. We thought maybe the longhair had a mat or something that was getting litter caught. So we gave him a thorough once over and he is fine as usual. Has anyone ever had this issue happen? We are completely stumped.

[Malp_15]

Did you change litter? If it’s clumping, maybe the pieces are a bit smaller and being trapped in the fur? I have never had this issue with my own cat, but we only use the horse stall pellets at work because we have such a HUGE problem with clumping litter spreading everywhere.

[LBJ10]

Is this unintentional tracking? If it is unintentional and you haven’t changed to a finer litter, my thought would be that maybe one of the cats is sweating. Cats have sweat glands on their paw pads and this is the only place they can sweat. If their paws are moist, then the litter will stick and it can be carried quite a distance before falling off.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Here’s the cat forum I sometimes go to http://www.catchannel.com. Maybe they can help.

[Beka27]

Do you have the litterbox on a rug? Maybe one of those cheapy indoor/outdoor rugs would work to knock off the excess litter before getting all over the house? Just a random thought… I don’t have cats or anything but I think that works for some people.

[mossling]

get a plastic storage tote. cut a hole in the lid, towards the end, big enough for your biggest cat to hop in and out. put the end with the hole against the wall, a corner is even better. cover the top with a piece of carpet or a rug or something like that. hoping up and out of the box will knock most of the litter off their feet, and the rug will get the rest.

my sphynx is really bad about tracking litter. he has no fur to “dust” his feet off, so the litter sticks to his skin and between his toes. eww.

[mossling]

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp

 

this is the store bought equivelent of what i’m talking about.  using a storage tote will save you about $20, though!

[jerseygirl]

Could Momo have visited the cats boxes?

[Joyfull_music]

No it is not Momo, when she is out we gate off the living room and confine her to it.

And here is an update. Our roomie did some investigating of his own and narrowed it down to one of our cats, Smudge. Now we just need to figure out why. There have been no changes in kitty litter at all. My husband uses the tidy cats heavy duty multi cat stuff. It has been very very wet and humid here lately. But that is typical of MI in the spring, so you would think we would be seeing it every spring. Also my husband has used the mats before and found them to be more trouble than they are worth.

[Monkeybun]

I liek using little floor mats by kitty boxes. It may seem like more trouble than it is worth, but its easier to clean one little mat than the entire floor. Just vacuum it, and if you get a washable one, toss it in the washer. Problem solved.

[MimzMum]

Joyful, I have the exact same problem. I just thought it was because my Griffy cat is medium fluffy, has those lovely little toe fuzzies that stick to anything…like spider’s feet…and we also use the Tidy Cat Multi Cat brand. It’s obnoxious in the extreme, I use a shop vac to pick his tracked litter up and I will find it all over the carpet again the minute I put the vacuum up. He is also one of those cats who likes to dig furiously in the litter and shoves it out the sides of the box…but I can’t use a covered box with him, he won’t go into it.
I wonder if it is just the litter? I can smell the dust from it everywhere in the house even after I’ve vacuumed and it’s part of my allergy problems. I would give anything to get my cats to use something else, but I guess they’re both just too old to change.
Is Smudge a medium to long hair cat with those extremely hairy tufts between his/her toes?

[ScooterandAnnette]

Maybe although you haven’t changed the litter, the litter itself has changed or they had a “bad” batch?
– Annette

[MimzMum]

For me it seems to be constant, despite what type of Tidy Cat I am using.
Hence why I would love it if my old fuddy-duddy kitties would let me change up the litter…even if they’d use the bunnies’ Y/N I would be thrilled! Sadly…not a chance. >.<

[Joyfull_music]

Smudge is a short hair, which makes it all the more confusing. I am not fond of the tidy cat either, and I smell it all over the place too. But our older cats would probably never accept a change, and when they are gone our younger two will probably be too old as well.

[Joyfull_music]

Here is a pic of Smudge (white cat) and his sister Sissy. They are about 12 years old now, and woken up from their nap in this pic.

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