Have you ever wondered how often cats spend grooming themselves? As a cat owner – sorry, cat servant – I’m betting you have wondered exactly that. Probably while Duchess Fluffington is busy licking herself to perfection next to your pillow at 3 AM. But I digress.

The answer is that your cat spends anywhere from 15% to 50% of her time dedicated to grooming. Cats like to be clean, and they like their spaces to be clean too. Especially when it comes to the litter box.

How to Tell Your Cat’s Litter Box Isn’t Clean Enough

It Smells

If you can smell your cat’s litter box, it’s not clean enough. I’m not talking about smelling whatever piney or powdery scent accompanies the cat litter itself. I’m talking about your cat’s waste. I know, it’s no one’s preferred topic of conversation – but your official title as a cat parent is Cat Servant, so you get to deal with poop.

Here’s the thing: cats have 200 million scent receptors, and can smell easily 14 times better than we can. You think that faint smell of ammonia or buried poo is annoying? To your cat, they’re sitting right next to a filthy portable toilet at high noon in the summer. It’s offensively disgusting, nevermind the fact that it came out of their own bodies. (Our grey tabby Daenerys – who came by the kittenhood nickname of Stinky Dany quite honestly – looks so offended after she uses the litter to go number two. It’s downright comical.)

It’s Not Being Used

Another super-obvious tell that your cat’s litter box isn’t clean enough: they’re not using it. If you don’t scoop the litter box often enough you may risk your cat deciding to avoid it altogether. Which means you get to kiss your security deposit and/or carpets goodbye as the rest of your home becomes your cat’s new preferred bathroom.

Of course, if you do regularly and fastidiously clean their boxes, there are other possible reasons for their avoidance. Other situations that may drive your cats out of their litter box include your kitty not liking the brand of litter you use, certain types of illness, or your cat being bullied by their fellow felines when trying to use it. Our enormous orange tabby Tiger Jack had a bout of cystitis this summer, which meant that urinating was painful for him. He started associating the pain with the litter box and trying to pee in other places until treatment kicked in.

How Often Should You Clean Your Cat’s Litter Box?

Basic Guidelines

In your cat’s ideal world, they’d have an enormous and pristine box of sand to do their business in every time they had to go. That’s not feasible for most of us humble Cat Servants, however – so here are the basics of good litter box hygiene:

• Scoop at least twice a day, depending on how many cats you have, clearing out any clumped waste. Top with fresh litter as needed, perhaps every other day.
• Each week, fully empty the box of litter and scrub it out with warm water and a mild detergent before filling with fresh litter.
• Don’t forget to regularly vacuum or sweep the area around your cat’s litter box to minimize litter being tracked everywhere; you can also use a litter mat.

Pro-tip: always try to have one more box than you have cats. So, if you have two cats, you should ideally have three litter boxes available for their use.

A Self-Washing Option

If the idea of proper cat box maintenance makes you tired, there’s a fix for that! The CatGenie is a full-sized cat box that flushes and cleans itself. It uses dust-free Washable Granules that never need changing, so you don’t have to constantly buy and throw away litter by the pound. The CatGenie can run automatically up to four times a day, or run on cat activation, starting a cycle after your cat uses it. This ensures utmost cleanliness each and every time your cat needs to go. Plus, the fresh scent will leave both you and your cat purring. The CatGenie is also effective in households with up to three cats, meaning even large cat families can benefit from the self-cleaning features. It’s a great choice if you’re ready to level up your cat box game.

If your cat isn’t using their litter box, don’t despair! Make sure it’s clean enough, then check for other issues that might be affecting their behavior. And if you’re interested in the CatGenie, join our Facebook community to see what other users have to say about it.