I know....there is probably no such thing! But since I am about to bring a new member into my family (leaning towards an exotic), I would like to know which ones keep the smell to a minimum! I was looking at different automatic ones, but they seem to have a lot of problems.

Any Advice???
Meg

We have two of the big covered ones. We just switched to the crystals litter a couple of weeks ago. I have to say that I love not scooping the clumps (only the poop) but I think it is going to get pretty pricey as it looks like one box already needs to be changed. There is another thread not to far back in this category with info on different types of litter. That may help you also

I use those from Petsmart:



I paid $29.99 for the first one (it was a mistake because it is supposed to be used without liners and I do use liners), and the second one looks like this but it was around $17 and I'm totally happy with it.

I use Fresh Step litter and I do not have any odor ever but I'm thinking of switching to another litter. Fresh Step is cheap (I buy it at Sam's and I pay $14 for 40 lbs.), scoopable, controls odor very well but unfortunately it gets into kitties' paws and they track it all over the house:(. I tried many matts, the last one (pretty expensive) seems to work o'kay, but I'm still thinking of another litter.

I clean litterboxes twice a day with 2 cats, sometimes it's once and sometimes it's 4 times . And I use liners and I clean and desinfect litterboxes once a week.

My cats are on a raw diet, and as I've read on other forums (don't know whether it's true or not), this is the reason why their poop doesn't smell. Once I gave IAMs Hairball to my cats and I had VERY hard time smelling their poop... it was sticky, and it was on Julian's tail:)... never ever IAMs, raw only:).

I suspect when Santana (a whole male) gets older his urine will smell... I'll deal with it when I cross this bridge.

I have several plain litterboxes.  I keep them very clean and always scoop out transactions asap.  And completely change litter (and box) as 1st sign of litter deterioration and/or odor.  It works well.  Tosca loves checking out a fresh box!!

I'm very sorry but I think that both litter and litterbox do matter :oops: If the litter doesn't hold the odor (and many don't!) the urine and poop will smell :oops: . Scooping each time they use litterboxes would be wonderful but if one works, then it's definitely not an option :roll:

I've never used open litterboxes, only when I brought little Julian home, and it was a disaster because the litter was all over the place - I know, the litterbox was just wrong. But I suspect that covered litterboxes with the door on the entry and with air filter on top would hold odor better than open ones... I may certainly be mistaken.

I used several litters, and some of them didn't hold odors. Even if I scooped at once, I still had to open the window to get rid of odor.

I also think that food does matter as well as neutered/whole male.

But no doubt I agree that one needs to keep litterboxes clean.

When you have cats for a number of years, including whole males and more than just one or two cats - believe me you have tried it ALL. Nice thing is they do come up with newer and better things to try and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. The only litter I won't use is plain clay.

No matter the litter no matter the box, the only true way to eliminate odor is vigilance. From the fanciest box and the most expensive litter to the more simple box and litter (I prefer simplicity),  how much you want to work at it and how much you want or can spend and how many cats you have is all part of the consideration in what will work for you. It can take some experimenting.

I have had bad experiences with the automatic litter boxes. The cats were frightened by it, and it did not do a very good job at moving the clumps out of the box, not worth the money!

I do find that pine based or wheat based litter controls the odour more effectivley, as well as a covered box, with a door and carbon filter in the top. i use feline fresh, a scoopable pine litter, and the odour is manageable.

 I would like to try the round one with the stairs Booda? or something. Its supposed to stop the tracking of litter out of the box. But they cost like
 $50, so I guess that will have to wait until I am rich :lol:

Ashley, this is CatGenie I was asking about above. It should be plug into the plumming system (expenses on top of the litterbox price as well as certain place for the litterbox). And I guess you'll still need another set of granules or something like that - the total expenses for CatGenie won't be $300 or so, I assure you , that's why I wonder whether it is worth it. Nobody seems to have experience with it, and I don't see that anybody had very positive experience with those expensive automatic litterboxes... why would I think that CatGenie would be different??? :?: