Cats going from an open to a covered litter box

My box philosophy is always "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If they are using the box, I don't want to do ANYTHING that might cause them to not want to use the box. If you do want to switch to the covered box, make sure they still have the option of the open box available in case they hate the covered one.

It went horrible for us. At age 9, she started peeing on the wall in protest!!

The solution was to get a big rubbermaid container vs. just a littler box. Leave the lid off. She jumps in, jumps out and the flinging of cat litter has went down 95%! I guess it is the high sides that makes it work.

When we brought our cat home from the rescue, I didn't think about the fact that we were transitioning her to a covered litter box, but we had no problems, and she adapted quickly. As I recall, I left the box uncovered until she had used it once or twice, so it had her scent, and she knew where to go. After that, I put the cover on, and we had no problem for several years. The kind we have is a Booda dome, which I chose because it fits into a corner, and I can adjust the position of the cover to put the "doorway" where it works best--pointed away from the main part of the room.

Recently, our kitty seems to resist going into the covered box when she has to poop. She's a very large cat, and I think she feels that she can't get into the right position when the cover is on. So if she starts crying and racing around the house, I know "it's time," and I temporarily remove the cover. (She really does have enough room inside, however, and often she uses the covered box without calling for me to remove the cover--so, go figure! She has me well trained.)

One thing that helps tremendously with the litter scatter problem is a litter mat placed so that the cat has to take several steps on it before exiting the area. Our cat's litter box is in the back corner of the kitchen, and there is absolutely no litter on the floor! (No smell, either.) Periodically, I take the litter mat outside and shake it out; in bad weather, I vacuum it.

This is the one I use:

Litter mat

If your cat is on the bigger side, or if it has a broad chest, it probably won't work well. We tried one with our previous cat, who was medium but had a barrel chest, and it just didn't work for her. The door was just too small for her to comfortably get in and out, and we had chosen the largest opening that we could find at the time.

I think I'll go to Petsmart and get a litter carpet/pad thing.

I am so tired of litter being all over the place, but I'm with the "if it ain't broken don't fix it" idea. Plus my husband told me he doesn't think our cat would like the covered box. I'm scared he could be right and I'd just end up with the same open litter box

we have two covered litter boxes for three cats; when we switched, it took them a little while to get used to it. I personally took the swinging doors off of them, because they just did NOT like going thru that door.

One of our cats has litterbox issues (she just barely goes in and pees, sometimes peeing outside the box thru the opening!) I have since switched to the biggest covered boxes I could find, and gotten a HUGE litter mat to pick up any messes that DO happen to occur.

My cats haven't had any problems going from uncovered to covered. Depending on what's going on we'll switch back and forth.

I had to look up what a cat washroom was, never heard of such a thing. Now I totally want one!

Our kitties were raised with closed litterboxes. When my 6 year old cat got a UTI, we took the top off of her litterbox and it helped. It's still off. Her brother often plays "cat and mouse" with her while she's doing her business, so she feels safer with the top off.

We have a mat in front of the box, but the litter still gets all over the bathroom and I'm constantly sweeping it up! I hate the feeling of litter on a bare floor (esp in my own bathroom).

We went this route, too. We use a tote that's about 16-18" tall. No more flinging litter. It's much cheaper than a covered box, too.

I took an old used footlocker that from the decals on it was used by a college kid and made it into a cover for box. I got it a a Goodwill type store for less than $10 and made it look vintage with chalk paint. computer printed vintage look luggage travel stickers and used modge podge to affix. It now looks like a vintage travel truck. I cut a door/hole in one end for kitty to enter and put her regular litter box inside against one end. Plenty of room and litter stayed pretty much inside as she steps out of litter box before leaving trunk with a small step up to get out the hole. She took right to it as I think it's bigger and she enjoyed the privacy from the pain in her behind I-Love-You-kitty-play-with-me-now dog. Looks so much better too.