Can I Get Some Recommendations For Cat Liter For My Feral?
My feral seems to be happy in the garage. I have a single level and the garage connects to the kitchen. I leave the door open a crack so she can come in and get to her food & water.
Tonight is just the 2nd night she has stayed in there. Last night she didn’t show up.
I guess I will need a liter box to keep in the garage but I know ZERO about cats bathroom habits or dealing with a litter box.
The cat is still going to be mostly an outdoor cat, I think. The litter box might keep her from waking me up if she wants to go out.
Another concern is since I park in the garage and sometimes go shopping late at night, Im concerned that she wont jump up in my wheel wells. We had a kitten do that when I was a kid about 30 years ago and my brother was late for a baseball game because she wouldn’t come out. Im guessing she will stay away from the car but I don’t want her to run outside either. I live on a cul de sac with little traffic so Im really not worried about her getting hit by a car. She stays mostly in my backyard and the woods behind.
Thanks.
I noticed Aldi has a 14 pound bottle of cat litter for $3.69 but they are closed so I will probably pick something up at walmart. Appreciate any suggestions.
(Keep in mind Im a tightwad so Im not spending a hundred dollars on a litter box.
Here’s how we’ve trained our ferals to be litter trained: Litter box+ any kind of litter + cat, place them all in a small room, and don’t let them out until the cat poops in the box. Then verbal praise, treat (don’t start wet treats with ferals – regular cat food is a treat!!), and release – repeat if needed.
If you can keep your feral in, great, but we’ve had mixed luck with that. Usually they can’t be made indoors only, unless they’re quite small.
Aldi food may be OK, but my wife gets premium food for under $1 pound by using coupons. Added bonus – high quality food means higher percentage protein, which means smaller poos!!
Also, the premium “scoopable” litter lasts much much longer than the cheapest kinds, And it’s nicer on their feet.
Good luck with your feral. They can be very rewarding if they can be domesticated. I’m crazy about ours!
I use the Aldi brand all the time, and my cat (who was a stray before I brought him in) seems to find it just fine. You should try to look for types that are ‘clumping’, because these keep the litter box cleaner, both for the cat and for you. Brands with baking soda are great at keeping down the smell, but clay litters might be easier for a feral to get used to at first. Cats are naturally clean (often obsessively so) and tend to like using litter boxes, so it’s not hard to accomplish.
Don’t get a covered litter box. Yeah, it keeps the smell away from you, but guess where all the smell is? Right in with kitty. It’d be like making your bathroom airtight and having to use it just the same! My cat likes having a super deep box, so I just got him a plastic storage container from Walmart and it works fine and costs very little. And they come in all different sizes!
Put it far away from her food and water; cats often refuse to eat and poop in the same place.
Start with dirt. Gradually add a litter of your choice once she’s started using the dirt for litter. It doesn’t make much difference which litter, I personally prefer to use wood stove pellets which is the same as the more expensive Feline Pine but for much less $ (it’s also cheaper than clay).
Cats like to pee and poop somewhere that lets them dig. Make sure not to leave anything else laying around that she could dig in. She may not even need the dirt to figure it out. She may have been a pet before and remember about litter boxes. She may also ignore the litter box and simply wait until her usual time to go back out.
If possible, the best thing you can do is make this cat an indoor cat. That eliminates the chance of killing her with your car and helps her avoid any other dangers outside (and saves the lives of a lot of song birds, chipmunks, squirrels…). Plus if you keep letting her wander in and out more cats may show up or she may start having litters of kittens in your garage. Please try to at least get her fixed and checked out by a vet. If you explain the situation you should be able to get that done fairly cheaply. Your local animal shelter should have information to help with that.