Luke and Leia

A repo for cat related things.

Litter

I use the Oz-Pet litter system. This video is hilarious.

My personal routine

Setup

1. Stack the two normal looking trays
2. Use large tray liners to cover the one on top
3. Bonus points if you can squish the sticking out bits of the tray liner in to the bottom tray
4. Fill covered tray with previous "top" litter, or a small amount of new litter
5. Put the sieve looking tray on top
6. Fill to about an inch deep, or as you like it

Daily

1. Remove solids - flushing down toilet is ok, as is like compost
2. If you cbf, give the whole thing a little shake, so the pellets that are falling apart fall through to the bottom area (less smell overall, cleaner "top" part overall, less likely to clog sieve looking thing)

Weekly: thorough cleaning

Original instructions said 1-2 weeks. As is 2 cats, I figure weekly. Have gone far longer before due to laziness and depression. It also depends on how clean the whole thing is based on how well the soiled, disintegrating pellet parts fall to the bottom.

1. (Optional) Bring a plastic bag - d'oh supermarkets no longer give these out
2. Give the whole system a good shake to only leave the most solid and decent pellets on top
3. Walk outside so you can breathe again because you were holding your breath for the previous part
4. Remove bottom empty, clean tray
5. Use large tray liner to cover the tray
6. Pour "top" contents in to this newly lined tray
7. Place now empty (but dirty, eew) sieve looking thing in to bath tub (or shower if no tub)
8. Hold your breath again
9. Tie two corners of the tray liner together
10. Tie the other two corners together
11. If wanting to be extra careful, put now tied up yucky mess in a plastic bag
12. Dispose of yucky down garbage chute
13. The tray that was lined should be clean-ish
14. Place tray in bath tub (or somewhere you can fill with hot water)
15. Add bleach - I don't think it matters what kind
16. Start filling with hot water
17. Return to the sieve looking thing. Sometimes the holes clog up and I don't know how easily it would dissolve in the below steps, but I do use either something or fingers to push the bits through the holes.
18. If you can wash this off separately before placing in to the hot water + bleach solution, it's cleaner ¯\(°_o)/¯
19. Put the sieve looking thing in to the tray that's filling with water
20. Yay bubbles!
21. Stop water when it looks like it's leaking out the sides
22. Leave for 2+ hours
23. The cats can use the tray with the liner and old clean-ish litter in the meantime
24. Sometimes I leave it overnight, because 2 hours can be hard to come by
25. Empty and rinse tray and thingy
26. I give it a bit of a drip dry and shake
27. I also hilariously pick it up and drop it on the carpet a few times to shake off any excess water
28. But just leaving it to dry (or god forbid, drying it) will do
29. Leave the tray and sieve looking thing to dry
30. Be careful not to leave the tray lying around normally because it may be mistaken for an active toilet
31. Note: anything resembling a kitty litter tray, such as small, open suitcases on the floor, may be mistaken for an active toilet
32. After sieve looking thing is dry, place on top of the loo they were using
33. Fill to about an inch of new litter
34. Rejoice!

Things I've learned:

1. The cleaner the top litter is, the less likely Luke is to pee or poop in the bath tub
2. Tray liners are amazing and you don't have to clean clumps or whatever from the trays, and are a super easy way of disposing of all of it
3. The cleaner the top part is, you can also get away with doing the above weekly process every 2 (or more??) weeks
4. The sieve thing clogs up over time, but you can poke the bits through, if you really cbf doing the thorough cleaning
5. So really, the cleaner the top, the cleaner the bottom, the less you have to do the bleach soaking thing
6. Really I should spend more money on litter, change the bottom (and maybe top?) more often, and spend less time doing this whole shit
7. I have yet to learn the above