How many litter boxes per cat do you need? It’s a common question, and, even if there’s no one single “all purpose” answer, we’ll start with one right instantly:
You should have at least one litter box per cat, plus an additional box. This means, you should have two boxes for one cat, three boxes for two cats and six boxes for five cats. It works well in most cases.
As you may have noticed, this rule is very general, and may not be necessarily applied in all cases. There are many success stories where one cat has just one box. Or even two cats has just one box. If your house is small enough you can find time to clean the box several times per day, and your cat does not mind the location, you could easily go with just one box.
And vice verse, in specific cases you may need even more litter boxes, especially for large houses and when more than one cat lives in a household. But, above rule works in most general, regular situations.
And also remember, this is where we discuss the minimum amount of litter box. There really can’t be too many boxes in the eyes of your cat. Seriously, a cat would benefit from an indefinite amount of available litter boxes. He would not use all of them (that would not be possible, considering amount of hours in a day), but, he will appreciate having a possibility to choose. So, it really is a question how many boxes you can afford, not only to buy, but to find a correct spot for them, fill and clean regularly.
Important here. Two litter boxes placed next to each other does not qualify as two separate litter boxes. This strategy may benefit if your two cats have different litter type or litter box preferences, but, it will not work if you cats prefer going to separate locations.
Remember, it may be about territory, individual preferences and necessity for the box being close to your cat’s activity spots. No matter how many boxes you have in a same corner, it does not solve any of those.
Also, remember, just because your cats are having no visible litter box problems, it does not mean they are fine with sharing a box. Maybe their aversion is not that big of a deal to find other location. Keep in mind, they may use the box with no objections, but it still creates discomfort for them, and litter box problems may develop later, when new factors come into play.
However, if the litter box problems already occur, a possibility of insufficiency amount of litter boxes must be seriously considered, as well as other reasons for cat not using the litter box.
So, make sure you have more boxes than you have cats, spread them separately throughout the house in strategic locations, try filling them with different substrates or even placing different types of boxes.
This will ,first ensure less tension and stress in your single or multi cat household, second, it may solve your cat’s housesoiling problem, if one is there.
This article is a part of series about cat litter boxes.
