snip

Has your cat been checked for a urinary infection lately? Has there been a
strong urine odour in the past or is it new?  Is there too little litter in
the box, one of my cats really urintae alot everytime he goes, it takes a
fair bit of litter to absorb it all , if there is not enough litter I'll
smell am ammonia smell as well.  sorry, but these are the only things I can
think of.

Well, back when my apartment was Truly Tiny, and I was slave to
Fin, I learned (after trying lots of different litter brands)
that ScoopAway is the best brand for odor control.  I've tried
others, cheaper ones, but that's the only one that really helped
with the stink.  Now I have Princess Rita's box in my bedroom
and the smell is not there.  

THe food also helps. I fed Fin a steady diet of NutroMax dry from
the pet store. He didn't like gooshy food or people food.
Rita eats a little more gooshy food, and smells just a little bit
more.  For air fresheners, the best stuff I've found, I found in
an auto parts store. I can't remember the name, but it's really
great at eliminating odors in the air. Forget all of that stuff
you see advertised on the tv - this is better. It's in a can and
smells very citrus-y.  Love it.

Jane
- owned and operated by Princess Rita, Orca(t), and Spot

I use Tidy Cat clumping litter, multiple cat immediate odor control formula
and put the litter in the tray about three inches deep.  Then I sprinkle a
baking soda type deodorizer over that.  We scoop every other day, add litter
as needed and change to lot out every two weeks or so.  Works fine.

Jo

We have 7 indoor-only cats and none of our boxes smell. We use a clay
litter with activated carbon in it, I believe the brand name is
Everfresh and it comes in white plastic buckets. In order to
"neutralize" the odors, you need either activated carbon/charcoal or
zeolite (the "crystals" or "perls" in litter), only those adsorb the
odor causing ammonia. Obviously, daily cleaning is a must. :)

You're confusing us with another group. We don't flame here. :)

Regards.

Victor

I "catsit" for a neighbor sometimes and her clay (non-scooping) litter
smells MUCH worse than my own cat's litterbox in which I use a scoopable
litter.  I noticed an immediate improvement in my own home some years ago
when I switched from regular litter to the 'scoopable".  I like both Tidy
Cat and Scoop
Away. If your litter box has that little filter in the top of the box I'd
guess it's worse than useless as the smell will come right out the opening
anyway.
Another person's suggestion as to a change in cat food may also be very
useful.
Lorna

We had a covered litterbox for a little while with one of those
filters in the lid. Only it stunk much worse than the regular open
litterbox did! The lid just holds in the smell so that when you take
the lid off for cleaning it all comes out in a rush... ugh! Open boxes
are actually much less stinky because it doesn't build up like that.

Has your kitty always been pungent? Or is this a new development? Is
kitty spayed/fixed? Adult cats are much more pungent than kittens
because of their hormones especially if they're not spayed. There
might be a volume issue too - the bigger the cat, the bigger the mess
and the more litter it takes to absorb the volume (and the odour).
We have two cats and use Yesterday's News with a generous sprinkle of
litterbox deoderiser on top. People who come to the apartment say it's
very clean and nonsmelly but I find that the bathroom is pretty darned
pungent after four or five days! I change out the box entirely and
wash it out with orange spray every five days, and I scoop twice a day
and mix up the used litter with the clean stuff so that no area gets
particularly saturated. If there's not enough litter in the box it
gets too soaked and then it really smells bad.
The time the odour was worst was when the cats outgrew their two small
litterboxes and we didn't realise it - the larger cat would climb into
the box and squat, with her bottom hanging over the edge! Buying a
larger box solved that little problem...

I also leave the bathroom fan on about 12 hours a day...

As someone else asked, is this a recent development or has it always been
this way?  If recent, your cat might have a urinary infection which needs
treating.

I use Tidy-Cats clumping litter and put at least 2 inches in the box.
Persia drinks a lot of water and urinates a lot.  This litter clumps up and
I scoop the box twice a day.

P.S.  This group isn't known for flaming :)  Stick around, you'll see!

Jill

Well, everyone else pretty much beat me to  the punch. First off, like
others said, if this is a new problem a trip to the vet might just be
in order to eliminate any medical issues. I officially have two cats,
actually three, but what the landlord doesn't know doesn't hurt
anything, and have been usually the Tidy Cat multiple cat scoopable
litter for quite awhile now. I tried a couple others - hated the clay
stuff since it smelled even to me - and I can't smell much of
anything.

I think this group has a minimum of flaming - which is why I prefer it
to the other cat groups

Is your cat an un-neutered male?  Urine from a mature,
intact male cat can be VERY "pungent", and it takes a few
weeks after the operation for that particular fragrance to
disappear.  (It may be appealing to female cats, but most
humans would just as soon do without it!)

How deep is the litter?  Vino's box has a minimum of 4 inches of
clumping litter.  Gets scooped 3 times a week and I've never smelled a
thing.  We do a complete litter change after 3-4 weeks and wash out
the litter box, etc.
Vino gets canned in the morning and at night and snacks on kibble
during the day.
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album