How to Make Kitty Cleanup Painless
If you're anything like me, your cat is a part of your family. Their finicky nature, individual personalities and the love and loyalty they give us endears them to us. Unfortunately, all that fun and love comes at a price: we also need to clean up after them.
Cats are notorious for shedding hair all over our favorite chairs, coughing up hairballs on our expensive carpets and using any object other than a scratching tree to sharpen up those kitty claws. And the litter box? Ugh, the odor from that alone is enough to send us running.
Thankfully, caring for your cat, and your home, doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. There are several products that will make kitty clean up almost painless.
Taming the Kitty Litter
Years ago, there weren't many choices for cat litter boxes or kitty litter. You were stuck with filling up a basic pan and sifting through litter to clean it regularly. Today, there are so many options available, it's easy to maintain an odor-free and clean litter area. One of the coolest inventions for cat owners is the self-cleaning litter box. No more touching icky, stinky litter!
Self-Cleaning cat litter boxes generally work by raking the soiled litter into a waste receptacle attached to the box. The receptacle is lined with a waste bag, so all that is needed to clean it is for you to lift the bag out of the box and throw it away. It really couldn't be easier.
Of course, you'll still want to do a thorough cleaning of the pan area weekly to keep it sanitized and odor free; however, having a device that daily cleans the used litter out for you? Priceless.
There are also a variety of cat litters available for your nifty automatic box. There are clumping cat litters, which automatically clump up when urinated on. This makes it easier to scoop out the litter box, rather than having to completely dump it out and start fresh. There are litters available to reduce odor and even those made especially for multi-cat homes.
Oh the Fur!
Cat fur. Do you have clumps of it laying around? Can you knit a blanket with all the fur? Yes, all that shedding can quickly get out of control. Not to mention that with your cat continually licking himself, you're likely to find hairballs in some of the most unusual places. Interestingly enough, it's not the fur you see on your cat that is usually what's being shed - it's the cat's undercoat. The trick to eliminating this is to use a product that removes this undercoat.
Deshedding combs and brushes were created exactly for this purpose. There are some really terrific choices available on the market for cat deshedding tools. One of the best ones available is the Furminator. It helps you to brush out that undercoat, and with continued use, it cuts down on shedding in the first place.
By brushing your cat regularly, you're not only getting rid of the excess fur, but you're helping to prevent hairballs. These brushes will help put a stop that cats that are over-zealously cleaning themselves. Voila! Fewer nasty hairballs to pick up.
Of course, litter and grooming aren't the only things to consider when caring for your cat, but they seem to be two of the biggest concerns cat owners face. By using products that make clean up and odor control easier, you'll find you spend less time picking up after, and more time enjoying, your cat.
