Litter boxes in the market are available in different sizes and in different shapes. But they will be only covered or uncovered from the top.
Most of the cat owners argue when it comes to the covered and uncovered litter boxes. Some love to have the covered while some loves to have uncovered litter boxes. But have you ever think, what’s your cat preference?
Here in the article, “Covered Cat litter box vs Uncovered litter box“, we will try to figure out what the cats want.
Covered litter box
Uncovered litter box
For us the winner is Covered litter box because you can always make this covered litter box, uncovered by just removing the upper part of the litter box. Its a winner as its two in one.
How to Know your cat preference on open vs enclosed litter box?
That’s not the question only you have, almost every cat parent have the same question. That’s why to figure out the preference of the cat, the researcher from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine perform an experiment and published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. So there is nothing to worry about! The research is available, and the result is too.
What the research says about the preference of the cats?
For the research, the researcher chooses 28 cats who use the only litter boxes for doing their business. And put all of them in the house and provide each cat access to both, covered and uncovered litter boxes.
After studying their behavior for around 2 weeks when they start calculating the result, the interesting things come in front of the researcher.
Around 75% of the cats uses both of the litter boxes evenly, and from rest of the cats, more cats used the uncovered litter box than the covered litter boxes.
The research says that cats don’t have any preference with only a few exceptions. You can place any of them and train them, they will start using it. And it not only depend on this factor but many others like the placement and ease of access.
Note: Here’s a list of the best cat litter box products for you to make a better decision regarding the selection of top cat litter box.
Factors which can influence cat preference on the litter box?
You don’t need to prioritize any litter box over the other just because of the shape. Cats will be using the litter box, if you keep cleaning it regularly, no matter either it is covered or uncovered.
They also hate smelly and dirty places as you do. If you are not cleaning their litter box, then they will start using any other place for doing their business. Buy any of them, but pay proper attention to the cleaning and in scooping out the cat’s waste.
So covered box and the uncovered box has nothing to do with cats, but have pros and cons for the cat parents. Let’s have a look at the general pros and cons of both of the litter boxes.
Odor and sensitivity:
When it comes to the odor, the covered cat litter boxes scores well as they hardly let the odor to spread all over in your room. You will not have to smell the poo and pee of your cat and even your guest will also never complain about it.
But do you know what? Many enclosed litter box, built up the odor inside the box, and the cats don’t like to go at the smelly places that’s why they start doing their business in any other corner of your room.
By considering this, you should have the uncovered litter box, but it will spread the odor in your room. So the best solution is that, go for the enclosed litter box that does not build up odor in the litter box.
View and open space:
Cats don’t care about the covered and uncovered space, but they love to do their business in the open space. After some training, you can bend them to use the covered litter box for your own advantage but their nature is to do their business in open space.
The covered space provides you the benefit that you don’t need to look at your cat anymore while she is doing her business.
Litter tracking
The enclosed litter boxes help you to reduce litter tracking. All of the cats love to dig after getting free and then they scatter the litter in all over the room. The top lid of the covered litter box eliminates this issue, but the uncovered don’t.
FAQs
Do cats like covered litter boxes?
Naturally, they tend to like the open ones as they are wild animals and this is their instinct, By way of example, quite a few cat lovers are convinced that cats overwhelmingly prefer to utilize litter boxes that are completely open. They are convinced that cats are less likely to consistently use enclosed, closed, hooded, or covered litter boxes. But they can always be trained, its easier to adapt than you think.
Do covered litter boxes contain odor?
When it comes to the odor, the covered cat litter boxes scores well as they hardly let the odor to spread all over in your room. You will not have to smell the poo and pee of your cat and even your guest will also never complain about it.
Are closed litter boxes bad for cats?
It really depends on your cat, Naturally, they tend to like the open ones as they are wild animals and this is their instinct but that doesn’t mean that they hate covered ones, but its your prime responsibility as a cat owner to make sure to check if your cat is comfortable or not.
How do you train a cat to use an enclosed litter box?
Naturally cats are wild Animals and they prefer to use open cat litter boxes. The best way to train your cat to use the covered litter boxes is to place them in a calm and quiet place then gently introduce your cats to the letter boxes you can use the same letter which they were using before this would increase the chances of adaptability and the cat would be very happy to jump to the new one.
How do you keep cat litter off the floor?
There are quite a few ways to keep the litter off the floor.
- Use a dust free litter
- Use a cat litter mat
- Use a high sided cat litter box
it’s very important to make your cat feel comfortable while it’s using the cat litter box you can use more than one letter boxes in different rooms so that the cat knows where are the little boxes situated. It’s also important to note cats are naturally very clean animals so they will definitely prefer to keep everything clean.
Cat is too big for a litter box?
If the cat you have is growing and asking for a large cat litter box, we have a wide variety of them recommended according to certain factors.
Final words
These are the major reasons for which cat parents prefer one litter box over others, they don’t consider the cat’s preference. As a matter of fact, they even don’t need to worry about their cat choice, because cats don’t have any. Just choose the litter box that is reliable for you and keep cleaning it so that your cat keep using it.
