Litter Box Tracking: Our Prevention Hacks & Favorite Litter

Hi, I’m Amanda! Read my introduction to learn more about me and Blue, my fluffy fire point Himalayan-Persian cat.

There are many wonderful things about welcoming a cat into your family. The sass. The independence. The conditional affection (they obviously decide when and how long you get to play, snuggle or pet them but we wouldn’t have it any other way!). They self-groom, rarely have accidents and for the most part find ways to keep themselves entertained, although we’d love to endlessly play fetch or with the feature wand.

We’ve of course had minor hiccups with Blue along the way but all were temporary and have fizzled out, either a result of external influences that she has since adapted to or a part of her development and age. Not to toot her horn, but I think she’s a pretty awesome cat. The one we most recently overcome though, and to no fault of Blue, is her litter box tracking.

What Caused Blue’s Litter Tracking

There were a few different reasons tracking was such a major issue in our house. We’ve had to find ways of combating each and finally we’re in a place where I’m not finding litter strewn all over our laundry room floor and trailing up our stairs into the common areas of our house.

1. Paw Tufts

Being a Himalayan Persian, she was blessed with thick fluffy tufts between her paw pads. While they’re adorable for the most part, at the slightest bit of moisture they seem to attract and hold onto any sort of clay based litter, which would later flake off as it dried. All sorts of yuck. Even when they remained dry, all that digging caused litter to nestle deep into the tufts. Again, we’d find litter in all sorts of places. Our least favorite place, the bed. We never tried to trim her paw fur because we chalked the mess up to the type of litter we were using. There had to be something better out there.

2. Litter Types

We tried several types of litter. Non-tracking, low dust, hypoallergenic, multi-cat, unscented. Our mistake was never venturing outside of a clay base. All of our testing efforts were moot because we never considered clay to be the culprit for our woes. We’ve recently changed to a corn based litter and voila! Nothing seemed to be sticking to her paws. This litter was comparable to clay for clumping and cleaning, without the mess or dust that came along with traditional clay litter.

3. Litter Box

Now that we had eliminated tracking, we searched for a box that could contain the litter while Blue scratched and kicked about. She’s a large cat so she grew out of a standard box fairly quickly. An enclosed box wouldn’t do because she was afraid to enter it. A high-sided box couldn’t work since she’s not much of a jumper. We attempted to cut a slot out of a large high sided box so she could come and go as she pleased but we still ended up with litter everywhere. We decided to test out a large standard sized litter box inside of an extra large Tupperware bin. We made an entrance slot on one side and the litter box was placed on the opposite side of the whole. It took a moment for Blue to become situated with the new layout but it proved to solve our problem. Little to no litter was escaping from the large Tupperware. Hooray!

The Final Scoop

We still use a litter mat to catch any access that’s inevitably trailed from her exiting the box which does a really good job of keeping the small overflow from hitting the actual floor. Regular scooping and monthly litter changes also means she’s having to dig less to find a suitable spot to do her business. Of course, every cat is going to be different but these are the few tricks we’ve found through many years of trial and error. Blue is happy with a functional and easily accessible bathroom spot, and our house is free of dirty litter. A real win-win for our household.