…without it ending up a stinky mess?
Would love input for those of you who’ve done apartment-living with animals!
When we adopted our young adult Maine Coon a few years ago, he was kept in my son’s, very small, room 24/7 for several weeks until he settled in, we already had another cat and a dog and I didn’t want to throw them all in together at once. We did the introduction very slowly. I also quarantine sick, injured or found cats in another small room.
I kept the small rooms from getting stinky by cleaning the box several times a day. I use a regular, open, litter box and clumping litter. I put the whole litter pan into a plastic trash bag, then fill it with a relatively small amount of litter. I keep a supply of plastic grocery bags and a scooper nearby. Every time I go in that room, I check for pee or poop and scoop it out into a grocery bag and take it out to the trash. I’ll toss in a few handfuls of litter afterward. You don’t want the box to be too full or litter or it will become unmangeable, just enough for kitty to bury stuff in. Doesn’t take much time at all and keeps the smell to next to nothing. When I want to change out all the litter (usually only necessary every few days to a week), I just pull the whole garbage bag off the box inside out, tie it off and dump it. Again, very easy.
Making it easy on yourself to keep the box clean is the key! I don’t like boxes with lids or self-cleaning boxes for this reason…the extra steps involved make it less likely that I’ll pick the box on an ongoing basis.
The Coon cat is messy, he kicks litter out of the box and onto the floor…I keep one of those rechargeable “Shark” floor sweeper vacuums nearby, simple to vacuum up the litter scatter.
If this can keep a 10x10 room relatively smell free, it should work in a studio apartment.
I think you should be fine if you are really good about cleaning the litter box. I mean checking the box 5-6 times a day. I don’t have a cat in the house, but my friend does and her house never smells at all…she’s crazy about keeping the litter box clean.
Instead of traditional litter, you may want to try Feline Pine. No dust, no ammonia smell, and virtually no tracking! You just sift it like you would a horse stall, and it lasts forever!
I live in a very tiny studio with a cat, but luckily she has access to the patio and prefers to use the flower bed as her bathroom. But I do have a standby litter box inside just in case. When I foster kittens, they only use the litter box inside, and I clean it out multiple times a day. That is the only way to handle it- and by also replacing all the litter once a week and scrubbing the box out. I can’t stand the smell of scented litter either, especially in such a small space, so keep that in mind also with what litter you plan on using.
I tried Swheatscoop litter at first, but my weird cat would eat it, as did some of the foster kittens. I use Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Litter. It’s unscented and relatively dust free.
Your bigger problem will be entertaining a cat in such a small space. Mine has the secure patio for a little extra space, but she still needs a lot of attention and play time. She’s a year and a half, so still very playful and active. She has a ton of toys and a cat tree, but I have to actively spend time playing with her in order to keep her happy. When she stays at my friend’s 3 bedroom townhouse and has 3 floors to explore and run around in, she doesn’t require anywhere near as much one-on-one playtime.
If your cat will be able to see out the windows, that will help also with the boredom. Maybe buy one of those stick-on window bird feeders so she can have “kitty tv”, and a window shelf she can sit on. 
Absolutely!
When I was in college I lived in a tiny studio apartment with my cat Tita, and it worked out great. Her litterbox was in the bathroom, and I cleaned it often. I saved any kind of plastic bag I got, like bread bags and bagel bags, so I could scoop her excrement in a baggie and tie it off so it wouldn’t stink up the trash.
She seemed to think that little apartment was plenty big enough, but she was already in her teens by then so she wasn’t very rowdy.
And Tita was the cat that had previously tried to pee on one of my roommates while she was sleeping, so if she was unhappy, it would have been VERY clear :lol:
If you feed wet grain free food, the stink will be faaaaar less than if you’re feeding anything else, IME.
You’d also need to scoop litter (and take the waste out to the trash, or have somewhere outside to stash it) at LEAST twice a day. You’ll want enough litter in the box that pee balls form, instead of pee pooling on the bottom and sticking there…3"-4" or so. The more that stuff sticks to the bottom of the box, the more “crumbs” you’ll get and the more the actual BOX will stink.
[QUOTE=Simkie;5988923]
If you feed wet grain free food, the stink will be faaaaar less than if you’re feeding anything else, IME.
You’d also need to scoop litter (and take the waste out to the trash, or have somewhere outside to stash it) at LEAST twice a day. You’ll want enough litter in the box that pee balls form, instead of pee pooling on the bottom and sticking there…3"-4" or so. The more that stuff sticks to the bottom of the box, the more “crumbs” you’ll get and the more the actual BOX will stink.[/QUOTE]
Ick…my cat had really stinky poops on wet grain free food. He wasnt allergic to grain though, so we put him on a diet with more fibre. Since then his poops have been more solid (but not too hard) and less stinky I guess each cat is different. I’d also be diligent about scooping and using LOTS of litter and you shouldnt have a stinky place
:yes: Love Feline Pine.
You’ll be just fine with a cat in a studio apt as long as you can tend to the litter box routinely. I second the Feline Pine, but I also think that anything will be easy to maintain if you tend to it daily. And as far as ‘space’ for the cat is concerned…I’m sure that a sweet cat down at your local shelter would find the studio apartment (even it it’s practically a closet) and their own person to love a dramatic improvement from their little cage they are in right now…
I have a 15 pounder in a 500 sqft apt with me and a 65lbs dog. I clean the box after every use like the other posters, its not much, about 2 times a day.
I also use a clumping litter, I have used with success a multi cat litter it has more absorber, I think.
I also scrub the box every 6 months or so.
I have had an automatic litter box (http://www.littermaid.com/), which worked fairly well.
It was the original model, so some things may have changed, but:
PROS: cleaned box after every use, nice for when you are away for the day;
all the waste was collected into a neat container that also helped to keep smell down
CONS:you can’t bed the box very deep due to the rake system;
you have to MONITOR it: ie; if the cat is always going in the back to the left, then the litter will disappear there and also only half of the container will fill up high: both of these can be fixed by moving the litter/waste around
when it comes to emptying the waste container, it can sometimes really smell (although your room will not) due to the ratio of waste to actual litter
Newer models supposedly allow you to bed a little deeper and have a better timer system which allows the clumping litter to fully clump. My reason for originally purchasing this system? my younger sister had to take care of my cat for a few months while I was away and I wanted to make life easier for her.
Although I still have the automatic (and it still works…about 6 years old), I currently have a high sided litter box that is great at keeping litter in without having a lid and use a litter locker to contain the waste. The litter locker has been awesome at containing smells and the waste does not have to be taken to the trash room/dump for about 2 weeks with my one cat…best of all…you can’t smell it during that time and is fairly easy to use 
My father lives in a very small studio sized room in assisted living, with his beloved older cat. He has a very large covered litter box in the bathroom, and there is no odor in his room. The cat is very happy and content in the small space too. For my own cats, I have found that putting baking soda in the litter box really helps with the odor. There is one specially made for cat odor, but regular baking soda works too.
I have a tiny one bedroom with two cats and their three litter boxes (my old guy has been battling colitis so I have an emergency one setup til the vet finds a treatment or diet that works…not there yet though :(). If you scoop daily, change the litter totally every couple of weeks, and clean the box thoroughly when you totally change the litter (I’ve found plain old vinegar works really well) it’ll be fine. I spray Febreze Air Effects daily just in case, too.
Due to some unexpected housing bumps, my cat is staying in my bedroom more or less 24/7 for the next few months.
Not to be vulgar but this cat used to clear a room when she defecated even on premium dry. I switched her to wet and immediately noticed a decrease in the ammonia smell in her urine but everything else stayed the same.
I switched her over to raw about a month ago and I still clean her litter box every other day because I know it is soiled but even as I am scooping it I don’t smell anything at all.
I don’t know if the dramatic change is unique to her but it might be worth looking into.
Yes
I use pelleted horse bedding for cat litter. I love it. Very economical, biodegradeable. Another thing to consider is buying a new litter box periodically. Eventually the plastic holds a smell.
A recent addition to the litter box market is a metal one. It is decent sized, open, and cleans up very well. I got mine at Petsmart.
The key is frequent cleaning of the litter box.
I’m cheap about it:
Pine/cedar/whatever fine shavings as you’d buy for horses. One back will last 6 months or more.
Line the bottom half of a banana box (free from the grocery store) with a dollar store plastic shower curtain. Put the litter box in the lined banana box, trim the edges of the shower curtain and tape to the outside of the box.
For next to nothing, you have a cheap clean litter box that also prevents tracking litter around.
Also, a secure-in-the-head adult slacker may be the right cat for you.
I’d like to add that the size of the room is no hindrance. Cats like vertical spaces so they need less lateral space than you might imagine. Get a good cat tower or even better build some catwalks up high and he’ll be in heaven. Have you seen some of the modern cateries? All vertical.
Paula
So long as you’re diligent re: keeping the box scooped, there’s no reason not to adopt a cat into your life.
As a well-known “Crazy Cat Lady”, we once had TEN (yes, TEN) totally indoor cats & thus several boxes in a one-level house. Even a friend of mine who’s terribly sensitive to “cat smell” could hardly believe I even had one cat, never mind ten.
It’s just a matter of making frequent scooping a habit & sticking to it.
