Top entry cat litter boxes are a surprisingly heavily debated product in the cat care community. There are many who believe that it’s an unnatural thing for cats to have to climb into something to do their business, and others that think they’re happy for the privacy.
In our opinion, sometimes a balance has to be struck between the easiest option for your cat and making life a little easier for yourself.
It’s far from an optimal experience for everyone if your cat is scattering litter around your home on a daily basis and you’re reluctantly having to clean it up.
Thankfully, an increasing amount of cat owners are starting to discover the wonderful benefits that top entry litter boxes can bring, and that cats don’t really seem to mind using them at all. Here are some of the benefits we’ve seen since switching to a top entry cat litter box in our home.
There’s so little need to clean up litter mess from everywhere in your house
Before we moved to a top entry box, it was a living nightmare. Every day we’d come home from work to find litter and dust strewn across the room, all over the bed sheets. As a result we would have to spend a good chunk of our night tidying it up and grooming our cat to remove dust and dirt from their fur.
With a top entry litter box, there’s none of that. Literally, no dust escapes the grate on top. It’s amazing.
Our cat seems to actually quite like it
We had read plenty of stories online before purchasing that suggested the same, too. Most put it down to privacy and I think we’re on board with that theory after seeing our cat use it.
Outdoor cats are generally very cautious about who’s behind them when they’re doing their business.
In an enclosed litter box, they’re almost totally covered from all angles so seem much happier to crack on and get the job done.
They seem to contain smells really well when compared to traditional litter boxes
A bonus that we hadn’t foreseen in all honesty, though now it seems pretty obvious in hindsight. We kept the same clumping litter we’d always had, but moving into a top entry box seemed to stop smells traveling in the air as anyone walked past.
It doesn’t stop litter smells completely by itself, but coupled with a litter that controls odor, it comes as close as we could hope to a smell free litter box.
Top entry litter boxes look so much nicer than other boxes
Although not really suitable for multiple cats, they definitely look much neated and tidier.
Used or unused, an open litter box is hardly a stunning feature in your home. When switching to an enclosed one with top entry, you’ll soon notice an improvement, they look more like ornaments than litter boxes.
You literally don’t see any litter escaping at all, just a box in the corner with all the dusty litter and business hidden away. Fantastic.
They take up less space than other litter boxes
This might be mostly due to us having tried a litter mat before to stop the tracking. Since an enclosing litter box takes care of the dusty paws for us, we no longer need the mat.
As a result, this takes up a fraction of the space our other box did, and we’re now safe to move items a little closer to it without fear of them becoming consumed by litter.
We’ve also tried (and loved) self cleaning litter boxes before now, but again, they are usually considerably more bulky and super awkward to move around. Bringing us nicely on to the next benefit..
Top loading means they’re easy to clean and move around
Instead of bending down to deal with your cat litter on ground level, you can pick these bad boys up to a place that’s comfortable.
Part of this is down to the shape being easier to hold, but most of it is that you’re safe in the knowledge it isn’t going to escape from the box with any sharp movements.
Having them be small enough to fit in more places also makes them more versatile for placement.
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