Now obviously when you have pets, the smell of your house changes a bit and I am happy with this, but as the cats will be indoor cats (at least for a few months anyway) their litter etc will all be indoors.
My neighbours use one of those motion sensor air fresheners, but personally I hate the smell, it's so artificial and I can't help think (rightly or wrongly) that having those chemical particles in the air is not good for children and cats alike.

Do you use anything, and if so what? I'm thinking something with bicarb of soda in to neutralise any odours but not sure (am very happy to make my own more 'air fresheners' rather than buy if possible, but buying appeals to the lazy side of me )

Sarah

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Change their food - there is no reason why cat poop should stink or smell

Certain cat litter choices also help

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I worried a lot about smells before getting my kittens but really it has been fine. I have a covered litter tray and apart from when they freshly do something and I am cleaning it, I can't smell anything.

Even if I have been out all day and they have used the litter tray we can't smell it when we get home. I have a neutrodone (sp?) gel, but I think that has run out, and we still can't smell kitty poo/wee.

The trick is to clean the tray as soon as they do something, but this is obvious for me to say as if it was dirty they wouldn't want to use it!

I am not happy about using too many air fresheners as some of them are bad for children and pets. Also i don't really like litter freshener as I don't think they like it. Every now and then I have a vanilla scented candle on, but this is more due to my husband cooking smelly fish than the cats.

Oh, and plenty of fresh air - always the best way of getting rid of smells.

NOTE: We have mesh on our windows so the cats can't jump out!

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I read a tip online about making 'dough balls' - essentialy you add hot water and an essential oil such as lavender to flour and mould them into a mound, place them on silver foil or similar in the area where you want the fragrance and voila - the smell lasts about 2 weeks. Then you just throw them away and make a new batch. I found this a great way to have a sweet smelling house in the winter, when the windows are closed more often...

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www.petloversdigest.co.uk
First aid and homecare 4 pets

I have 2 dogs as well as my 2 soon to be 3 cats and when I walk the dogs in the rain you get that wet dog smell I use yankie candle plug ins the mandarin and pomegranate I think it is the only thing is when I went on the QVC website to order some more I looked at the reviews and someone was saying it costs 3p a minute but I don't believe that as I used them all last winter because oh smokes you can also get them from some Debenhams

Viv xx

I get paranoid about it - having been in some very stinky houses.

We use pine litter - and have not noticed any smell, also, the poo's don't smell too bad - especially if you can get them out the tray and flush them straight away. I ask my mom when she visits 'can you smell anything?' - never can. We are changing to Cats Best when the delivery finally gets here, because that pine stuff takes a bit of separating with a slotted scoop and due to my health I'm finding it hard to do, as I generally do both trays am and pm.

I was only saying last night to MrFierce that the person who's stinky house I was in must not have changed the weewee litter for ages for it to stink out their entire large three bed flat - it made your eyes water !!!!

Also I think some dry foods are formulated to be less stinky when they 're-emerge' - like Royal Canin 'Indoor'. Tillie has either 'Sensible' or 'Intense Hairball' and they aren't bad

Hope this helps x

Thanks for the tips!

I don't work, so apart from the times when out and about with the children, litter will be cleaned immediately. I can't put mesh up on the windows as we rent, but we have secondary glazing (life on an Air Base) so the windows can be opened and some air flow achieved.

I will do some research on litter too, see what that brings up.

I like the 'dough balls' idea. I have small children, so that sounds like something that might help with the smell of nappy changes!

Also good to know that if their business smells that it could be down to food, they don't live with us yet but it is something I will bare in mind

ETA: We have some 'Party Lite' candles here, so maybe I will place some near(ish) to the litter area just in case, never heard of a Yankie Candle plug in, will look at those, thank you

Fierceabbey, thank you, that's really helpful, I will have a look at those foods and also it's good to know that most of the time, it's just a case of cleaning up often, which will happen here.

Thank you for all the replies, I really appreciate them!

Sarah

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I squirt a little squoosh of simple solution on the carpets every couple of months just to keep them fresh and it's pet friendly.

Burn a candle. This burns up funny smells like tobacco and fishbrefs without adding other smells to the air. Doesn't even need to be a scented candle, plain old white candle is fine.