Have you ever wondered if there’s a way of knowing how many litter boxes are ideal for your cat? Well, there is!

You can follow this formula:

Amount of litter boxes needed at home = n+1

(n stands for the amount of cats that live in that household).

Let me put an example, let’s say it’s a house with three cats, then the calculation would be as follows : 3+1 = 4 litter boxes needed.

Cats need the right amount of resources to live a happy stress-free life, and litter boxes are super important for them. And I know some might think “but I have 2 cats and one litter box, and they have never peed outside of it”. In that case, your cats have adapted to living like that but it still doesn’t mean it is under the optimal conditions. We also have probably peed in a dirty toilet in a bar but it doesn’t mean it’s something we felt comfortable doing.

I want to clarify this though, that my goal with this account is not to judge people’s decisions but to share information for cat parents to be able to make the choices they best see fit.

But there’s a twist to this seemingly perfect guideline, because choosing the right amount of litter boxes is not always as easy as using a math formula.

I’ve recently visited two cats in a house where they had 3 litter boxes, the perfect amount. Nevertheless, one of the cats was really picky with how clean she wanted her litter box before using it, causing her to often pee on the mat next to her litter box (she had done this before and her human mom took her to the vet to rule out any underlying health issues). I recommended adding a 4th litter box and the accidents almost never happened again.

So even though there’s a guideline on how to go about this matter, always keep in mind your cat’s personal needs. They are unique individuals just like the rest of us.