Once you add a plant, the whole thing blends into the room very well. You don’t even know it’s there. Especially when you turn the entrance away from view. All that said, the entrance is quite small at 20cm high and 16.5cm wide. This makes it better suited for smaller cats. They’re spacious inside so there’s plenty of room for a litter tray. The XL model comes with a divider you can hide your scoop, litter bin or poo bags inside.

You can have the entrance panel at either end and the entrance hole is huge at 30.5cm high and 23.5cm wide. A small dog could get through it. It did take a little while for our test cat, Marley to figure it out. We had to keep the front doors open for a while so she could see where we’d moved her litter box to.Gunn-Moore, D. A. (2003), ‘Feline lower urinary tract disease,’ Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 5, 133-138. Researchers from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine studied this. They published their findings in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. The bottom line was that; Guy, N. C., Hopson, M. & Vanderstichel, R., (2014), ‘Litterbox size preference in domestic cats (Felis catus),’ Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 9, 78-82. His owner also stated that it helped keep the kids away from the litter box too which is an added bonus.

There are certain smells that are very off-putting to cats, and these can be used to discourage your pet from eliminating in your plant pots. Unpleasant scents that fall into this category include citrus smells such as lemon.If your cat is open to it, they’re a good idea. Especially in a small home where you want to maximize space at the same time.

IS IT THE RIGHT LITTER? Offer several types of litter and see which is used. Then slowly change once the tray is being used (see above). In general cats prefer thin-grained litter to large grained (Neilson 2004). I use fine grained litter which is expensive. But it clumps well and works out not too costly because you can lift out the soiled area. Bowen, J., (2010), ‘Neurological disease and behaviour’, Proceedings of the Southern European Veterinary Conference. Available at: www.ivis.org/proceedings/sevc/2010/lectures/eng/Bowen2.pdf Accessed 12 July 2011. At 57.5cm long, 53cm wide and 48cm high, it’s a decent size. It would work well as a lamp table, bedside table or bathroom cabinet. Whereas the other products on this list are desiged to house a litter tray, this IS the litter tray. So you pour the litter directly into it. Building it is easy enough. That said, we did find the instructions a little more difficult to understand than our first offering.Have you noticed that your cat would rather use a plant pot to urinate or defecate, rather than their litter tray? Many cats like to eliminate in soft places, and it’s not particularly uncommon for them to shun the litter tray in favour of their preferred place(s). This can extend to bedding, clothing and furniture, as well as soil. Bamberger, M. & Houpt, K. A., ‘Signalment factors, comorbidity, and trends in behavior diagnoses in cats: 736 cases (1991-2001),’ Journal of the American Veterinary and Medical Association, 22, 1602-1606. It’s super easy to put together. We tested the XL model and it took us about two minutes. The four walls are all one piece, all you need to do is unfold them. Then drop in the bottom and internal panels and put the lid on. That’s it. It has two front doors and the lifting lid is also a nice feature too. It makes scooping, hoovering and cleaning easier as you can go in through the top instead of having to kneel down. The hinges are quite stiff but that means the lid will stay open while you’re cleaning. It also stops the lid from slamming shut. If you don’t want to use the lid, it looks lovely with a plant on it.